Review of a Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke (Book 1)

Brief Synopsis: 

Hannah Swensen, a born raised Minnesotan has always been known in her little town of Lake Eden as the resident banker. However, when a murder occurs and her close friend is killed she volunteers to do some detective work to help catch the killer. But this task is not easy when until detective work is done everyone in this small little town is considered a suspect. Will Hannah be able to uncover who the real murder is in time to stop them from hurting anyone else or will she just put her self in harms way? Can Hannah survive her mother running her love life? 

My Review:

After reading an ARC of A Blackberry Pie murder I was very much interested in reading the rest of the series starting with the first book. I think that Joanne did a great job of developing the back story on the main character Hannah and setting the scene of the book in Lake Eden. However, I felt that book fell short of what I was expecting as there was just too much fluff put in the book between the two murders in the book. I think this fluff was when she stuck too much time in to the different people she investigated for the murder. I felt either the chapters could have been slimmed down or combined into one chapter.

In addition, I felt like the author gave a little too much back story on Hannah's sister Andrea. If Andrea would have played a bigger part in the book then i would have totally understood. However, she only came in to the story three, maybe four times in the whole book.

Lastly, the last part that I felt the author could have spent more time on was when she had the murder divulge why they killed two people. It had very little lead up to it happening which was weird considering of how the rest of the book was read.

All in all for a first book in the series I would consider it a decent book but not one that I would read again. I think that the rest of the series is worth reading as I have read a later book in the series and had liked that one better. I definitely think Joanne created the perfect character in this book series and we will just have to continue to read the books to see how she continues to have Hannah grow and see her love life flourish.