Quotes from Joanne Fluke

Next to coffee, chocolate was her favorite aroma.

Hannah? Tell me you didn't…" Delores paused to clear her throat, and when she spoke again, she sounded very tentative. "Did you?" "I'm afraid I did, Mother. I found Lucy last night." "Hannah! You've simply got to stop doing things like this!" "It's not like a scavenger hunt, Mother. I don't go around looking for murder victims on purpose." Hannah realized she sounded

P.S. If it's not a secret, will you tell me how you got my dollhouse inside our living room last Christmas? I know it's too big to fit down the chimney. I measured.

Conversation over coffee tended to be candid and invited confidences.

ORANGE JULIUS 3 cups orange juice 1 envelope dry Dream Whip (the kind that makes 2 cups) 1 package dry vanilla pudding (the kind that makes 2 cups) 3 more cups orange juice Pour the orange juice into a blender. Add the dry Dream Whip and the dry pudding. Blend it for one minute on low and another minute on medium speed.   Pour the mixture in a 2-quart pitcher. Add another 3 cups of orange juice and stir well.   Serve over ice.   Yield: Makes almost 2 quarts.

You can't be nervous and amused at the same time. They're both powerful emotions and one overrides the other. If your sense of humor kicks in, you lose your case of nerves…at least according to the professor who taught the psychology class I took in college.

The next time you come to the Cookie Jar, the coffee's on me. You could probably bottle that stuff of yours and sell it for rat poison.

No, but it's almost as bad as that. I need to calm down, Hannah. Do you have any chocolate?" "You've come to the house of endorphins, the source of the Dark Chocolate River, the heart of the Milk Chocolate Valley, and the foothills of the White Chocolate Mountains.

Michelle's Note: When I make these at my rented house just off the Macalester campus, I put the rolls in a box and write "FROZEN KIDNEYS FOR HANNAH'S CAT" on the box. So far, none of my roommates, every one of them a cookie hound, has ever opened the box to see what's inside.

Chocolate's not seasonal. It's good any time of the year. Chocolate's like oxygen. It's elemental.

It seemed that people could walk through life without causing a ripple, leading ordinary and uneventful lives. It was only after they'd been murdered that people took notice of them.

I can be nice on occasion, Mike said.

Pack them into a small round mold, or form a ball and flatten it to resemble a hockey puck (or a baby Brie if you're not from Minnesota and into winter sports.)

She skinned her hair back into a ponytail, a style she knew was probably too young for her, but she planned to drive with her windows open and she could ditch the elastic band once she got to the lake.

Thunder sounded again, low and rumbling like the growl of some predatory beast. Hannah

Then she went into the living room to turn the thermostat down to an energy-saving sixty-five degrees, flicked on the television to keep Moishe company

you didn't intend to hit him, but you did hit him and he died as a result. Unfortunately in this case, whenever that happens there are consequences.

laughed and so did Hannah. They were

Yes, and the

hour after church services on Sunday." "No problem," Hannah said, heading off to the

Deeply and soundly. Doc gave me something to help me sleep and I didn't even know that I was taking it. It knocked me out for a solid eight hours and that's the most sleep I've had in weeks.

When Tracy was three she looked up at her aunt and asked, Why don't we have dessert for breakfast?

Hannah's Note: If you can't find salted pecans, buy plain pecans. Measure out ½ cup of pieces, heat them in the microwave or the oven until they're hot and then toss them with 2 Tablespoons of melted, salted butter. Sprinkle on ¼ teaspoon of salt, toss again, and you have salted pecan pieces.

A book is your friend, and you don't break a friend's back.