Now that I’m working out at a health club three times per week, I’m going through audiobooks at a faster rate than ever before. I love nothing more than to listen to a good story while I’m walking on the treadmill, so that means I’m always looking for new books to load onto my iPod. I’m much less picky about what I listen to while I workout than what I actually sit down to read, and as a result have been trying a bunch of different authors based on recommendations from friends.

That’s how I recently came to listen to something called Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, a book classified as a “cozy mystery”. What’s a cozy mystery? I couldn’t find a definitive answer to that, but many websites seem to put that old TV show Murder, She Wrote in the category. I guess that means you have an amateur detective in a small town who stumbles across a murder and is so nosy that she (usually the protagonist is a she) keeps prying until the case is solved. That describes Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder to a T, so I’ll go with that.

Plot Summary (with possible spoilers): Hannah Swensen is a 29-year-old single woman who lives a quiet, uneventful life in the small Minnesota town of Lake Eden. An avid baker, Hannah owns a popular eatery called The Cookie Jar, where she and her 19-year-old assistant Lisa regularly serves the locals her special coffee and homemade cookie creations. When she’s not working, Hannah simply likes to spend time at home with her one-eyed cat Moishe.

Things get a bit more exciting in Lake Eden after Hannah discovers Ron LaSalle, a delivery driver for the Cozy Cow Dairy, dead in his truck one morning. He had been shot through the chest while making his rounds. There was no evidence left at the scene — except for a handful of Hannah’s own Chocolate Chip Crunches.

Not wanting her business name associated with something like murder, Hannah decides to help brother-in-law Bill, the town deputy, solve the case. The rest of the novel then deals with Hannah’s investigation, which consists mostly of retracing Ron’s steps on the morning of the murder and then questioning everyone who may have come into contact with him that day. Along the way, we get to meet other Lake Eden residents, get a glimpse of Hannah’s almost nonexistent love life, and get several cookie recipes to try out.

My Reaction: This was the first time I’ve ever read a so-called “cozy”, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the result. I didn’t expect the plotting to be so straightforward and simple. I mean, at times I felt as though I were reading a story aimed at junior high school kids because of how watered down everything was. This style made for a quick, easy read (or listen, in my case), but that’s about all this novel had going for it.

Another thing I didn’t like about Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder was the way the suspects were paraded out — and eliminated — one by one until we got to the actual killer. Most of the mysteries I read present a handful of suspects near the beginning, and it’s not until the end that the detective is able to rule everyone out except the killer. That type of setup builds suspense and keeps readers guessing.

But in this book, Hannah would latch on to a possible suspect, would question that person closely, would verify the person’s alibi, and then would cross the person off her list and move on by asking herself, “Well, if it wasn’t this person, who else could it be? Oh, how about so-and-so?” This process was repeated four or five times, which made for pretty boring reading.

Another thing I didn’t like about this book were a few small details that the author got wrong. For instance, Fluke talked about Ron LaSalle being a high school football star whose dreams of being drafted by an NFL team were shattered after he suffered an injury. Well, high school kids can’t be drafted by the NFL. There’s a rule in place that says players must be out of high school for three years before they’re eligible for the draft (remember the Maurice Clarett saga?). Instead, Fluke should have written that LaSalle’s dreams of getting a college scholarship went down the toilet.

In addition, I didn’t like the part where she said that the killer flashed $1,000 bills at Max to get him to open the safe. The Treasury Department stopped distributing large denomination bills like back in 1969, and Federal Reserve banks destroy any that they receive. Yes, there are possibly a few still circulating, but the chances that a number of them ended up in Lake Eden, MN are very slim. (I know this is a minor nitpick, but it was just sooo distracting when it came up in the book!)

I actually did like Hannah Swensen, so that was one positive aspect of the novel. Also, I’ve heard that this first book was by far the weakest in the series, which I guess is understandable. So even though I didn’t particularly like Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, I think I’ll give a few more of Fluke’s books a try before writing her off completely!