Lake Eden, Wisconsin is a beautiful small town and Hannah Swensen runs “The Cookie Jar”, a beautiful little bakery in the middle of town. When a major Hollywood producer decides to film a movie in Lake Eden and use most of the townspeople as extras, with some even getting small talking parts, the town is turned upside down.
At first it is exciting and fun, but when near the end of filming the director demonstrates how to capture the emotion and character of the leading man when he commits suicide and the pistol turns out to be loaded things get ugly. Instead of a demonstration the producer/director does in fact commit his own suicide. But, of course it was not intended so it was murder instead of suicide.
Hannah and her three sisters embark on the task of finding out who substituted the loaded revolver with the stage prop revolver. Was the Director the intended victim or was the leading man the intended victim? The Director was a real serious womanizer and had mad passes at almost every woman in town. Did one of them or one of the husbands do it or did the Director’s wife, fed up with his philandering decide she had enough and off him? Or how about Winnie, the farm owner who refused to allow the director to use her memorial park?
Hannah and her sisters look for clues hoping the murderer had made a mistake somewhere while the filming continues to complete the movie. Read “The Cherry Cheesecake Murder” and you will be caught by surprise when you learn the identify of the murderer. I give this one, which is full of great cookie recipes, a 7 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
