But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts.

Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. The mystery is plainer fare, though Hannah still proves she’s smarter than Mike gives her credit for.Īnother sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Ī week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. The 81 appended recipes (a record for the genre?) run the gamut from radish soup to candied pecans. Now if she can only get out of the snowbound community center before her sister Andrea delivers her baby on the dessert table-and, more important, before Mike tastes those doctored brownies. But with the help of alternate boyfriend Norman Rhoades, Hannah quickly discovers that the murder isn’t what it appears to be. Once again, Mike warns her to leave investigating to the professionals.

After judging the appetizers and entrees, she loses track of her mother’s prized Regency cake cutter, only to find it plunged into the ample bosom of Brandi, Martin Dubinski’s brand-new Vegas showgirl wife. At the party, though, it’s Hannah who gets jolted.

So on her way to the community Christmas party, she delivers a pan of jalapeno-laced brownies to the Winnetka County sheriff’s office to see if she can jolt Mike to his senses. When the owner of The Cookie Jar is tapped to edit the Lake Eden potluck cookbook, one recipe she definitely wants to exclude is Shawna Lee Quinn’s brownie recipe-cute detective Mike Kingston just likes those brownies too much. of violence and chases 10% Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 40% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 40% How society works & physical descript.Cookie-monger Hannah Swenson ( Lemon Meringue Pie Murder, 2003, etc.) continues to juggle one career, two suitors, and assorted corpses in Fluke’s latest confection. Click on a plot link to find similar books! Plot & Themes Composition of Book descript.

Sugar Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke