Read This!: Candy Cane Murder

(Long post ahead!)


Getting in the holiday spirit with this read…

Candy Cane Murder is a compilation of three candy cane related mysteries all by different authors. The whole book and the first story are both called Candy Cane Murder. Judging by the large font used for this author’s name, I am guessing she is more well-known and that is why. I had never heard of any of these authors before this.

I am going to review each individually since that is only fair.

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Candy Cane Murder

By Joanne Fluke

In Lake Eden, Minnesota, baker Hannah Swenson gets caught up in investigating the death of a local businessman.

My favorite parts of this book were the recipes and baking tips interspersed throughout. Hannah is a baker and when a baked good is mentioned in a chapter, the recipe is at the end. Some of these tips are great (like if you are using something like corn syrup, spray your measuring cup with PAM before pouring it in so it doesn’t stick to the sides, who would have thought?) and I am intrigued by some of the recipes so I might try them out.

The story overall was decent and I would pick up another Hannah Swenson mystery. Because this book a compilation of three stories and not just one long story, this mystery (and the next two as well) wasn’t as detailed as I am used to. It reminded me of the one-minute mysteries I used to read as a kid. My only complaints were these:

- There was a lot of talk of ice and snow. We have been lucky with the weather so far this year and I do realize that this story takes place in Minnesota in December but every mention of ice and snow made me die a little on the inside.

- One of the character in the book used the word “cool” (or some form of it because I don’t remember if it was cool or cooler or coolest and don’t have the book on-hand but go with me here) as in “That is really cool!”. Another character corrected him and said people don’t say that anymore. People say “rad” or “phat”. Um, the copyright to this book is 2007. I checked after this line. Maybe people still talk like that in Minnesota (Matchmaker would you like to comment?) but I don’t think anyone I know says “rad” or “phat” or has for a long time.

- The most annoying back and forth for me was an exchange that was something about (I don’t have exact quote with me) looking for brown roots in blonde hair. And Hannah replied that she didn’t understand what that meant either and also that her sister Andrea had to explain it to her. Come on. In this day and age, living anywhere in America, you know what it means when a blonde lady has brown roots. I don’t care how not into being fashionable you are. You know what this means. Side-eye.
My final comment to this story is a whine about how all these books I read have characters living my dream, owning tea and bake shops. I want to do that! Maybe if Mr. and I could decide on where we want to live out our days, I can start pursuing my dreams. No sense in setting up shop now if we are going to end up moving somewhere else. My brother would also be happy about this as well because he wants to be the host and schmooze with all the customers at my shop. Yes, we are a weird family.

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The Dangers of Candy Canes

By Laura Levine

Jaine Austen (eye-roll) investigates the death of a wealthy man who fell off his roof putting up Christmas décor. Was it an accident or was it murder?

The mystery itself was OK but Jaine Austen who was telling this story was so annoying. She drove me nuts. She was the embodiment of a Cathy comic. Ugg. It is so clichéd (not funny) to have a middle age (I am assuming but there was in truth no mention of her age) to wallow on and on and on about how she can’t eat this or that but then shove her face full of food (didn’t need all the details of everything she ate) at every chance. And then all the mention of elastic waist jeans. Was this a joke? I don’t know. But the image I was getting was a major slob not someone I would want to hire to solve a mystery. Moreover, she kept talking about what she was feeding her cat (how could she not have one being a single woman living alone?) and say it was x, y, or z “Guts”. Um ok. I get it. The first time this was not funny. The 8th time, I wanted to contact the author and be like “AHHHH!!!!” And her cat was named Prozac. Ugg once more.

The author just tried too hard. I have no plans to read another Jaine Austen mystery if you couldn’t tell.

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Candy Canes of Christmas Past

By Leslie Meier

Lucy Stone just moved with her husband and son from NYC to coastal Maine. As they are getting used to life in a major fixer-upper of a farm house, Lucy investigates a potential murder that happened in the town 50 years earlier.

This was probably my favorite story of the lot. I dream of living in coastal New England and was jealous of Lucy’s locale. I was not however jealous of the state of her house. I could not live in a fixer upper like that. I am too high maintenance.

This book got two side-eyes from me:

1. Lucy is pregnant with her second child. The book is set in 1983. She has no problem in drinking a sherry or alcohol –infused eggnog. I was surprised about this since we live in a culture of women should not even look at alcohol when they are pregnant. Maybe in the early 80s things were different? This could explain a lot of the friends I have. (So I guess that would include the late 70s as well.)

2. Lucy’s son is 2. There was way too much mention of him going to the bathroom, getting potty trained, wetting his bed, etc. etc. etc. Since this added nothing to the story, I am not positive why it was such a frequent theme. I for one can live without a constant stream of updates on someone’s kid’s toilet habits. And yes, I realize our Another Day, Another Diaper blog post about our niece makes me look like a hypocrite. But that was a one-time event. And it was funny (to us anyways). Daily updates = TMI.

Of all of these stories, I would read a Lucy Stone mystery again first.

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And since I would recommend two out of three of these stories, the whole book made it into the Read This! list.