Central Kansas Library System

When one of her famous Red Velvet cupcakes is thought to have caused the death of her rival--a scandalous Lake Eden legend who was trying to steal her boyfriend--Hannah Swensen becomes the unlikely suspect in a murder investigation and must whip up the real killer before someone else gets iced.

Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar bake shop, is surprised by the news that her companion, Norman Rhodes, is buying a house. Soon after Hannah and her mother arrive to clear out the house, they discover the dead body of the former owner, Rhonda Scharf, along with some of Hannah's famous lemon meringue pie. Hannah must switch her baker's hat for her sleuthing cap and get to the bottom of this puzzling mystery.

"In 1910, Signe, her husband, and their boys emigrate from Norway to Minnesota, dreaming of one day owning a farm of their own. But the relatives they've come to stay with are harsh and demanding. As Signe's family is worked to the bone to repay the cost of their voyage, can she learn to trust God through this trial and hold on to hope for a better future?"--

"When Chantel's sister falls in love with a sworn enemy in the their 1890s iron-mining community, will Chantel's attempts to aid the couple result in a romance of her own?"--Provided by publisher.

Rumour has it that "Lunatic Larry" Jaeger is in the red--an idea that takes a sinister turn when Hannah discovers the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office. It seems quite a few people would have liked to fill Larry's stocking with coal and then bash him with it. With so many suspects to investigate and the twelve days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah's running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn't want her to see the New...

John Tollefson, a son of Lake Wobegon, has moved East to manage a radio station at a college for academically challenged children of financially gifted parents in upstate New York. Having achieved this pleasant perch, John has a brilliant idea for a restaurant specializing in fresh sweet corn. And he falls in love with an historian named Alida Freeman, hard at work on a book about a nineteenth-century Norwegian naturopath, an acquaintance of Lincoln,...

Browerville, Minnesota, is the setting of "Then Came Heaven," a novel of nostalgia for small towns, for the descendants of the Polish immigrants who settled such towns, and for the love of church life. As Spencer's tale begins, the year is 1950. The day is cast in the warm glow of early September as two railroad engineers debate then-current politics. But as their train approaches a crossing at Browerville, something terrible is about to happen. Krystyna...

When it comes to holidays, Minnesotans rise to the occasion - and the little town of Lake Eden is baking up a storm with Hannah Swensen leading the way. The annual Christmas Buffet is the final test of Hannah's recipes before publication. The recently divorced Martin Dubinski arrives at the buffet with his new Vegas showgirl wife. And when Hannah's mother's antique cake knife shows up in Mrs. Dubinski's décolletage, it puts the festivities on ice....

Small-town librarian Kathleen Paulson must rely on the magical abilities of her felines, Owen and Hercules, to solve the senseless murder of Agatha Shepherd, a seemingly kind-hearted elderly woman.

"The Midwestern Cat Fanciers' Organization is bringing its annual weeklong retreat to Merryville, Minnesota. While that's perfect for Izzy's business, it unleashes headaches for everyone else. The event has lots of workshops on the care and breeding of cats, and it culminates in a cat show with a fabulous prize--a platinum collar dangle worth some big bucks. Cattiness, of course, ensues. But the claws really come out after the prize disappears, and...