Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke ****

Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke is a cross between Midsomer Murders and a cookbook. The mystery has a high body count and greedy heirs. Interspersed with the mystery are sixteen annotated recipes with introductory dialogue. I skipped the recipes (one fifth of the pages) but found the mysteries engaging.

A pleasant diversion and an easy read.

The protagonist is Hannah Swensen. She owns the Cookie Jar bakery in Lake Eden Minnesota. Anything that happens is a reason to bake cookies. A crane is in town to raise a huge dome to cover a rooftop garden and her friend Barbara Donnelly is in the hospital after falling from that same building. Both occasions call for cookies with histories and recipes. Sometimes it is not cookies. Hannah also makes pies, muffins, and pancakes.

Hannah has two sisters, a Mother Dolores, a partner Lisa, and two boyfriends Norman and Mike. Her 23-pound orange and white cat is Moishe.

The victims:

“Clayton Wallace, the band bus driver for the Cinnamon Roll Six, had been the first fatality in the multi-car pileup on the interstate two months ago.” The Minneapolis PD declared this a suicide, but Hannah doesn’t think so.

Barbara Donnelly fell off the top of a fancy condo conversion that was a hotel. She survives but has memory and cognitive issues. She thinks monsters are after her in her hospital room and that her brother is trying to kill her. She doesn’t have a brother.

Dr. Bev drives her new Maserati into the river. Hannah finds her but is not able to resuscitate her with CPR. Many people dislike Dr. Bev, including Hannah. When the autopsy reveals the remains of a Red Velvet Cupcake in her stomach along with the drug that killed her, Hannah is the prime suspect.

Warren Dalworth, with terminal cancer and memory issues, has changed his lawyer and his will.