Book Review: Candy Cane Murder

The next book on my Fall into Reading reading list was Candy Cane Murder, which is actually a book containing three novellas by Joanne Fluke, Leslie Meier, and Laura Levine. All of these writers have series about women sleuths. I have read all of these authors so I was excited to get the book when it came out. Here is a bit about each novella. Overall the book was great or should I say the three stories. I just wished I could have waited and read it when it was snowing outside or more of a Christmas feeling in the air. It was 80-90 degrees out when I read them.

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Candy Cane Murder features Cookies Shop owner Hannah Swansen. She is always finding dead bodies and then tries to find the murder. These books are always filled with yummy cookie recipes and even a few quiches this time. Several of the recipes include candy canes to go with the theme of the book. This time Hannah finds the body of the famous department store owner who had just played Santa at a function Hannah was at. Hannah and her sisters find a candy cane trail as they are going to the parking lot which leads to the body. So, Hannah begins to question people to find the murder and as always she gets lots of help from her family and two boyfriends. Very good story as usual, I love all of the Hannah Swansen mysteries.

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The Dangers of Candy Canes by Laura Levine was the second story in the book. this is another series that I read regularly. The series is about Jaine Austen a freelance writer and sometimes private detective. This story is about one of her clients, a roofer, who calls to tell Jaine he needs her to help find the killer of one of his recent clients who is accusing him of shotty work when the guy falls off his roof putting up Christmas decorations. The story was good and kept my interest, but I miss the story lines of her volunteer work at a Retirement Home where some of the characters there are really interesting and the constant e-mails between her and her parents were missing from this chapter. Overall though, great read!

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The last story in the book was Candy Canes of Christmas Past from Leslie Meier's Lucy Stone series. I have read all of this series and really love her books! This story was nice because it went back to the time that a young Lucy and her husband and young son moved into the neighborhood. All of her family meet and the reader is told about her new grandson and that is how they start talking about when Toby was young and so they travel back and Lucy tries to help Miss Tillley solve a mystery. She wanted to know who killed her mother. Lots of neat twist as Meier brings in the characters from her books and how they first met. I really enjoyed this one too!
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For more Fall into Reading 2007 participants book reviews got to this post.