Devil's Food Cake Murder

[cornerofmadness]

Devil's Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was just bad. I've only ever been so-so on this series, though the first ones were pretty good but over the years it's become more about the recipes and less about the plot. And in this case, what plot? Half of it was about Hannah dithering back and forth between Mike (of the wandering eye) and Norman (the man who just brought his ex back into his dental practice). Honestly I'm with Norman, he built a house for her and she still can't make up her mind, time to cut bait.

Every scene had food in it. Every. Scene. (except the one where she goes looking for evidence and the ones that follows where she's inevitably caught by the killer) Look I get that she's a baker and this is a food themed series but every scene? Even when they find the body Grandma Knudson has to mention the cookies Hannah is bringing for Bible study, who does that? Worse (and this is when I should have thrown this book into a wall and stopped reading it) Hannah's mother at dinner (naturally because FOOD) asks her doctor friend who did the autopsy if the murder victim had time to enjoy Hannah's yummy cake first. OMFG.

As for the plot, Mike is on the look out for a jewelry thief from the big city and Grandma Knudson is suspicious of the temporary pastor filling in for Bob (on his honeymoon) because she knew Matthew as a boy along with his cousin, Paul (who has a criminal record). She thinks he might not be Matthew. The back cover blurb tells us Matt's fate (which takes over 100 pages to happen because the rest is them eating and recipes) so basically from chapter 3 on I knew the entire plot (I was right) because this was as clear as the plastic wrap Hannah puts over her cookie trays.

It ends on a cliffhanger for her personal life, one I could careless about because her love triangle is wearisome. This was utterly skippable.



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