When Hannah Swensen takes a trip to California with her mother to help a friend pack up and move back to Lake Eden, she isn’t expecting to get the phone call that sends her racing home from the warm and sunny west coast to frigid Minnesota.

Detective Lonnie Murphy, her sister’s boyfriend and Hannah’s friend, has been accused of murder. And the evidence is stacked up against him. Lonnie was out at a bar and helped a very impaired woman get home safely, but he remembers nothing after he got her home and helped her to her bedroom…until he wakes up the next morning, checks on her and discovers her dead.

Hannah and friends are soon hard at work trying to unravel the mystery and prove Lonnie’s innocence in the woman’s murder.

It’s very good to have Hannah back on the case with a new mystery to solve. Even as she works on clearing Lonnie, some hints are revealed about Ross’ puzzling background. Hannah is beginning to rebuild her life in Coconut Layer Cake Murder, even as the mytery around Lonnie unfolds.

4 stars