Baker and amateur detective Hannah Swenson solves a mysterious murder while planning her mother's wedding. Hannah Swenson keeps trying to focus her attention of her bakery, but life just keeps getting in the way. The Lake Eden, Minnesota woman is "volunteered" into planning her mother's wedding. And things don't get any better when she has an accident and kills a man while delivering cookies in her truck. Despite the fact that it was storming, Hannah is charged with murder. But then there's the complication that the man was already dying when she hit him.
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While juggling her family obligations, Hannah investigates the dead man and a series of random clues leads her to discover the man is from Minneapolis and was in pursuit of a woman now living in Lake Eden. But who? As she works on the case, Hannah also juggles the love triangle between herself, Mike and Norman. A love triangle which has lasted 16 books and based on this one desperately needs to end soon. At the same time, her mother is driving her and her sisters crazy over the wedding plans. So much so that her fiancee decides to kidnap her and take her to Las Vegas to get married, just to make everyone's life easier.
In the end, it turns out that the dead man was a pimp who was in pursuit of a woman who is now living in town. He received his fatal injuries in a fight and it's not exactly clear who inflicted them on him. As for the woman, she's pretending to be a local woman who had been missing for sixteen years and while she is eventually uncovered, she still seems to be welcomed in Lake Eden.
The book ends with a lot of questions left unanswered. Hannah is still being charged with reckless driving over the accident and we don't know the final resolution. And the "kidnapping" of her mother still hasn't happened, although she is at least admitting that she's been a Bridezilla. The book just sort of wanders to an ending. So much so, it almost seems as if the last chapter is missing from the book.
Best part of story, including ending:
The book meanders and meanders and meanders. Some of the early books in this series was sharply written and fast-moving. But this story seemed threadbare and read as if author Joanne Fluke was just killing time.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene is the one in which Hannah confronts Jennifer about her past life as a prostitute.
Opinion about the main character:
Hannah just rambles on and on and on in this book. It takes her a page to say "hello" and every minor plot point plays out over a chapter or more.