Christmas Cupcake Murder

August 3, 2020
Recipes dominate bestseller Fluke’s amiable 26th Hannah Swenson mystery (after Coconut Layer Cake Murder). Early one December morning, Hannah Swensen, owner of the Cookie Jar bakery in Lake Eden, Minn., is baking German chocolate cupcakes when she hears a knock at the door. Outside is a stranger asking for work. Hannah invites the man in, and over coffee the two discover a mutual love of German chocolate cake. The stranger reminisces about how his mother always used to give him an orange when she made him one for his birthday. Recipes follow for German chocolate cake and frosting. The man leaves after doing a few odd chores for Hannah, who later that day finds him lying unconscious in her mother’s storage shed. The doctor who treats the man diagnoses that he has amnesia brought about by a blow to the head. After many more recipes and discussions of food, the stranger’s fondness for oranges provides Hannah with a clue to his fate. Fluke’s easygoing style compensates for the minimal sleuthing. Cozy fans with a sweet tooth will be more than satisfied. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Starred review from October 1, 2020
Fans of Fluke's wildly popular cozy series featuring cookie baker Hannah Swensen and her family in Lake Eden, Minnesota, will be thrilled with this twenty-sixth entry, which offers a kind of origin story, as the action takes place before Hannah solves her first missing-person case and before her mother, Delores, opens an antique store with her friend Carrie Rhodes. When Hannah finds an injured man on the floor of a vacant building that her mother is renting to house her antiques, she learns that he's had a blow to the head that's rendered him with memory loss. Determined to help the man, who seems to identify with the name Joe and is experienced with furniture repair and restoration, Hannah begins a search to find his family. When Joe befriends Freddie, the intellectually disabled man who helps at the hospital, he recalls that he has a brother with a similar condition. As Hannah follows further clues about Joe's identity, she discovers that someone has attempted to murder him. The mystery is finally solved by locating a recipe in a library book. At the end of nearly every chapter of this fun story, there is a delicious holiday recipe.There is also a handy index of recipes at the back. Don't miss this charming mystery, which will also satisfy your sweet tooth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)