Fans will ‘eat’ this book up-others, not so much. It took forever for the plot to get going with much chat and cookies; as usual Hannah mixes baking with murder. Sometimes it works and in this book it mostly doesn’t. The plot is basic: unpopular jerk gets murdered which makes every person in town a suspect. There is quite a bit of chit-chat at the Cookie Jar where everyone has coffee & muffins to discuss every detail of everything that just happened and Hannah interviews suspects since apparently the cops defer to her superior wisdom? That was weird and made no sense. The usual plot points we expect from the series are here with characters dropping in to impart wisdom and snark, Hannah still on the fence over Norman vs. Mike, a contrived and unbelievable “Hannah in danger” scene which is quickly wrapped up as the murderer is revealed and we all head out for a celebration dinner. But this odd mess of a book isn’t over yet, dear reader; a plot twist is thrown in at the end that sets up the next book. The whole story was odd with the plot jumping all over the place and Mike was very weird in this one. I think Joanne is ready for Hannah and Norman to make a decision so she is trying to make it work for Mike, too. But, it was just strange. I’ve been a fan of this series since book one so I was disappointed in this entry but will be reading the next one. Only 3 stars. I would like to thank #NetGalley for my copy; this is my own opinion.
2023-07-25