Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder

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 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 show more 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

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke is the 27th A Hannah Swensen Mystery. This is not a book that can be read on its own (new readers would be lost). Hannah Swensen is currently living at Norman’s since the death of her husband, Ross. Hannah and Moishe are not ready to face the condo and the memories it holds. Mayor Bascomb is upset with Andrea’s husband, Bill because he arrested his nephew who was driving drunk. Bascomb has threated Bill’s position and Andrea has taken offense. She decides to chat with Mayor Bascomb and try to make him see reason. Unfortunately, Andrea ends up losing her temper after Bascomb makes some derogatory comments. That night, Andrea takes a piece of Hannah’s triple chocolate cheesecake show more to Mayor Bascomb to apologize for her actions (which will have readers laughing and applauding) and finds him murdered in his office (I am surprised it took this long). Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder is easy to read with steady pacing). This book can easily be read in a couple of hours. Hannah Swensen and all our favorites are back for another adventure. There is plenty of eating, coffee drinking, cooking, baking, and cat cuddling in this cozy mystery. Hannah is worried about Moishe because he cannot return to their condo. He gets upset each time they approach it. What is a cat mama to do? Hannah is busy baking up Easter treats at The Cookie Jar. The death of Mayor Bascomb has a multitude of suspects (how did this man get elected). The investigation takes a backset to cooking, baking, eating, coffee drinking, and chatting. The mystery is simple and can easily be solved early in the story. I prefer a more complicated mystery, but this whodunit does suit the book. I do feel that the last several books in this series are not on par with the earlier ones (like someone else is writing them). There is repetition of information and there are more recipes than content. Recipes are included for the various dishes whipped up in this tale. Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder is a story for fans of the series who want to know how Hannah is faring after the death of her husband and wish to catch up with gang in Lake Eden. Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder is a lighthearted culinary cozy with a surfeit of suspects, a fearful feline, a distraught sister, a scrumptious cheesecake, and a murdered mayor. show less

Dear lord, ack! I’ve been getting more into cozies and this series is so popular I wanted to try it. This was not fun! It was horribly banal, the characters were empty shells of humans who can only talk about food or coffee. I’m not even sure where the mystery part was - I guess just talking to every suspect in the most boring way possible is supposed to excite readers. These people don’t even talk like regular humans!

“It’s like those carbon footprints the environmentalists are always talking about, but a car footprint makes more sense to me.” What? Is this a weird jab at environmentalism that in the context of this conversation makes zero sense?

Is there actually product placement in this book??

What’s up with the women show more constantly talking about their weight? And dudes opening the passenger side door to let the woman out? Give me a break! Gag.

Andrea finds a dead body but then everyone goes to “Mother’s” to talk about how great the cheesecake is for 3 pages. This is not how people act.

This series has been going for so long (how?) and this latest iteration seems like it was written in the 50s. Most of the conversations are sooo dumb (Hannah not getting that Doc didn’t really give Andrea a tranquilizer made me feel like I was losing brain cells), and I will not be picking up another book in this series.

Pay off is not even worth it. The back story to the ending is immensely traumatic but they just glaze over it. If you want to waste your time reading this I think you will get what I mean, but I think your time is spent better elsewhere. show less

Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in this book without putting on the coffee pot and having a fresh cup of coffee. It became predictable, redundant and boring. The dialog was simple, trite and unoriginal. The same applies to the recipes - they all default back to the days of using Cream of something soup as a base for everything.

There is a murder without much mystery, a relationship without much romance, a business without any interesting interaction and a novice detective running around as if she is a cross between Nancy Drew and Columbo. A total miss for me. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I just can't anymore. I lost interest in Hannah awhile ago--but kept reading because I felt I was so invested into the series. But I can't anymore. For the last 10 or so books, I have alternated reading and listening to the audio books. This particular book I listened to the audio----and I felt like I listened to a cookbook being read to me with tiny parts of a story in between. There is no story here. Recipes and food and talking about eating the food that was just described - I mean really? And being talked to like you're a child. The over explanation of EVERY detail...like we got it. We know what a text is. In this particular book Andrea is over the moon because Hannah allows her to make a "vegetable salad" all on her own---like show more she's a two year old. The way everyone is constantly praising Hannah and all of her stupid decisions and acting like she is SO perfect and delicate has just gotten the best of me. ((I mean---do Michelle or Aunt Nancy ever get paid for all the work they do for her so she can "sleep in" ????))
I truly enjoyed this series in the beginning. I wish the people of Lake Eden well but unless there is a MAJOR change in the way these stories are going, I'll have to sit the rest out. show less

At this point, I am super invested in this series. I dont love the character development and growth in the reads, but I really do love the small town feel and also the small town elements that happen in this novel. I also thought this mystery in this read, was stronger then the other ones and I liked how this story connected to the town more then the pervious books in this series.

It’s hard to choose what I like best about this series. Is it the mysteries to be solved, the great recipes to try out, or just reading about the everyday lives of the characters that’s so enjoyable? In this installment, Hannah and her cat are still rooming with Norman, recovering from the trauma of her relationship with Ross. The much despised mayor was found murdered in his office. The unfortunate finder was Hannah’s sister Andrea, now a suspect. But there are so many people who had reasons to dislike the mayor narrowing down this playing field is no small task. Mike and Lonnie are even allowing Hannah to unofficially help them this time. There are enough clues along the way that the reader has a good chance of solving the show more murder even before Hannah does. Now, if Hannah could only solve the mystery of why she can’t see that Norman is the perfect guy for her, all would be well in Lake Eden, Minnesota. show less