Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen, #15)

Cinnamon Roll Murder BY Joanne Fluke



This book is for my favorite composer, Billy Barnes, my favorite musician, Bob Menadier, and my favorite jazz singer, Laurie Gral.



Acknowledgments

Big hugs for Ruel, my in-house story editor and chief

taste tester.

And hugs for the kids who don’t seem to mind helping

with the taste testing.

Hugs and kisses for the grandkids who don’t suffer

from butter, sugar, or chocolate deprivation thanks to

Hannah Swensen’s recipes.



Thanks to my friends and neighbors: Mel & Kurt, Lyn

& Bill, Lu, Gina, Adrienne, Jay, Bob, Laura Levine

(Jaine Austen mysteries) & Mark, Danny, Judy Q.,

Dr. Bob & Sue, Richard & Krista, Mark B., Angelique,

Daryl and her staff at Groves Accountancy, and everyone

at Boston Private Bank.



Thank you to my Minnesota friends: Lois & Neal,

Bev & Jim, Lois & Jack, Val, Ruthann, Lowell,

Lila & Curt, Dorothy & sister Sue, Mary & Jim,

Tim Hedges, and that great guy from KARE-TV

whose name I never can remember.



Special thanks to my wonderful Editor-in-Chief and

good friend, John Scognamiglio.



Hugs all around to Steve, Laurie, Doug, David, Adam,

Peter, Robin, Karen, Vida, Lesleigh, Adeola, Darla,

Rosanna, Mickie, Alex, and all the other folks at

Kensington Publishing who keep Hannah sleuthing

and baking up a storm.



Thanks to Hiro Kimura, my superb cover artist,

who’s drawn scrumptious desserts for the covers of

every Hannah Swensen mystery. This one is the best

ever! I just hope no one eats the cover before they

read the book!



Thank you to Lou Malcangi at Kensington for

designing all of Hannah’s incredibly gorgeous dust jackets

and paperback covers.



Thanks to John at Placed4Success.com for

Hannah’s movie and TV spots, and for handling

my social media.



Thanks to Kathy Allen for the final testing of

Hannah’s recipes.



Thank you to Sally Hayes (and Gary, too) for

sharing wonderful recipes.

And a big hug to my friend Trudi Nash for

helping me on book tours.



Thanks also to all the wonderful media guides in

the cities I’ve visited. Without all of you I’d be totally

lost, both figuratively and literally.



Hugs to superb food stylist Lois Brown, for making

my recipes look scrumptious in Phoenix. And thanks to

my Chicago food stylist, Judy Krug, for keeping that

frozen yogurt frozen.



Thank you to Dr. Rahhal, Dr. and Kathy Line,

and Dr. Wallen.



Thanks to Jamie Wallace for keeping my Web site,

MurderSheBaked.com

up to date and looking great.



And many thanks to all the readers who love Hannah almost as much as I do. I just wish that I had the time to test every single one of the great family recipes you send.





Chapter One


“The only problem with leaving four car lengths in front of you is that four cars come in to fill up the space!” Hannah Swensen complained to her sister Michelle, who was riding in the passenger seat of her cookie truck. “I’m going forty. Do you think that’s too slow?”

“Absolutely not. It’s nasty out there, and anybody who drives faster than forty on a night like this is crazy.”

“Or they come from other states and they don’t know anything about winter driving in Minnesota. I think I’ll pull over as far as I can and let that whole herd of cars behind me pass.”

“Good idea.”

Hannah signaled and moved over as far as she could to encourage the other drivers to pass her. They probably thought she was being too cautious, but a thin film of water glistened on the asphalt surface of the highway, and the temperature was dropping fast. The water would turn into slick ice in a matter of minutes and there was no way Hannah wanted to sail off into the ditch and land in the mud that was just beginning to refreeze from the afternoon thaw.

Some people said that Minnesota had two seasons; Shovel and Swat. Hannah knew that wasn’t the case. The land of the frozen north had four seasons—Fishing Season, Duck Season, Deer Season, and Mud Season. This was the first Thursday in April and Lake Eden was having the worst Mud Season on record. In the past three days, Earl Flensburg had used his Winnetka County tow truck to pull eighteen vehicles out of the muddy ditches. This number included Hannah’s cookie truck. Twice.

The current road conditions had been brought about by an extremely snowy winter that had yielded a record number of inches. Then, just last week, the days had turned warm with temperatures approaching a positively balmy fifty degrees. This unseasonably warm snap had melted the banks of hard-packed snow that lined the sides of the roads and had turned the shoulders into mud pits. To compound the problem the nights, like tonight, were cold enough to refreeze the water from the afternoon runoff, but the mud in the ditches took much longer to refreeze. Hapless motorists on the highways skidded on the icy film. If they were lucky, they simply ended up in the ditch in need of a tow truck. If they were unlucky, they sideswiped several other cars, resulting in multiple injuries. Warnings about the hazardous road conditions filled the KCOW-TV evening news, but some drivers seemed perfectly oblivious. Until the weather evened out, one way or the other, accidents on the highway would continue to be more common than lost mittens.