I was rather surprised when I picked this up. Rather than being just another one of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen mysteries, it was a three-in-one -- two other authors under the same publishing house contributed to the book, making it a set of three short stories.
The first story was a typical Hannah Swensen murder mystery. It's Christmas in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and a local department store tycoon plays Santa...until he ends up dead. In typical Hannah fashion, the tight-knit ties of family and a small town mix with scrumptious cookies for a heartwarming yet bone-chilling mystery that's got a laid back, cozy pace.
The second story, written by Laura Levine, is a murder mystery starring an LA girl, Jaine Austen. While Jaine - who, as an aside, would fall head over heels for Hannah('s cookies) - deals with the doom of an upcoming Christmas in Florida with family and the discovery that volunteering to spend time with motherless girls isn't as simple as it seems, she takes on a request from a local roofer to clear him of suspicion. A roof that he recently fixed came loose, causing his former client to fall to his death, but he swears the roof was done properly. Jaine's story has a grittier feel to it than the former, having a more urban setting and pace.
The final story is probably the most relaxed of the three. Written by Leslie Meier, this follows Lucy Stone, a New York City mother moved to rural Tinker's Cove, Maine. She doesn't run around chasing down murderers - with a toddler in tow and a second child on the way, this comes as no surprise - but rather tries to solve the mystery of the local librarian's mother's death by digging through memories and records. This story is laid back, showing the historical mystery as well as Lucy's struggles to live in a major "fix-er-up" with funds drying quickly, all the while dealing with her child and husband.
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