Plating up some Peach Cobbler Murder for my latest serving of Series-ous Reading

As I mentioned in a prior post, I've gotten my mother hooked on the Hannah Swensen series by Joanne Fluke and she's way ahead of me at this point. That is still the case yet I do not consider this a competition, plus we do agree that Hannah's cat Moishe is a delight and that her mother can be a bit much at times.

My latest Hannah Swensen slice of mystery dessert for my ongoing Series-ous challenge is Peach Cobbler Murder, where Hannah is facing both personal and professional competition from the same source; Shawna Lee Quinn.

Shawna has always had eyes for Mike,Hannah's occasional suitor, and now with the help of her newly rich sister Vanessa, she's opened a bakery right across the street from Hannah's beloved Cookie Jar. With a number of gimmicks, The Magnolia Blossom Bakery has cut severely into the Cookie Jar's profits, so much so that Hannah fears she may have to go out of business:

Despite reassurances from family and friends that her baked goods are superior to Shawna's(including the Magnolia Blossom signature dish, Southern Peach Cobbler, which tastes suspiciously store bought), Hannah is worried about her future with the Cookie Jar and Mike.

Fortunately, there are more pleasant concerns to deal with such as the wedding of her bakery partner Lisa to local traffic cop Herb Beeseman. The whole town pretty much shows up to the ceremony yet while Mike promised to be Hannah's first dance partner at the reception, he turns out to be a no-show,along with Shawna Lee, who had plans to bring several servings of her peach cobbler as a "wedding gift."

While dropping off some reception leftovers  at the Cookie Jar, Hannah notices that the lights are still on at the Magnolia Blossom and can't resist checking in to see if anyone's there. Once again, Hannah has found another body as Shawna Lee was shot while heating up her definitely from a supermarket freezer cobbler(the box it came in was on the front counter!) and being her rival, Hannah is also a prime suspect for this particular murder:

Fortunately, she's not a suspect for long and with the aid of her loved ones, Hannah seeks out who really did Shawna Lee in. One possibility that presents itself is that the intended target may not have been Shawna but her sister Vanessa instead.

Turns out Vanessa inherited her fortune from a way older than herself husband who died not too long into the marriage. In addition to that , Hannah's mother Delores has a few suspicions about her latest beau, Winthrop, a supposed "English lord" and needs her daughter to check him out for her.

Hannah is more than happy to look into Winthrop for Delores, as she and her sister Andrea don't trust him much in the first place. However, that sidebar investigation offers up some information that bears deadly fruit upon Shawna Lee's less than peachy keen demise.

It's always fun to hang out with Hannah and friends, although Mike keeps annoying me. He is so clueless about why Hannah might not like him spending so much time with another woman while claiming to just be "friends" yet when Norman is around(Hannah's other suitor and a better choice, if you ask me), he gets more green skinned than the Hulk. Sure, sometimes he and Norman are buddy-buddy but that is usually a pretense for competing for Hannah's affections.

Hannah does get a pair of marriage proposals by the end of the book and I know already that she's not ready to chose between them. That's fine with me as I think Mike just made his as an apology for making her jealous over Shawna Lee and saying "marry me!" as a way to fix that is just not cool.

I do understand that Norman wouldn't want to lose out on Hannah,especially to Mike, but a proposal needs to be fully sincere, not simply a way to beat someone else to the punch. I am still rooting for Norman but this wasn't the right way for him to become her steady and hopefully, he figures that out in the next book.

Well, I'll see soon enough and in the meantime, I think that the lesson to take away from this engaging entry is "If  you are going to open your own bakery, make your own food!" You don't have to be a professional to taste the difference but the proof is clearly in the pudding, or in this case, cobbler:

Meanwhile, for my summer of Series-ous Reading, I plan to spend some time with the delightful Miss Phyrne Fisher, the fantasti lady detective created by author Kerry Greenwood.

One of my Christmas gifts this year was an omnibus edition of the first three novels in the Miss Fisher Mysteries entitled Introducing the Honourable Phryne Fisher and it was a welcome sight to see under my holiday tree. These books have been the basis of a TV series starring the charming Essie Davis as Miss Fisher, an unflappable flapper with a flair for crime solving and an eye for the gents.

She's a real pistol, in the best sense of the word, and for some true fun in or out of the sun, Phryne Fisher is most decidedly the gal to lead the way indeed. Oh, and there's a Modern Miss Fisher Mysteries to be aired soon(featuring a niece of Phryne's as the lead) but I may revisit the original for a little compare and contrast, not to mention a good time that I recommend you all to take up as well: