Candy Cane Murder

3 stars to Joanne Fluke's Candy Cane Murder, a short novella edition for the holidays between books 9 and 10 of the "Hannah Swensen" mystery series. Given this is only 100 pages, and just a teaser in between full-length books, I adjusted my expectations, but it still fell a little short for me. I'll keep reading the series, but nothing really changes in the overall series with this book, so if you skip it, not a huge deal.

Story
Hannah's preparing for Christmas in Lake Eden by volunteering as an elf to help the local department store owner who is playing Santa Claus this season. Unfortunately, he's a bit of a tightwad who rubs some of his employees and the villagers the wrong way. After the mall's Christmas party, Hannah finds him face down on the corner of the street in his Santa suit. It's the tenth body she's found in about two years (yikes, stay away from her!), but still gives her the frights. Is it his new younger wife? Her friendly brother? An angry employee? Or someone else with a grudge? Hannah dives into the investigation behind Mike's back and finds herself right in the middle of mayhem. Of course she survives, but the fun along the way keeps readers in suspense in between her normal shenanigans.

Strengths
By keeping the count of characters smaller, we are treated to more in-depth relationships among Hannah's sisters and boyfriends (yes, she has a few). The plot has subtle humor and it gives readers readers something to noodle over among the villagers we've come to know and love. And there are good recipes!

Suggestions
It was rushed and Hannah didn't even pretend to let the police track the killer. It felt too much like writing a long short story to keep fans entertained rather than release a full-length complex story that would make them wait a few extra months. It took me less than 90 minutes and while I was entertained, it was too basic.

Final Thoughts
If you're just looking to read more about Hannah and don't need a lot of substance in your mystery, then jump on in... but if you want intrigue and complexity and a big ole' candy cane to chew on, don't expect much. Worth the read because Hannah is just a fun character, but go in with your eyes open.

The book contains three different stories, all mysteries and all involving candy canes. The first story had recipes interspersed and our book club read the book and prepared some of the recipes for our meeting. The recipes were good, the story was rather slow and predictable. The second story moved faster and was funny. The third story I liked the best. It seemed more realistic. We always like to read a Christmas book for December and we thought it would be fun to make the recipes.

This is a great book by joanna fluke. Her murders are always so interesting. On top of that there are always super recipes.

If you like the Hannah Swenson movies on Hallmark you will like this series, 30 books!!! Once you start you will have to read them all!!! Fun read!!! NewHallmark movie coming out this summer!!!!

I loved everything in the story.After I’m through reading this book, I will try the recipes because I love to try new recipes.

I read this book and all of her other books

Very good

I was surprised with the other two stories. The last one was a little different.

Arrived quickly and in great shape. thanks.

I did not realize that this book had 3 different stories from 3 different author's. I was disappointed that the Hannah swenson story was shorter then usual. I would of preferred just to read her book. Although 1 if the short stories by Laura Levine was good, I found the last story rather boring.