Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke follows the formula of most of the other books in the Hannah Swensen series. Depending on how you count it, the book is number 28 or so. It stands to reason that the author is not going to mess with success. When she did deviate from the formula, she probably caught lots of flak for it, because she quickly developed a plot to return to her original formula.
The original formula is one of the reasons readers keep coming back to this series…well, that and reading about some of the delicious recipes. The actual writing of the book probably earns somewhere between a 3 and 3.5 rating as it is not that inventive and half of the dialogue is about various recipes the characters are trying. The 4-star rating goes for comfort reading. Readers have come to expect certain things from this series and Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Murder delivers those things very well.
Fans of the Hannah Swensen series will be satisfied and perhaps even enticed into believing the author is picking a direction on her long and drawn-out romance front. The thing about this book that is a bit unnerving is wondering if Joanne Fluke is really just trying to misdirect the readers and in the end, she will hit them with another plot twist. In the meantime, readers can enjoy the recipes and their friends from Lake Eden.
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy
This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Kensington Publishing
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: None
Violence/Gore: A female character slaps a man so hard he falls off his chair; a character recalls finding a man dead and he was bleeding; a character has a gun pointed at her, but no shots fired; a person finds the body of a murder victim.
Sex/Nudity: Non-married characters are sleeping in the same house, but no sexual activity is implied; multiple mentions of a man and his many adulterous relationships, no details; characters embrace.
Mature Subject Matter:
Murder, marital infidelity.
Alcohol / Drug Use:
Characters drink alcohol with their meals; a character recalls being at a bar and some people there were inebriated.
