FAIRHOPE, Ala. — If you have a sweet tooth, you have probably found a way to have your cake and eat it too, to use an old phrase. However, if you haven’t yet discovered a way to have your cake and read it too, you might want to try “Cream Puff Murder,” by Joanne Fluke.

No novice when it comes to mixing tasty concoctions and mystery plots, this is Fluke’s 11th offering in the Hannah Swensen mystery with recipes series. She has discovered a winning combination and continues to enchant readers with murder and mayhem in one hand and a lip-smacking recipe in the other. Anyone familiar with these books will want to grab this latest installment. Anyone who hasn’t is encouraged to try one. Then try and stop with just one; isn’t that the way with cookies?

In “Cream Puff Murder,” Hannah Swensen, the loveable, down-to-earth heroine of the series , finds herself facing that dilemma most women deal with at least once in their lives: the have-to-lose-weight-right-now situation. The veteran cookie creator and owner of The Cookie Jar bakery and coffee shop, has sampled a few too many of her delectable creations. When she tries on a period costume gown she is to wear to the launch party for her mother’s new Regency romance novel, Hannah discovers that even the use of a pastry tube won’t squeeze her into the special dress she is to wear in just two weeks.

Her ever-svelte sister, Andrea, swiftly takes her in hand with a diet and exercise program that will accomplish the goal, but includes a no- pain, no-gain factor. As if baking all day and not sampling your handiwork wasn’t painful enough, incorporate daily early morning workouts at a health spa, where all the slim-and-trim ladies hang out, and you can empathize with our red-headed baker.

Hannah soon has more on her mind than leaving her beloved cat, Moishe, dragging herself into the frigid, morning Minnesota winter air for the drive to Heavenly Bodies Spa. As she heads to the Jacuzzi after her workout to soak out exercise kinks, she discovers the body of Ronni Ward, spa fitness instructor and local femme fatale, floating in the bubbling water as well as a plate of Hannah’s mini-cream puffs strewn on the floor nearby.

The small community of Lake Eden soon contains a mixing bowl full of murder suspects, including Hannah’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Mike, which adds a new wrinkle to her love life. Although she’s not a trained crime-fighter, this is not Hannah’s first brush with murder. And once again, she unofficially jumps in, adding crime solving to her busy schedule at the bakery and with family and friends.

If you like mysteries without the nail-biting, roller-coaster pace of many suspense novels, and you like cookies, you will enjoy nibbling your way through this book. Don’t be surprised if you soon find yourself in the kitchen whipping up one of the 22 recipes that intersperse the chapters. I can personally verify that each one I’ve tried is a winner.