About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

CANDY CANE MURDER
by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine and Leslie Meier
Kensington, October 2007
288 pages
$16.00
ISBN: 0758221983


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

CANDY CANE MURDER is a collection of three short stories written by three of the most popular cozy writers around: Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine and Leslie Meier. Each story can be described as a mini cozy starring the author's regular characters.

In Candy Cane Murder by Joanne Fluke, Hannah Swenson is playing an elf in Lake Eden's big Christmas Festival. The elf suit is a little too tight for Hannah but that doesn't stop her from thinking of a new candy cane cookie recipe that she plans on trying in her bakery.

Bergstrom's department store owner, Wayne Bergstrom, is playing Santa Clause and giving out candy canes for all the children. When Hannah sees lots of candy canes left over she asks Wayne if she could have them to put in her cookie recipe. Wayne, being a little cheap, refuses and tells her that he is selling the candy at his store.

Hannah might be a little angry with Wayne but her anger soon leaves her when she and her sisters leave and find a trail of candy canes in the snow and they decide to follow the candy. Where does it lead, but to Wayne, lying dead in the snow, murdered. Someone has killed Santa!

Well, murder is right up the alley of the three Swenson sisters and once again against the wishes of Mike and Norman, Hannah's boyfriends, they start investigating the murder. No one can kill Santa, even if it really is Wayne, and get away with it. Plenty of Hannah's yummy cookie recipes are included in the story.

In The Dangers of Candy Canes by Laura Levine we find our hero, Jaine Austen, trying to prove the innocence of a roofing contractor when a client of his fell off the roof the contractor had installed. The wealthy client had tried putting up a candy cane on the roof as a Christmas decoration and he fell off and died. But the police feel that this was no accident but murder. All the evidence points to the contractor as the guilty party and he hires Jaine to help him out.

Jaine has to interview all of the neighbors in this upper class community. She is sure one of them is the real murderer, but whom?

In Candy Canes of Christmas Past by Leslie Meier, Lucy Stone is trying to solve the murder of a librarian's mother some 20 years earlier. The librarian's father and other suspects appeared to be the murderer, but now, Lucy has to figure out who the killer was and all she has is a glass candy cane for a clue.

I especially like Fluke's story. I love Hannah and her sisters and I especially adored those recipes. Meier's story was filled with a lot of warmth and coziness as the reader learns a lot about Lucy and her family. Laura Levine's tale was the weakest with Jaine running around and checking the same clues over and over again and then rushing home to her cat. But, I did enjoy the story nevertheless.

No matter how you wrap it, CANDY CANE MURDER is a perfect gift for yourself or for a friend during the holiday season.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, October 2007

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]