Book Review: Cinnamon Roll Murder

Book: Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen book #15) by Joanne Fluke

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

This is a cozy mystery for sure. The series centers around Hannah Swensen a small town bakery owner who just so happens to be quite good at solving mysteries (despite occasionally getting herself in some kind of trouble).

In the Cinnamon Roll Murder, Hannah along with her younger sisters Andrea and Michelle and their mother Delores tried to figure out who had murdered the keyboard player for the jazz band Cinnamon Roll Six. The story also dealt with the cliff hanger situation with Norman from the last book. Norman believing he was the father of his ex-fiancée Doctor Beverly's daughter and given the ultimatum that if he wanted to be apart of his daughter's life, they would have to get married.

So in this book, while Hannah was trying to piece together the murder mystery, she was also trying to figure out a way to stop Norman from getting married. She really wasn't trying to interfere but if it wasn't for her mother, sisters, Mike and few others, Hannah wouldn't have tried even though she knew how miserable Norman was. However, unbeknownst to all of them, Norman wasn't just taking everything his new fiancée said at face value and did a little sleuthing himself.

Anyway, back to the mystery, it had Hannah trying to sift through a lot of clues but not really seeing the connection at first but then certain things started to click. It resulted into something interesting that even included Norman's soon to be wife. There is only one thing that didn't seem resolved, the bus driver of the band's tour bus had died at the beginning of the book before the bus toppled over during an accident. Mike, one of the police detectives was going to investigate to see if the driver's death was suspicious or not but there was no other mention of what he found out. Perhaps the author just forgot about this.

I enjoyed reading this. It's a fast paced book and the characters are written in a way that they seem real.

What I like about Hannah is she smart, level-headed and pretty much a regular person. However, there are two things I don't really like such as: One, the fact that it's 15 books in and Hannah is still dating both Norman and Mike. I wish the author would let Hannah take a chance on a relationship with one of them. It would bring something new and different to the series.

Two, Hannah tends to compare herself to her younger sisters who she feels are both thin and pretty and how she has let herself go. The character has let herself go and it's been going on since the first book. There hasn't been a book yet where someone isn't hinting that Hannah should buy herself some new clothes (she hates to shop) or do something with her hair (it's a bit wild) even though she wants to look better she really doesn't make any effort, except for in the 11th book Cream Puff Murder, when Hannah had started going to the gym to get in shape. Other than that Hannah hasn't really changed.

After reading this now I can't wait to read Red Velvet Cupcake Murder.