Coconut Layer Cake Murder

By: Joanne Fluke

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

Bakery owner Hannah Swensen is leaving Lake Eden to help a friend in sunny California. But an unexpected phone call swiftly brings her back to a cold Minnesota winter...and murder....

When Hannah learns that her sister Michelle's boyfriend, Detective Lonnie Murphy, is the prime suspect in a murder case, she goes straight from a movie studio sound stage to the Los Angeles airport. 

Back in frigid Minnesota, she discovers that proving Lonnie's innocence will be harder than figuring out what went wrong with a recipe. Lonnie remembers only parts of the night he went out to a local bar and ended up driving a very impaired woman home. He knows he helped her to her bedroom, but he doesn't recall anything else until he woke up on her couch the following morning. When he went to the bedroom to check on her, he was shocked to discover she was dead. 

Hannah doesn't know what to believe - only that exonerating a suspect who can't remember is almost impossible, especially since Lonnie's brother, Detective Rick Murphy, and Lonnie's partner, Chief Detective Mike Kingston, have been taken off the case. Before everything comes crashing down on Lonnie like a heaping slice of coconut layer cake, it'll be up to Hannah to rack up enough clues to toast a flaky killer....

©2020 H.L. Swensen, Inc. (P)2020 Recorded Books

oh, Hannah........ :( I try to stick with you.

I was disappointed with this book, but i will say it was better the previous 2. I loved Hannah and the Lake Eden crowd in the beginning. Now, it just seems like Ms. Fluke is just out of ideas. As usual, the recipes are too much, the talk of eating these recipes is too much, and the oh so perfect Hannah is too much. I wish Hannah would grow up. She is supposed to be in her 30s and everyone around her acts like she is a porcelain doll to take care of of and she lets them!!!! I wish she would have some gumption and the them all to get out of her condo, quit mooching on her food and let her live her own life. She needs to make up her mind between Norman and Mike (Norman, duh!) and quit dilly, dallying. We need a good mystery that is not solved in the first few chapters.The murder is always so simple and the person who is the murderer is always so nice, until the very moment , Surprise! they just killed someone!!! Also, we need more activity out of the bakery and out of the condo. Can't they go skiing or snow snowmobiling or something? And why do they not all weigh 250 pounds? All they do it EAT! Also, how can Hannah make ANY money when she is constantly giving baked goods away? Plus does she pay the townspeople who are always working in her bakery so she can sleep? someone is always working for her, so she can sleep.....

Finally,,, please, i beg of you. I am an audio book listener. PLEASE put the recipes in the back of the book.

Don't get me wrong with this negative review...i love Hannah. She deserves better then she has gotten in the last few books.

That’s it. I’m done.

I have read and reread all of the Hannah Swensen books. The characters are like family. So I’m sorry to say goodbye to Lake Eden—at least until 2 things happen:
1. Move the recipes to the end of the audio book. Listening to recipes is no fun. It’s not like I have a pen and paper available when listening to an audiobook.
2. The Mike/Norman relationships have worn me down. Mike just wants a homemaker. Norman wants Hannah. It’s obvious that Joanne Fluke thinks that if Hannah picks Norman (or Mike), her readers will lose interest. I think it’s the opposite. Until she picks one (hopefully Norman), I’m done.

Hannah acts and talks like she’s a senior citizen

I used to love these stories but the last several have been a chore to get through. Hannah talks and acts like she a septuagenarian! Plus her know it all attitude isn’t a fun personality quirk it’s tiresome and irritating. The love triangle has dragged on so long I don’t even care anymore. I just can’t anymore. I’m tapping out of this series.

Over It!

The last four books have been lacking and this one is no exception. This book was painful!!! Sadly it will be the last Hannah Swenson book for me. Same tired story and characters. Hannah’s wholesomeness has become pathetic. Her character needs to grow up and move on!!!!!! It’s time for some major changes or this series needs to end. Never mind the ridiculous amount of recipes!!!! Save your money.

Painfully hokey

This would have been a great story if I were 75 years old. But since I’m not....SO bad. Even the characters who were supposed to be youngish spoke like senior citizens.
And in what reality does the police department turn to the local baker to solve murders for them. Fortunately all the recipes that I skipped past made the book end quickly.

not good

at least half of the book was just somebody reading recipes, not very interesting to me

Hannah needs to grow up

I love these books. I’ll start there...but, it’s time Hannah grows up. She needs to have “romantic” feelings for someone, preferable Norman. Norman built her dream house, has a great job, is so kind and she obviously loves him. It’s getting silly. She married a near stranger and he left and Norman keeps coming back. His only issue is he named his cat “Cuddles”. No grown man does that. Hannah leads her life like a 16 year old girl. ALSO, her mother is always portrayed as a scatterbrained woman that needs a tribe to take care of her.
Hannah needs to marry Norman and grow up! It would be ok if she had a real “adult” relationship with a man and had a beer. PLUS, quit saying “the condo.” House, home, place...any go well with “Hannah’s....”
find another name for the HOME!

review

Too many recipes, not enough story. I normally read this series so not crazy about the voices used for specific characters

Same old, same old

If it weren't for the recipes, the storyline of Fluke's latest installment of the Hannah Swenson mysteries could be boiled down to 5 or 6 chapters. It's the same dialogue, same scenes and same tired bakery /baking references as the last 5 novels. This series offers compelling characters but Fluke seems to have run out of ideas on what to do with them. If the author can't come up with some new creative plots and fresh dialogue, then the series should end here. I won't be reading any more.

Waited a long time for this .

This was the 1st in the series that I wished there were fewer recipes. It seem like every chapter with recipe was half recipe.