Hannah Swensen Mystery Series by Joanne Fluke

I came across a series in the Mystery section of my local public library in high school.  There were only a couple books out at that point, if I recall correctly, and it has grown to over 15 books.  This is a series written by Joanne Fluke and the main character is Hannah Swensen.  She owns a cookie shop in Minnesota and often finds dead bodies for which she then attempts to solve the murder.

I liked this series initially.  The characters are normal everyday people.  The bad guys almost always get their due.  There are recipes in each book.  It's set in the Midwest.  I also appreciated that there wasn't sex in any of the books.  I don't like to read about that.  All lovely things.

The series continued to grow.

Hannah has two boyfriends by the end of book two.  She continues to have two boyfriends as of the last book I read.  I don't mind that usually in a series, but it gets wrapped up eventually.  Every time I finish one of the books I want to throw it screaming, "Just pick Norman already!"  And she doesn't.

How often does a dead body have to wind up in a small Minnesota town before the FBI comes in wondering what makes the town attract murderers?  Seriously. Every. Single. Book.  Initially they were townspeople only but now many times it is people visiting town that get murdered.  They have to have the highest per capita murder rate in the country by now.

I have made some of the recipes too.  They weren't great. I tried only cookies, from what I recall, although some of the bars or brownies sound delightfully delicious.  Perhaps it was just a bad batch the two or three times I tried, but usually I make good cookies.  I'm leaning toward it being the recipe's fault.

The books are entertaining.  A bit wholesome aside from the dead body issue, perhaps, but solid stuff.  Not gory.  The books are focused more on the investigation of the murder rather than the murder itself.  But I can't get past Hannah being unable to decide between these two men.  It frustrates me, probably more than it should.

At first reading, I give the series 4 out of 5 stars.
After reading into it more and being discouraged, it gets 2 out of 5 stars.

~M