Joanne Fluke

Joanne Fischmann (neé Gibson, born c. 1943 in Swanville, Minnesota) is an American writer, using the pen name Joanne Fluke. She is best known for her cozy mystery series surrounding a small-town baker, Hannah Swensen.Four movies for the Hallmark Channel have been created based on her Hannah Swensen series. Fluke is also known for making chocolate chip cookies for her readers. Fluke has written under the pseudonyms John Fischer, R.J. Fischer, Jo Gibson, Chris Hunter, Gina Jackson and Kathyrn Kirkwood.

Fluke was born to Cliff and Esther Gibson in c. 1943 in Swanville, Minnesota. She graduated from Swanville High School in 1960, attended St. Cloud State University and earned a B.A. in psychology, in 1973, from California State University, San Bernardino.

Fluke has been baking since she was a child and comes from a long line of bakers.

According to the author's website, "While pursuing her writing career, Joanne has worked as a public school teacher, a psychologist, a musician, a private detective’s assistant, a corporate, legal, and pharmaceutical secretary, a short-order cook, a florist’s assistant, a caterer and party planner, a computer consultant on a now-defunct operating system, a production assistant on a TV quiz show, half of a screenwriting team with her husband, and a mother, wife, and homemaker."

Fluke is married to television writer Ruel E. Fischmann and lives with her husband, children and stepchildren in Southern California.

In the 1980s, Fluke began writing young adult horror stories under the name Jo Gibson.

Fluke began writing her cozy mystery series starring Hannah Swensen, an "amateur sleuth and baker" in 2000. The idea for the series came out of Fluke's desire to create a cookbook, and her editor's suggestion that she write a cozy mystery series. Fluke combined the two ideas by including recipes in the series. Hannah Swensen lives in a small Minnesota town and Fluke feels that the stories are a welcome escape from reality.Library Journal writes that the depiction of the story in Cinnamon Roll Murder is so natural, it is difficult to remember that the characters are fictional.Booklist praised her plot-twists in Devil's Food Cake Murder. Her most recent book, Wedding Cake Murder, sees Swensen getting married and solving a crime in the same story.

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