When Hannah Swensen hears that the Cinnamon Roll Six jazz band will be playing at a festival in Lake Eden, Minnesota, she bakes up a supply of their namesake confections to welcome them. But tragedy strikes when their tour bus overturns on its way into town. And keyboard player Buddy Neiman's minor injuries turn deadly serious when someone plunges surgical scissors into his chest...

Turns out, Buddy Neiman isn't the victim's real name. In fact, no one is really sure who he is. Hannah's investigation digs up a few local suspects. There is Doctor Bev, who seems to know more about "Buddy" than she's willing to admit. And Devon, an aspiring keyboard player who may have had a fatal case of jealousy. Hannah isn't sure how she'll unravel the mystery, but one thing's for sure: there's nothing sweeter than bringing a killer to justice...

Review

When baker Hannah Swensen’s hired to make cinnamon rolls for a special preview performance of the Cinnamon Roll Six (the ensemble headlining the Lake Eden Inn’s jazz festival), she’s over the moon: it’s a big order, and the Inn’s owners have invited her and her sister to stick around and hear the music after they make their delivery. Unfortunately, however, while en route to the Inn, the women happen upon a massive traffic accident and discover the band’s bus was involved in the crash. The bus’s driver is dead, but none of the band’s members were injured except for keyboard player Buddy Neiman, who seems to have hurt his wrist. The paramedics have their hands full tending to the drivers of the other vehicles involved in the pile-up, so to speed things along, Hannah and her sister offer to drive Buddy to the hospital for treatment.

At first it looks like the band will still be able to perform; Buddy’s wrist is merely sprained, and the night is still young. But then Buddy’s found alone in a treatment room, stabbed to death with a pair of surgical scissors, and suddenly getting to the Inn on time becomes the least of everyone’s worries. Who wanted Buddy dead, and why? Hannah’s determined to get to the bottom of this particular mystery – even if it kills her.

Cinnamon Roll Murder, Joanne Fluke’s fifteenth Hannah Swensen Mystery, is a relatively lighthearted tale of murder, lies, and betrayal in a small Minnesota town. The mystery is slight, the pace is somewhat leisurely, and there are a couple of loose ends I’d have liked to have seen tied off, but by and large, the plot hangs together well and the story has a great flow to it.  When it comes right down to it, Fluke’s books have always been more about the characters and the cookies than the crimes, and for those of Fluke’s fans who buy her books more to catch up on life in Lake Eden than to find out whodunit and why, there’s plenty here to love. 

Fluke’s character work is strong.  Cinnamon Roll Murder finds Hannah bossy and judgmental, as per her usual, but we’re also given a rare glimpse of her vulnerable side thanks to a new development in the Hannah-Mike-Norman love triangle, thus transforming Hannah into a much more endearing and identifiable heroine than in previous installments.  Hannah's sisters, Michelle and Andrea, are charming and mischievous as always, and make for great Watsons to Hannah's Sherlock.  Hannah’s mother is meddlesome and gossipy and entertaining, and the antics of cats Moishe and Cuddles provide doses of comic relief at regular intervals throughout the tale.

Add to all this an abundance of mouth-watering recipes for everything from the titular cinnamon rolls to chocolate avocado cookies to something called Piggy Chicken, and you have what I predict will be yet another New York Times Bestseller from Joanne Fluke.

Reviewed by Kat

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