Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, but it also has many interesting books. In this series, we are sharing some of the books we like from Minnesota, or Minnesota authors.

We are mapping our literary journey around Minnesota, so you can see all the interesting places where our books are set. Follow our progress on our Google Map, accessible by clicking that link or searching for the title CMLE Reads Across Minnesota! (This book takes place in a fictional town, so we have dropped the pin for this book on Virgil Flowers’ hometown of Mankato.)

You know those books that you have to read ASAP? John Sandford’s  books are some of those for me! I love reading his Prey series, staring smart, rich, tough-as-nails Lucas Davenport; and this spinoff series staring Virgil Flowers is just as fun. I always pre-order these on Audible.com, to make sure they arrive for me before I wake up on publishing day. Yes, I’m a fan! I started reading these books long before I moved to Minnesota, and it’s so fun to finally see for  myself the places they visit in the books.

I’ve been waiting for this book for a while now, counting down the days until it published. And it (finally!) arrived Tuesday! I have not finished it yet –  I want to draw this out somewhat until the next book comes along. But so far, it is just a fun as the rest of this series.  Do you need a fix of Virgil Flowers? Start with the first book in the series, and go from there: Dark of the Moon (Virgil Flowers #1).

Deep Freeze (A Virgil Flowers book), by John Sandford “Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt—and as it turned out, homicidal—local school board, and now the town’s back in view with more alarming news: A woman’s been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There’s a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of twenty years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, and so, wrapping his coat a little tighter, Virgil begins to dig into twenty years’ worth of traumas, feuds, and bad blood. In the process, one thing becomes increasingly clear to him. It’s true what they say: High school is murder.”

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, but it also has many interesting books. In this series, we are sharing some of the books we like from Minnesota, or Minnesota authors.

We are mapping our literary journey around Minnesota, so you can see all the interesting places where our books are set. Follow our progress on our Google Map, accessible by clicking that link or searching for the title CMLE Reads Across Minnesota!

At CMLE HQ there are certain inalienable truths that we hold dear. One of them is that we love books. The other one is that we are big fans of baked goods! So discovering this series was a great thing. Cookies, cozy mysteries – great stuff!! Fortunately for all of us who like cozy mysteries, baked goods, and fun reading – there are 21 books out so far, with #22 scheduled for publication next year.  Feel free to try out the many recipes in these books. And, of course, if you want to drop off some results at CMLE HQ – we are very open to that!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery, Book #1) “No one cooks up a delectable, suspense-filled mystery quite like Hannah Swensen, Joanne Fluke’s dessert-baking, red-haired heroine whose gingersnaps are as tart as her comebacks, and whose penchant for solving crimes–one delicious clue at a time–has made her a bestselling favorite. And it all began on these pages, with a bakery, a murder, and some suddenly scandalous chocolate-chip crunchies. Featuring a bonus short story and brand new, mouthwatering recipes, this new edition of the very first Hannah Swensen mystery is sure to have readers coming back for seconds. . .

Hannah already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother’s attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden’s most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah’s famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can’t get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer. But if she doesn’t watch her back, Hannah’s sweet life may get burned to a crisp.”

Quick Google map note: These books are set in the fictional location of Lake Eden, MN. As with our other fictional locations, we are locating them in a reasonable real place. In this case, we are mapping them in Joanne Fluke’s hometown of Swanville, MN.

Do you have other Minnesota books you can recommend? Send in your book and some discussion about it, and we will add it into a future weekly recommendation series!