Best Served Cold: A Hannah Swensen Mystery

At The Cookie Jar, Hannah juggles baking, deliveries, and her usual small-town detective work while the Golden Ticket counterfeit-coin case dominates local gossip. She is already helping with a fraud matter tied to Paul and Mitzi Jacobson when a separate concern lands on her doorstep: Lucas Straub, a lawyer connected to the case, has vanished, and his wife Danielle is increasingly worried because his absences are usually brief and predictable. Hannah visits Danielle and starts looking for clues about Lucas's habits and whereabouts. The search quickly turns more serious when Hannah and Chad follow leads to a cigar shop connected to the Golden Ticket operation and discover Paul Jacobson's body inside. With no immediate sign of a struggle, the death is initially ambiguous, but the police soon suspect murder. Hannah notices odd details, including the word "Malvern," references to cigars, and a pattern of behavior around Lucas's disappearances that suggests he may have been hiding something. As the investigation continues, Hannah and Chad trace Lucas to a golf-course guest room and uncover that his laptop has been dumped in the lake. That discovery makes Lucas's disappearance look less like a simple walkabout and more like a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence. Chad also learns that Lucas may have been taking bribes and gambling, which puts his credibility and his career in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Danielle's increasingly suspicious behavior, new purchases, and evasive answers make her look more connected to the fraud than she first appears. The legal pressure intensifies in court as the Golden Ticket case moves forward. Mitzi Jacobson takes the stand, and Hannah observes how the trial’s details, especially the evidence from the baking side of her life, may connect to the murder. The death of Paul Jacobson appears to involve poisoning, and the question becomes whether someone used his known tree-nut allergy to kill him. Hannah keeps comparing the courtroom evidence with the food clues she knows how to read, eventually noticing that a chocolate cheesecake exhibit contains almonds deliberately mixed into the crust. In the climax, Hannah testifies as an expert and explains how the cheesecake evidence shows almonds were added by hand, supporting the theory that the dessert was tampered with on purpose. That insight, combined with the financial fraud evidence and Lucas's confession that he sabotaged his own laptop to protect himself from the case’s fallout, helps the courtroom piece together the broader scheme. By the end, Hannah's testimony cracks the case open, Lucas is found alive, and the town celebrates her as she helps expose the truth behind the murder and the counterfeit-coin conspiracy.