Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

Hannah and the gang are back and when one of their own townspeople is murdered and Andrea is a prime suspect, the police are happy to work with Hannah to get to the bottom of it.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

February 2021; Kensington; 978-1496718921
audio, ebook, print (352 pages); cozy mystery

Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series is one of my go-to cozy mystery series when I'm not sure what I want to read. You know you are going to get a fun mystery and a few great recipes.

I was really looking forward to Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. The dialog felt repetitive and often immature. I think the characters are in their 30s, if not 40s, yet their actions and words are often that of teenagers.

I always expect these books to be a bit of a cookie-cutter story (no pun intended) and I'm fine with it. It is partly why I read them - they are pure escapism reading that I can kind of do mindlessly. But I could anticipate responses a little too much which just made for a boring read. We didn't really learn anything new about the characters and the only growth any of the characters had was that Andrea is becoming a better cook.

What really bugged me about this book though was the internal dialog that Hannah had with her "rational mind" and her "suspicious mind". I don't remember her having this kind of internal dialog before. Perhaps it is a result of her relationship with Ross and it is supposed to show the lasting trama. Whatever the reason, I felt it was just there for word stuffing and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at some of it. 

A lot of the story felt like it was just there to make the book longer and not actually to add anything to the plot or character development. I was reading an advance copy so perhaps more editing occurred and the story was streamlined and the writing tightened a bit. Maybe it is just time for the series to come to an end.

I did like that it looks like the Mike and Norman triangle is over. Now if Hannah would just stop toying with Norman, though maybe he doesn't care that his may always be an unrequited love.

Have you read Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder? I would love to know your thoughts.

Buy Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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