BLUEBERRY MUFFIN MURDER - Joanne Fluke

The third book in the Hannah Swensen cozy mystery series (all of them set in idyllic Lake Eden, Minnesota) opens with Lake Eden in a flurry of activity, preparing for its first Winter Carnival.  Hannah Swensen, owner of the immensely popular The Cookie Jar eatery, is going a bit crazy baking hundreds of cookies with her business partner Lisa ... as well as contending with TV chef Connie Mac, special guest of the carnival who is also providing the fancy cake for the banquet, as well as coming to Lake Eden to promote her new boutique store. Hannah quickly grows tired of the demanding, condescending and mean-spirited Connie - far from the sweetheart she portrays to her general public - and when the banquet cake is destroyed in an accident and Hannah is forced to let Connie use her kitchen at The Cookie Jar to bake another one, Hannah is even further put out when Connie Mac is found dead the next morning in the restaurant's pantry, bashed in the back of the head while in the act of tasting one of Hannah's famous blueberry muffins.  I'm reading the Hannah Swensen series in order, so this is my third - and I have to say, even though the people of Lake Eden are a bit "goody-two-shoes" to be completely believable, each of these books really is like going back home to old friends.  This one's a nicely-plotted mystery with a very suspenseful finish, and it's also really nice that author Fluke develops the characters' lives over the series, as well; these people grow and make changes in their lives, instead of remaining static, one-dimensional characters.  And the recipes; OMG, who wouldn't want to try making the Short Stack Cookies, which supposedly taste exactly like fluffy pancakes generously topped with melted butter and syrup??  Even the mild romantic elements (Hannah has two ongoing suitors in the series, both of whom she likes as well, but in different ways) come off as real, yet at the same time do not impede or interfere at all with the mystery elements of the novels (one of my pet peeves, in some books).  Another winner in the series, and am already pondering #4, Lemon Meringue Pie Murder.  ****