This is a collection of three Christmas murder mysteries, written by three popular female mystery writers. I think my favorite would have to be Candy Cane Murder. When Santa turns up dead, everyone is shocked and horrified. I finished the book in a couple of hours and enjoyed all three stories very much.

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candy cane murder is a very enjoyable book

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Great additon to all the series and great recipes.

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Very good. I love every book I've read write by Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier.

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Enjoyed this book by the three authors. I think I liked "Candy Canes of Christmas Past" by Leslie Meier the most. I've read almost all of the Lucy Stone series, this one takes the reader back to the early days when Lucy and Bill had just moved to Tinker's Cove. Toby is a two year old and Lucy is pregnant with Elizabeth. How and under what circumstances did they meet all the regulars like Miss Tilley, Sue French, Rachel Goodman, etc. are explained. Great background info.

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I love all of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen books. This one was no different, although a short story it was just as funny and inventive as her others. I had never read works by the other two authors and am currently in the middle of Laura Levine's story and can already say that I will be looking for other books by her. With the weather being how is has been lately (cold, gloomy, sometimes snowy and rainy)a good mystery is a great thing to curl up with.

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I have read all of JoAnne Fluke's books and love them after reading this book I have started reading all of Leslie Meier's books and Laura Levine's books. I find myself laughing out loud at times and the mysteries are not predictable and I find the characters ones I can relate to.

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I really liked the Hannah Swenson story but could not get into the others at all.

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I really enjoy this series. Good plots, easy read.

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Picked this book up for Joanne Fluke, the other two authors were a first for me. I really enjoyed Leslie Meier's story but didn't care too much for the Laura Levine story. I found myself getting a little bored at times with that one but finished it anyway. I will be reading more from Leslie Meier however.

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All of Joanne Fluke's books are good. If you want to sit down with a light-hearted good time book this is your author. I love her books. They are quick and easy to read and best of all, entertaining.

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Great book by great authors!!

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I really loved all three stories. I read it this summer, which is a little out of season, but enjoyed it very much. All of them were complex enough that they kept you guessing regarding the solution, but they had enough humor not to be heavy or depressing. I found the recipes very delicious sounding, but didn't test any of them (there are several). I definitely would recommend it!

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Do you want to get in the holiday mood? This book is compilation of 3 novels, a Christmas recipe card with Candy cane bar cookies and ten Christmas recipes.Also, posts don my bookshelf by Joanna Fluke Id "Red Velvet Cupcake nurders".

I enjoyed reading these three stories by my favorite cozy mystery authors.
"Candy Cane Murder" -- this was a lot of fun and as usual, I love the recipes. I missed Moishe, Hannah's cat, though. I love all of his antics.
"The Dangers of Candy Canes" -- I love Jaine and her sense of humor (and how she tries so hard to resist great food, but ends up caving). I liked Angel's character and how she and Jaine finally bonded, sort of. Jaine's cat, Prozac's, thoughts are pretty funny, although not quite as snarky as they were in other books.
"Candy Canes of Christmas Past" -- I liked all of the stories, but this was my favorite. I loved going back to 1983 and reading how the heroine and her husband moved from New York City to Maine and tried to fix up the old farm house they bought. I loved meeting the characters from the author's other books and the small-town Maine setting. Plus the mystery about the town librarian's parents was interesting.

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I really enjoyed the first and last stories in this book, but the middle story centered on a silly, under-developed character. My favorite cookie recipe does come from this book though and I love Hannah Swensen.

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Enjoyed this book. Once again Hannah to the rescue!

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Product Description
`Tis the season for trimming the tree, caroling, baking cookies, and curling up by the Yuletide waiting for Santa to drop down the chimney. But in this festive collection of holiday whodunits, murder is also paying a visit...
"Candy Cane Murder" by Joanne Fluke


Bakery owner Hannah Swensen feels a little stuffed in her elf costume--but it's too late to count calories. Lake Eden's annual Christmas gala is upon her and eager children are waiting. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of Bergstrom's Department Store, happily ho-ho-hos his way through the festivities in his Santa suit. But when a trail of candy canes leads to his corpse in a snow bank, Hannah must find Kris Kringle's killer.


"The Dangers of Candy Canes" by Laura Levine


When a wealthy suburbanite takes a lethal tumble off his roof while installing a giant candy cane, the roofing contractor being held responsible for murder asks freelance writer Jaine Austen to investigate. But solving this untimely holiday death means delving into the cutthroat Christmas decorating wars among scheming neighbors with dirty secrets in their stocking. It takes a fruitcake hiding a weapon and a stunning confrontation to expose the mastermind of this holiday murder.


"Candy Canes of Christmas Past" by Leslie Meier


Twenty-some years ago, Lucy Stone arrived in Tinker Cove, Maine, and discovered her knack for solving mysteries when she met Miss Tilly, the town librarian, whose mother took a fatal fall down the basement stairs one Christmas Eve. The "accident" left a cloud of suspicion on Miss Tilly's father and a slew of other suspects. The only clue was a glass candy cane found smashed to bits by the victim's body. Now Lucy must learn the mystery of the glass candy cane as she unlocks the doors of Christmas past, exposing secrets, scandal, and a killer who got away with murder.


Whether a gift for yourself or that special someone on your list, there's no better way to spend the holidays than with these tantalizing mysteries of murder...


Includes over 15 scrumptious holiday recipes!


Santa gets bludgeoned, neighbors knock neighbors off their light-festooned roofs and householders nearly blow themselves into next year cooking Yule dinner in this triple-decker helping of holiday cheer.


Fluke gives her regular sleuth the starring role in the saga of Santa's sad demise. Hannah Swenson finds skinflint department-store magnate Wayne Bergstrom with his neck broken after playing St. Nick at the Lake Eden Inn's gala. Even her boyfriend, Detective Mike Kingston, knows Hannah's going to investigate, although he tells her for the record to leave it to the professionals. Levine's Jaine Austen, a freelance writer who can resist anything but temptation, is in a holiday tizzy trying to clear Seymour Fiedler, proud proprietor of "Fiedler on the Roof Roofers," of the charge that he doctored the roofing tiles that led to irascible Garth Janken's untimely demise. And Meier takes Lucy Stone back in time, as Christmas with her grandson Patrick reminds her of her first Christmas in Tinker's Cove. Their house on Red Top Road was a mess, she was pregnant with her second child and her husband Bill tried to fix the pilot light on their cantankerous stove, causing an explosion that burned his arms. When librarian Julia Tilley comes to her rescue, Lucy in return tackles the mysterious death of Miss Tilley's mother.

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I am a huge fan of Joanne Fluke. Unfortunately this book contains three short stories...and only one is written by Joanne Fluke. All three were fun and amusinf...but I like full stories...not short stories...so I was a little dissapointed.

I miss having all of Fluke's recipes...which by the way are ALWAYS awesome!

so - it was a quick and enjoyable read...but i was expecting a full length story

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Candy Cane Murder/Joanne Fluke: I was not impressed. The negative: Hannah mustn't eat the cheeseburger or the cookie or the... Of course she does eat it and more. Her weight complaints were annoying. At least this story actually revolved around a murder mystery. This includes 10 recipes.

The Dangers of Candy Canes/Laura Levine: REALLY BAD I couldn't get past the first few chapters. What happened to the murder mystery? Jaine Austin (what an insult) is constantly mentioning her elastic waist pants. Another lead character who focuses too much on her weight. She decides to join a big sister type of organization and is set up with a brat of kid. That was as much as I could take. This does not include recipes and it even refers to this fact and the author/main character of the first story.

Candy Canes of Christmas Past/Leslie Meier: This was the only good story in the book. I'll be looking for more by this author. The characters are well developed. The murder mystery is an integral part of the story and is resolved in an unusual way. This includes two recipes.

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Candy CAne Murder - Three murder mysxteries involving candy canes iin some way. There are sad parts, beyond the murder which is always sad!, and funny parts and romatic parts, light romance,. All around I completely enjoyed the book.

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Okay-not the best stories ever-but light and amusing enough.

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Another great cozy mystery.

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