On a hot, muggy evening, the last thing Hannah Swensen wants to do is squeeze into pantyhose for the Grand Opening of the refurbished Albion Hotel. But with her famous Red Velvet cupcakes being served in the hotel's new Red Velvet lounge, she can't back out. The party starts off with a bang with the unexpected arrival of Doctor Bev on the arm of a wealthy investor - and comes to a screeching halt when a partygoer takes a dive off the rooftop garden....

"No one cooks up a delectable, suspense-filled mystery quite like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke's dessert-baking, red-haired heroine whose gingersnaps are as tart as her comebacks, and whose penchant for solving crimes--one delicious clue at a time--has made her a bestselling favorite. And it all began on these pages, with a bakery, a murder, and some suddenly scandalous chocolate-chip crunchies. Featuring a bonus short story and brand new, mouthwatering...

Hannah is marrying Ross Barton, her college crush, but not before she can solve the murder case of nasty celebrity chef Alain Duquesne found stabbed to death in the Lake Eden Inn's walk-in cooler.

Hannah Swensen thinks she killed a former high school football hero with her car, until an autopsy reveals the victim was dead before Hannah even hit him, his shirt covered in stains from a blackberry pie. Hannah's on the trail of a pie baker with a penchant for 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....

While Hannah speeds through a lengthy holiday checklist, drama in town grows like Santa's waistline on Christmas Eve. Her sister Andrea wants to stave off the blues by helping out at The Cookie Jar, Michele's love life is becoming complicated, Lisa needs Hannah's advice, and Delores has a Christmas secret she's not willing to share. But nothing dampens the holiday mood more than the chilling mystery surrounding the man found near death in an abandoned...

<p>The stitchers of the Embroiderers Guild raised over twenty thousand dollars for charity—but the representative who accepted the check at the annual convention disappeared with it. It turns out that he's the husband of the local chapter president, Allie Germaine, who insists on his innocence. But if Bob Germaine didn't pocket the check, who did? And where is Bob now? Since needlework shop owner Betsy Devonshire has broken her leg horseback...