Joanne Fluke

The Hannah Swensen series of mystery books never qualified as great literature; but, initially, the series had merit as a pleasant enough way to pass the time. They certainly were go-to titles for me whenever I was facing a rainy Saturday afternoon, a long trip, or several hours cooling my heels in a waiting room.
However, this mystery franchise has dragged on well past its ‘Sell By’ date and has soured to the point where it is no longer palatable.
Quite a few years ago, I came to the show more unmistakable conclusion that the entire Hannah/Mike/Norman love triangle was getting dragged on way beyond the realm of endurance. Quite frankly, Hannah should have made the obvious choice & married Norman at least fifteen books ago. Then Ross came along, & the story line ventured even further into the land of the unbearably ridiculous. That, coupled with the fact that the writing quality was in rapid decline, is the reason I gave up reading the series.
Recently I made the regrettable decision of giving Joanne Fluke a second chance & picking up this newest installment of the Cookie Jar mysteries, Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder. Big mistake. I didn’t think it was humanly possible, but this series has actually gotten worse- even after already hitting rock bottom several years ago.
First of all the “mystery” isn’t really much of a mystery at all; it’s just kind of a sideline excuse for subjecting readers to endless, monotonous & downright inane discussions about food and recipes, not to mention the relentless descriptions of people eating—constantly, incessantly, eating…non-stop. These characters eat insane amounts of food about eighteen hours a day. Every hour on the hour they’re devouring entire cheesecakes, sheet pans of lemon bars, whole pies, breakfast quiche casseroles, multiple crockpots full of stroganoff, & metric tons of various cream products. Even for fictional characters this is just plain unbelievable. Eating the way they do, no one in Lake Eden would ever have to be murdered; they’d simply be dropping like flies due to rampant diabetes, morbid obesity, and ruptured colons. Let’s face it, in real life people who eat like this wouldn’t be physically able to gallivant all over town interviewing suspects and gathering clues; they’d be stuck at home, in hospital beds, weighing over 800 pounds, being interviewed via satellite by Maury Povich and Dr. Phil.
To make matters worse, the writing is just flat-out atrocious. It seems the characters have run out of things to say so they just drone on and on about nothing. And Hannah’s ‘internal dialogues’ are painfully asinine. The one thing I found especially laughable was the fact that every time a recipe is discussed the characters refer to it by its complete official title—no matter how ridiculously long it is! For example, Ham It Up Crockpot Spicy Mac & Cheese is ALWAYS referred to in casual conversation as Ham It Up Crockpot Spicy Mac & Cheese...
“Let’s get the bowls for the Ham It Up Crockpot Spicy Mac & Cheese.”
“Michellle dished up her own bowl of the Ham It Up Crockpot Spicy Mac & Cheese.”
It’s so utterly stupid. Nobody talks that way! And all of the dialogue in the book is like that… clunky, stilted, awkward, and thoroughly implausible.
Ultimately, the so-called murder mystery, which should be the raison d’etre for the book, doesn’t amount to much of anything. Instead, the book is full of tedious and unnecessary padding—pages of recipes, pages of people eating, pages of people talking about eating…and did I mention the not-so-subtly placed advertisements for Boursin cheeses and Slap Ya Mama brand hot sauces? In its entirety, the whole thing can only be described as an utterly mind-numbing waste of time.
Joanne Fluke and her publisher clearly intend to suck every penny they can from this tired series, but it has been creatively and qualitatively dead for quite some time now & needs to be put out of its misery. show less

"As she watched her cat begin to eat, Hannah wondered how busy working wives managed to juggle children, pets, and husbands at breakfast time, not to mention getting ready for work themselves. Here she is with no children and just one pet, and she'd almost forgotten to feed Moishe."

This book just made me sad. Hannah is absolutely embarrassing in this one. I didn't read the one before so I can't tell what lead up to this marriage but it seems like completely nothing! She doesn't seem to know show more Ross at all as she stumbles through them getting home after the honey moon and trying to figure out domestic life. She seems bumbling and baffled and completely confused on how to function. She can't even seem to hang out with a friend without having a partial crisis of figuring out if she is still allowed to hang out with her friends or if her husband should get all her time. Even breakfast time causes multiple pages of pondering - Do I cook him food (because I'm a wife now and that's expected of me) or am I just allowed to leave and head to work? Bleh.

It's absolutely painful and makes it seem like Hannah is not a mature adult at all. And it completely overshadows any mystery or murder in the story. I almost laughed out loud at the ending. Besides the great revelation at the end, Moishe was my favorite part of this story. show less

The publication of Delores’s romance novel means she’s throwing a launch party. Hoping to fit into her dress, Hannah agrees to an hour of gym exercise with Andrea, only to discover the body of fitness instructor Ronni Ward floating in the Jacuzzi.

Who was angry enough to murder the woman? Could it possibly be Detective Mike Kingston? Hannah’s determined to find the truth and clear Mike’s name.

The eleventh story in the series finds the Eden Lake gang excited about the launch party. show more Hannah, as usual, jumps into the investigation, but this time at Mike’s request. Along the way, she arrives at the conclusion that she needs to decide between Norman and Mike. [Cue the loud cheering!]

But the body image/dieting issues in this story raise a huge flag of alarm. That message is horrible in the real world and it doesn’t need any repeating in the Eden Lake universe.

Adding to that disappointment, Mike’s attitude and behavior hit an all-time low throughout the telling of this tale, leaving readers to wonder why in the world Hannah is having so much trouble making a choice. Somehow, this feels like a deliberate character assassination designed to force Hannah’s decision in this overly-annoying triangle.

Thankfully, the rest of the Eden Lake folks remain the steady, reliable characters readers have come to expect. Readers can try some of the recipes while they enjoy the newest story in this easy-read series that’s found itself a comfortable niche. show less

I love the Hannah Swenson series, and this book is one of the best. Yes, it is a cozy series, but what's wrong with that? I love the folksiness of Hannah and her family and friends. I love the great recipes in each book, and I always enjoy the mystery. They are usually smart and not as easy to figure out as some can be in this genre. In this book Hannah is trying to lose weight, and the book is set around that, her diet and her workouts at the gym in the mall. When one of the gym instructors show more is found dead in the jacuzzi, Hannah tries to narrow down the list of suspects in order to catch the killer. In this case there are more suspects than usual because Ronni was not a well-liked person by any means. She was far too familiar with all the men, both married and unmarried in the town of Lake Eden. I absolutely love these delightful characters and cannot wait for another new Hannah Swenson book to lose myself in. show less