Book Review: ‘Lemon Meringue Pie Murder’
I adore reading, always have, but these days I find I’m limited on what I can read. The brain fog means I can’t handle anything too complex or long and my fragile mental health means I shouldn't read anything that could upset me. My muscle weakness means hard-backs are impossible and since it’s part of my relaxation time, I need my “fun” books to be just that. I love murder mysteries and have read everything by my favorite authors, so I’m always looking for new authors to check out at the library. Joanna Fluke’s novel caught my eye because of the lurid yellow cover, with a sketch of a slice of Lemon Meringue Pie, complete with skull and crossbones, on the front! Then I saw the title and was intrigued by the note “Recipes Included”. This looked like fun and the book didn’t disappoint.
The light-hearted murder mystery centers around Fluke’s heroine, Minnesotan bakery owner and amateur investigator, Hannah Swensen, who just can’t stop stumbling across corpses. The book was well-written, enough to keep my interest, easy enough to read so that it didn’t take that long to get through, and light-hearted enough to make me add Fluke to my list of authors I would read anytime, including during flares. The character depiction is excellent, allowing you to follow with real interest the sub-plots around Hannah’s love-life and family. Each chapter ends with a recipe for the baked item mentioned in that chapter, from the Lemon Meringue Pie of the title to Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cookie Bars. My only real problem with the book was that I couldn’t eat most of the recipes and they sounded so good!
Lemon Meringue Pie Murder is one of nine Hannah Swensen mysteries and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of them. I highly recommend this as a light-hearted murder mystery.
© 2007 by Lindsey Middlemiss, butyoudontlooksick.com
‘Lemon Meringue Pie Murder’ By Joanna Fluke
ISBN 0-7582-0151-6
