Hannah Swensen Barton returns from her luxurious honeymoon cruise already fretting over married life. Her husband, Ross, is doting and kind, so her concerns run the gamut from silly (“Why didn’t he call me? Oh, he did, I just don’t understand how cell phones work!”) to serious (“Should we discuss having children?” Honestly, this is…
Our heroine, Hannah Swensen, is having dinner at the Lake Eden Inn with her new husband, Ross Barton, when talk turns to Christmas of the year before, where a dessert Hannah’s business partner made was the unfortunate star of a murder. Lisa Beeseman was rightfully proud of her Christmas caramels, packing them each day for…
Hannah Swensen is getting married! But first, she has to try to win a reality cooking competition. The Food Network is holding a televised contest to find America’s best dessert chef, and Hannah is the only small-town contestant on the slate of five. So it’s a big thrill for everyone in Lake Eden when she…
Alright, dear readers, we’re taking a jump to the left and a step to the right and traveling back in time with the most recent installment of one of my favorite culinary cozy series (God willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll close out the books we’ve missed for this column by the end of…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series continues with a new installment from Kyle Mills and Joanne Fluke adds a holiday-themed prequel story to…
Christmas Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke is a holiday prequel novel in the Hannah Swensen Mystery series. It’s Christmas many years ago, and topping young Hannah Swensen’s wish list is becoming the go-to baker in Lake Eden, Minnesota. But as Hannah finds out, revisiting holiday memories can be murder… With her dream of opening The Cookie…
Wow, okay, this novel was certainly a departure from the rest of the series so far. In the first third of the book, Hannah and her sisters are accompanying their mother in Vegas where Doc Knight plans to surprise Delores with a wedding—in large part to remove the burden her three daughters have been bearing…
Wow! This book is a huge departure from the previous novels in the series, and that’s not a bad thing at all! Hannah Swensen is driving back to work with her business partner, Lisa Herman Beesman, during a Minnesota summer storm with extremely poor visibility when they crash into someone. They immediately call emergency services,…
Criminal Element’s September 2018 Cozy Bookshelf Shopping List! Week of September 1 through September 7 Title Author Series Date The Cats Came Back Sofie Kelly Magical Cats Mystery #10 9/4 Wuthering Kites Clover Tate Kite Shop Mystery #3 9/4 Mrs. Jeffries and the Three Wise Women Emily Brightwell Victorian Mystery #36 9/4 Merry Wrath Mysteries…
Yay, it’s time to head back to Lake Eden to catch up with Hannah Swensen and her friends and family! I’m not the only one with that idea, though, as the duplicitous Doctor Bev is also back to torment Hannah and, worse still, sweet, dear Norman, who twice made the mistake of being engaged to…
