Friday, December 3, 2010

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder- By: Joanne Fluke

Hannah Swensen runs a successful bakery, called The Cookie Jar, in the small town of Lake Eden. The town is the stereotypical small town where nothing exciting ever happens. In fact the only exciting thing in Hannah's life is avoiding talking to her mother, Delores, who fixes her up with every man in town. However, that will all change when she finds herself caught in a sticky situation.

When she is taking her garbage into the alley behind her store, she discovers her beloved milk man and friend, Ron LaSalle, dead in his truck and a bag of her chocolate chip crunches in his seat. Determined not to have her cookies get a bad reputation, she tries to track down the killer. Could it be the owner of the dairy, a local dentist, or the richest family in Lake Eden? Hannah needs to be careful with her undercover investigation or she might be next.

Questions

1. In the novel Hannah breaks into places to find out information. Do you think that it is right for her to break the law and risk her life to find the killer?

2. If someone close to you was murdered, what extremes would you go to to find the killer?



14 comments:

Brandon Messner said...

1. I do not think that Hannah is right to be breaking the law in order to find the killer. As a cookie chef, it is outside both her realm of jurisdiction and her realm of experience. Even though she cares very much for this...uh...milkman, she should not get involved.

2. If someone close to me was murdered, I would not go to any far extremes to find the killer. I have a mindset that is more like "what is done is done". Even if I were to find the killer of my close one, my revenge would not bring my loved one back to life. (Also I would not feel at all inclined to pursue the killer of my MILKMAN.)

Leah K. 7-8 said...

1. It might be right for her since it was her friend that was killed but that probably wasn't the best way to find the killer. She is breaking the law ands if she gets caught then she won't be able to find the killer at all.
2. If someone close to me was killed I would do anything to find who killed them but I would try and find the person without breaking the law.

Heather B. 1-2 said...

1.) As bad as it is to condone any and all illegal activity, Hannah seems to be breaking into places for all the right reasons. She wants to find the person responsible for the death of her friend. It was still wrong, but not nearly as bad as being a killer.

2.) Finding the killer, though it may bring some satisfaction, will not bring closure or bring the person back from the dead. I would try and let the police do their jobs and not interfere.

Sarah N. 7-8 said...

I agree with what people are saying, as Brandon said, it is not her area to track down a killer. However, as Heather said it is difficult to just let go of your friend's death and just let the police find the killer. I think that unfortunately in this world people feel the need to find some sort of revenge after their friend's death (even if it doesn't bring them closure).

Unknown said...

1. I also agree with everyone. It is not Hannah's responsibility to break the law and risk her life to find the killer.

Laura P 7-8 said...

1. I do not think it is right for her to break into places to get information, she should really just let the police handle the murder.

Hannah J. 7-8 said...

1.i most certainly understand her trying to protect her cookies namesake and trying to figure out the death of a friend. while it may be wrong the way she figures out the information, there are other ways. but she should be applauded for her courageous efforts to find out as much as she can.
2.i would probably keep my ears open, maybe go after the killer a few times and pester the police

Andrew C 7-8 said...

2. I think that if someone close to me was murdered, I would do all I could to find out what happened. It would bug me to not know how they died and I would want justice.

Miranda R. 7-8 said...

I do not think it was right for her to break the law to find the killer. She was more worried about her cookies' reputation than about justice. She should have left it to the police.

Natesa W. 7-8 said...

1. I think that it was okay that she broke the law, because she was doing it to catch a murderer. She was just trying to stop him from striking again.
2. I would go very far to try to find the killer and I would do anything in my power. I would break minor laws, but I would not go crazy and break all the laws in our society.

Nicole H. 7-8 said...

1. I think it was ok for her to break the law in order to find a killer because, obviously, they broke the law as well.
2. If someone close to me was murdered I would do everything possible to try to catch the killer. However, I think the police could do more than I could so I would be sure to contact them.

Lindsay S. 7-8 said...

1. I think it was okay for her to break the law. If she's going to try to catch murderers then go for it.
2. If someone close to me was murdered I would try my best to help find the killer. Although I probably could not do much I would most definatly contact the police for the investigation to go further.

Millie W. 7/8 said...

1) Carp Diem. If you want to throw away your life and ruin it go for it. Although that might be a bit too extreme. On the other hand she won't get anywhere if she follows the law like a good girl does.
2) Umm none. Revenge, or justice whatever term you would like to use, is fine and all, but it ruins your life. It only breeds anger, fear, and hate and you won't be able to get past that part of your life.

Mrs. Sherwood said...

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