Title: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder
Author: Joanne Fluke
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Published: 2001 by Recorded Books LLC
Length: 9 hrs 35 min
Source: Recorded Books
Rating: 3/5
Goodreads
In her first foray into the sleuthing game, resourceful, red-headed Hannah Swensen must find the right ingredients to solve two perplexing murders. One chilly morning on her way to The Cookie Jar, Hannah discovers Ron, the dairy delivery man, shot dead in his truck. When she begins to investigate, she suspects the dairy owner, but when he, too, is murdered, Hannah must look further afield for the culprit.
My review:
This was a quick and light read (listen). I did not know that it was the first in a series, and I think this is what is termed a cozy mystery? I liked the main character, loved the humorous portrayal of her mother, was annoyed at first by the sister, but she grew on me. The small town setting, where everyone knows everyone and everything, has been used frequently in books, but I kind of like it. I did enjoy trying to figure out the mystery along with Hannah, and of course I guessed the wrong killer 🙂 Hannah is a baker, and there are cookie recipes mentioned throughout the book that are included at the end of several chapters. While this works well for reading (you can skip over them or not), it was a bit of an annoyance to have to listen to the recipes. I thought the narrator did a good job with voicing all the various characters, although with so many, some of them did end up sounding the same.
Overall this was a good book. It worked well to listen to poolside, since it didn't require lots of concentration to keep up with the plot. I've seen lots more in the series, and I'm not sure that I would continue. If I did, it would perhaps be one of the latter ones, to see what happened in Hannah's life. This book makes a big point about how small the town is, I think it would start to bother me that there happen to be so many murders!
I received a download copy of this book at BEA from Recorded Books.
I've read one book in the series which I enjoyed and I picked this up not too long ago. I hadn't thought about having to listen to the recipes! I can see that being a definite negative for the audio format. This book was made into a Hallmark movie not too long ago. I have it recorded but haven't actually watched it yet. I'm looking forward to both!
It would be fun to watch the movie, I'll have to keep my eye out for it.