Cinnamon Roll Murder by Joanne Fluke

In Cinnamon Roll Murder, Hannah and her sister Michelle happen upon a tour bus crash during some nasty winter weather on a Minnesota road. The bus belongs to a band called the Cinnamon Roll Six. The driver has been killed, but the other injuries are minor. However, when one of the injured band members dies in the hospital, Hannah suspects that all is not as it seems and is determined to get to the bottom of things. Meanwhile, Norman is engaged to a nasty woman. Hannah must figure out a way to break off the impending nuptials before it's too late.

This book was such a fun read! I've read a few of the other books in this series and have enjoyed them all. The multiple story lines in this one were interesting, especially when two of them collide. Oh, well, I shouldn't say any more about that since I don't want to give too much away.

I loved all of the characters, too! Of course, I like Hannah with her exceptional baking and investigative skills. I found Hannah's mother Delores to be a hoot! I couldn't wait to see what she was going to say or do next. I haven't read enough of the books to know all of the details of the relationships and background information, but I'm sure avid readers of this series will pick up on little nuances I may have missed. Because I didn't know all of the ins and outs of the characters, I was unaware of the full history between Hannah and Norman. Despite that I really liked Norman and knew that he shouldn't marry Dr. Bev. I was rooting for Hannah to find a way to stop the wedding.

I love how the recipes are incorporated into the story. That is, the characters are either making, eating or talking about one of them before the recipe is presented. However, sometimes it felt that the story was more focused on the recipes than it was on the murder/crime and solving it. There were suspects and little tidbits of information discovered along the way, but the murder investigation seemed to be slow going. I wanted a little more suspense/action or a few more twists.

I always love it when authors include recipes with their cozy mysteries. What can I say, I love food! However in this case, I found the recipes a little long and drawn out. They are filled with little asides (Hannah's Notes) and drawn-out explanations. For example, instead of saying "2 cups bran flake cereal, crushed after measuring", Fluke uses 5 long sentences to describe the process of crushing the flakes in a plastic bag. Then, before adding the flakes to the other ingredients she reminds the reader to open the bag first. Ummm...if you need to be reminded that the plastic bag isn't one of the ingredients in the cookies, you should be buying your cookies and not making them. Just saying. Having said that, it was cute that the recipes were written in a quaint and grandmotherly manner. It's all good, but I prefer brevity.

I haven't tried any of the recipes, but I might in the future. I'm a little leery, though.  As I mentioned in my review of the Lake Eden Cookbook, the directions for flour say to "pack it down in the cup when you measure it". This is very unusual. If I did make one of the recipes, I would measure flour like I always do. That is, I would not pack it down.

The book includes an index of recipes at the back of the book. That should be particularly handy to find the recipes.

Recommended for cozy fans, especially fans of the series. Even though I had some problems with the recipes, the book is still a fun read.

For more information about this book or to browse inside, please visit the Kensington Books website.

For more information about the author and her other books, please visit The Murder She Baked website.

Thanks to those nice people from Kensington Books for this review copy.

Cinnamon Roll Murder by Joanne Fluke, Kensington Books, ©2012. ISBN 9780758234933(Uncorrected Proof), 335p.