This book takes us back to when Hannah's father had just died and she had completed six years of college and just broken up with her professor boyfriend who married someone else. Andrea is pregnant with her first child and is a happy homemaker. Michelle is a high school student acting in the school plays who is friends with Lisa. There is, of course, no Mike or Norman as they haven't moved to Lake Eden yet.
Dolores, Hannah's mother spends most of her time in bed weeping and Hannah and her sisters are worried that she'll follow their father to the grave in her grief. Grandma Knudson whose grandson is the local Luthern minister and Annie who runs the orphanage are powerhouses at getting things done. They come by once again to visit Dolores and Hannah tells them of her worries. But they have just the thing to pull Dolores out of her depression. A project to help Essie, a local woman who owns the rundown, now shut down hotel who used to have storytime for the kids which gave the mothers a chance to get things done.
Essie fell down the stairs of the hotel and broke her hip and can't stay at the hotel to recuperate so she is staying at hospice until she can get better. But Essie has declared that nothing would make her happier than to have a Christmas Ball like the one where she met her husband Alton all those years ago at the hotel. Complete with a Christmas cake walk and a dessert buffet. The problem is the hotel is in disrepair and needs to be fixed up and they need someone to spearhead the project. Would Dolores agree to take on this monumental task? Of course, she does and immediately feels better when she does.
Hannah, Michelle, and Lisa agree to make the cakes and desserts. But Hannah will need a big freezer to hold the cakes they make in advance. Dolores agrees to buy one. However, Michelle and Andrea and Hannah are talking about what Hannah wants to do with her life and she says that her dream is to open up a coffee and bakery shop. Dolores hears her and lets her know that there is still money left in her college fund to put down on the old bakery that is being rented to buy in town if she is serious.
When Delores and Hannah go to the Hotel to get some things for Essie to have in the hospital they stumble across some old notebooks written faintly in ink. Essie tells them they can read them if they want that she was trying her hand at fiction but that she didn't finish the book because she couldn't figure out an ending. The story is about a young pregnant woman who works for her cousin, a mobster, and how she and her husband plan on turning him in and escaping the life. He stays behind to face them like nothing is wrong because they shouldn't suspect and she sneaks out and mails off the evidence to the authorities, then gets on a train and heads off to Minnesota where no one will find her.
This book is alright in that it explains how Hannah got her start, but its a murder mystery series and there's no murder. There's a tiny bit of a mystery at the end that she's kinda been stringing you along throughout the book if you've been wise enough to pick up on. Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment. Some of the recipes included are Cocoa Crunch Cookies, Ultimate Lemon Bundt Cake, Bacon, and Sausage Burritos, Chocolate Hazelnut Bon-Bons, and Minty Dreams Cookies. I give this book three stars out of five stars.
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Murder-Hannah-Swensen-Mystery-ebook/dp/B078QSL9FY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542813701&sr=8-1&keywords=christmas+cake+murder
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