Peach Cobbler Murder by: Joanne Fluke 2005 Culinary (with Recipes)

This book is a Hannah Swensen Mystery. Hannah owns a bakery in a small town in Minnesota. She is in danger of losing her bakery when two southern sisters, Vanessa and Shawna Lee, open a bakery right across the street. The two sisters spent a lot of money to decorate the shop. Hannah tries to convince herself that once the new wears off, her customers will return. Hannah's pastries are indeed better than the new shop. It was later discovered that the new bakery's signature southern peach cobbler was made and frozen by another company!

I liked the character of Hannah. She was a plump lady with unruly hair. She was dating two men in town. Norman was a dentist and was the kind of man Hannah should marry. He is thoughtful and loyal. But Hannah is drawn to the sexy sheriff's deputy named Mike. It appears that Mike is also dating Hannah's competitor Shawna Lee. This is enough for Hannah to wish her dead and when this happens it is only natural for people to wonder if she did it (especially since Hannah was the one who discovered the body). Lucky for Hannah she was at the wedding of her partner in the bakery when the murder occurred. The one thing I did not like about Hannah's character was that she was a grammar snob. Hannah was always correcting her younger sister named Andrea. Andrea was helping her sister investigate the murder of her rival. I just thought it was mean how Hannah was also hinting at her superiority.

Hannah's mother was dating a pseudo Englishman. The girls never really liked Winthrop and they later find it was for good reason. When Hannah started investigating the death of Shawna Lee she kept running into dead ends. Andrea mistakes Vanessa for her dead sister and gives Hannah an idea. What if someone wanted to kill Vanessa and accidentally killed her sister. Another lucky break in the case is when her mother discovered a picture of Winthrop and Vanessa in Winthrop's underwear drawer. When they began investigating, Hannah discovered Winthrop was really named Bobby Joe Peters. He and Vanessa were partners in crime (literally). Vanessa had romanced and then killed a wealthy older man back in Macon, Georgia. She was supposed to share the fortune left to her in the will but she got greedy. Bobby/Winthrop had escaped from prison. Both of these criminals could not turn the other in because they could report the other's crime.

Bobby had went to kill Vanessa and killed Shawna Lee instead. Both Vanessa and Bobby/Winthrop went to jail for their crimes. As the story is ending both Mike and Norman propose to Hannah. She tells them both she has to think about it and the story ends.

All in all I liked the book and I would probably read more of them. It included humor and gave the reader clues to see if we could discover who the murderer was. I also liked that Hannah used her brain rather than her looks to get answers. I found it unlikely that she was solving crimes the police could not figure out, but I guess stranger things have happened.