Pink Lemonade Cake Murder

 I think I have read every one of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swenson's murder mysteries. It has been 23 years of reading these entertaining easy cozy stories with recipes mixed into the plot.  She started back in 2000 with The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and now I have just finished this, her newest though not yet last mystery, Pink Lemonade Cake Murder.

Back in the early days it was the new idea of writing a mystery detective who was in some way also a chef or baker.  The mystery was centered around the bake shop or the catering business and included recipes either throughout the book or at the end.  I was a young mother looking for fun new things to cook and it was fun to think about trying the recipes after I had solved the murder.

But now though I give credit to Joanne Fluke for continuing the series all these years, I think the mysteries themselves are getting a little too formulaic.  There were a few other authors who have disappeared who I also loved reading at the time. But to be honest I never really made any of the recipes because so many of them included large amounts of butter and cream and sugar at a time when we were all trying to cut back on those ingredients.

This time I found the actual mystery weak and forced.  I found the characters stale and old fashioned.  I know this takes place in Minnesota but I do not think the teenagers there and their parents are quite as rigid about social norms as the book stated.  The characater who is murdered seems to be killed because he was flirting with teen girls who rode on the back of his convertible car in bikini tops through the small town.  A little too unrealistic for me.

Then there are the recipes.  Maybe it is because these days I love to binge watch The Great British Baking Show, but all the recipes include many prepackaged products.  Recipes for cakes and cookies that use Kool-Aid and Cool Whip along with boxed cake mix.  I am not even tempted to want to make these desserts.

I will probably come back for the next installment of Hannah Swenson's life when the next novel comes out, just nto see if she ever gets married and who she picks..a 23 year romance with two men, Mike a police officer and Norman the town dentist, she has been able to keep them both interested and courting her all these years.