Author: Ginger Bolton
Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital book
ISBN #: 9781496725561
Kensington Publishing
256 Pages
$15.95; $9.99 Amazon
August 25, 2020
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October 31st is just around the corner and Emily Westhill's Boston cream donuts, carved with a scream, have made an indelible impression on local eccentric Rich Royalson. So much so that he's ordered three dozen, with no screaming faces and twice the fudge frosting, for his seventieth birthday -- a special event in more ways than one. It's to be held on fog-shrouded Lake Fleekdom where, twenty years ago, his wife mysteriously drowned.
But the next day, when Emily arrives with her Boston cream donuts, she stumbles upon Rich's corpse. The poor guy wanted a unique birthday bash -- just not one to side of his skull. With a guest list of possible perpetrators left at the scene, Emily soon discovers that the Royalson closet is rattling with skeletons. As the fog thickens, motives mount, and the tricks outnumber the treats, Emily fears that Rich may not be the last one in Fallingbrook to go out screaming.
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Emily Westhill, a young police detective's widow, owns and runs Deputy Donuts (named after her beloved cat), along with her father-in-law Tom. When a man shows up and starts raving to other men about how great Boston is, it seems that's all he wants to talk about. But Emily discovers that he's there for a date with her friend Cheryl, who is one of the single women in the Knitpickers, a group of older women who come in daily to knit, eat, and chat.
Before Cheryl shows up, the man identifies himself as Rich Royalson, and asks Emily if she'd cater donuts for his seventieth birthday party in a few days, and tells her where she should bring them -- out to nearby Lake Fleekdom where he has a home. But when Emily arrives, she finds everything set up for a party, including food from a local caterer...and the body of Rich. Now, with her friend Cheryl involved, an old girlfriend of Rich's, even neighbors who might have a grudge against the man, she needs to find out who killed him and what would drive someone to do so.
Standing in her way is the fact that she's planning a Halloween costume party at her home, friends trying to push her toward her late husband's partner, Brent, and she has a business to run. It doesn't leave a lot of time for her to think about killers, but Emily wants to know the truth, even if it's closer than she might ever imagine...
This is the fourth book in the series and I absolutely loved the third, so couldn't wait to get to this one. But there was something that bothered me, so I guess I'd better get it out there right away: Emily is insisting she's only friends with Brent, and she still loves her late husband. I get that. I really do. But her husband, Alec, has been gone for six years, and she was married to him for four. So he's been gone longer than they were wed, and even if that sounds cold, perhaps it's time she moved on with her life. She's only thirty-one years old, and she needs to think if Alec would want her to mourn him forever. Would he want her living alone? Having no one in her life? Or would he want her happy with someone new? After all, if you've happily loved once, it's easier to love again (at least I've always believed so).
Emily is still living in a relationship that's gone, and she's not willing to move into one with anyone else. I'd much rather read that she's starting to realize her life isn't over, and while Alec will always be a part of her, it would be more interesting to read about her if she were moving on. Right now she's stagnant in her life, even if she doesn't know it.
So there, I've made my point. As to the rest of the book, the mystery was excellent, as always. I enjoy the characters the book is peopled with, and I enjoyed the fact that it took place at Halloween, so we got to see what everyone's costumes were (which always give an idea of someone's personality). Emily's friends are always there for her, and they make the book more enticing to read.
Finding the killer gave us plenty of suspects, and even though I pretty much knew who it was from the moment that person stepped onto the page (I read a lot of mysteries), it was still fun watching Emily figure it out; and even more fun watching her get out of a sticky situation with the killer. In the end, everything came together nicely, and, I am hoping, leading us toward another chapter in her life. Recommended.
More on Ginger Bolton's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ginger-bolton/
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