{"id":516,"date":"2012-05-29T15:31:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T19:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/?p=516"},"modified":"2012-05-29T15:32:03","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T19:32:03","slug":"joanne-flukes-hannah-swensen-series-an-easy-reading-way-to-tie-food-and-mystery-passions-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/joanne-flukes-hannah-swensen-series-an-easy-reading-way-to-tie-food-and-mystery-passions-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Joanne Fluke\u2019s Hannah Swensen Series an Easy-Reading Way to Tie Food and Mystery Passions Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joanne<\/a><\/p>\n

Hannah walked closer, peered inside, and made a face. It was one of the lemon pies she\u2019d baked on Friday. Only one piece had been eaten and the rest was crawling with an endless line of small black ants that were industriously carting away the sweet pastry. \u2018You\u2019re right, Mother. This pie is ant fodder. I\u2019ll dump it in the garbage.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh no. Hannah doesn\u2019t know it yet, but this scene from the Lemon Meringue Pie Murder<\/em> is a vital clue that someone has been killed. Partially-eaten dessert remains always indicate murder in Joanne Fluke\u2019s humour-filled easy-reading mysteries featuring bakery-owner Hannah Swensen and the small town of Lake Eden, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Hannah is a know-it-all who constantly diets, hates exercise, spoils her cat and runs around doing errands all the time. Despite such a full life in which she\u2019s constantly getting up at five a.m. and then cooking at 11 p.m. for various friends and family members, everyone trusts her to capably solve the remarkably-high number of murders that take place in her small northern town.<\/p>\n

The light-weight stories don\u2019t harp much on violence or suspense and instead feature the day-to-day struggles of a red-headed plump woman running a small business, trying to choose between two suitors and solving mysteries all at once. Known as \u201ccozy\u201d mysteries, these stories can be quickly and easily read in an easy chair without causing too much emotion, other than a need to perhaps visit some of the featured locales.<\/p>\n

After 2008, Kensington changed the size of the Hannah Swensen books, so the first eleven books in the series were easier to hold than the later ones.<\/p>\n

Other than that though, they definitely fit within the cozy genre. The scenery is entirely captivating, as are the characters. A few nasty characters appear on occasion as well, but happily, most of them get murdered off eventually.<\/p>\n

Most of the Fluke’s focus is on characters anyone can love. I enjoyed meeting Hannah\u2019s mother, her two sisters, her partner, the dentist, the doctor, the police, the mayor and all the other community members who appear over and over again throughout seventeen different books so far. (Fluke began writing romances in 2010 and Hannah appears in one called Sugar and Spice, but I haven\u2019t included it in this count.)<\/p>\n

Despite the crucial dessert destruction near the beginning of every book, I always crave sweets while reading these mysteries. Perhaps that\u2019s because every novel contains several delicious-sounding scenes about food. There are also recipes for cookies, cakes and pastries in every one, including the title dessert. You can\u2019t help but be encouraged to experiment in the kitchen, perhaps pausing to read while waiting for the yummy treats to finish baking.<\/p>\n

Like her characters, Fluke enjoys her cookies super sweet, but her recipes can be easily modified for denser tastes or to meet the needs of various allergy sufferers. Cookies don\u2019t require a careful measuring hand as long as you keep the balance between wet and dry ingredients stable.<\/p>\n

For a less sweet cookie, don\u2019t bother with icing and remove from a quarter to half a cup of sugar from each batch. Or rather than using white sugar, consider beet sugar, brown sucranet, maple syrup or agave.<\/p>\n

Replace almost half of the flour in each recipe with whole wheat for people without allergies. For gluten free goodies, add two teaspoons of agar or guar gum and replace whole wheat flour with quinoa and regular white with brown rice flour. More variations can be had by replacing some of the brown rice flour with almond, tapioca, potato, garbanzo, flax meal, etc.<\/p>\n

If you have vegans or other allergy-prone types in your family, replace each egg with with half a cup applesauce or pumpkin mash. Many of the recipes taste much better if at least half the eggs are replaced this way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve modified lots of Fluke\u2019s recipes to great results. My favourites are the chocolate chip crunches, black and whites and the decadent fudge on top of shortbread bars that Fluke calls Chocolate Highlander but which my family calls \u201charvester cookies.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get a copy of a monthly featured recipe to try for yourself or for summaries of all the Hannah Swensen mysteries written by Fluke so far, check out her website at http:\/\/www.murdershebaked.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Books in the series include:<\/p>\n