Genre: Mystery
Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496711915
Kensington Publishing
276 Pages
$10.29; $9.78 Amazon
August 27, 2019
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It is a truth universally acknowledged -- cops and donuts go together. Exhibit A: Deputy Donut Café, owned and operated by detective's widow Emily Westhill and her father-in-law, the retired police chief of Fallingbrook, Wisconsin. Named after Emily's adored and adorable tabby, the donut shop is a favorite among cops, firemen, and EMTs, as well as tourists and townspeople. So when Fallingbrook needs donuts for their Fourth of July picnic, Emily's shop gets deputized.
But a twisted killer has found another use for Emily's treats. At the picnic, a firecracker is hidden in a stack of raspberry-filled donuts and aimed at the unwitting queen of the festivities. When it explodes, she is killed. Having her jelly donuts involved puts Emily in a sticky situation, and when a shady shutterbug tires to frame her with incriminating photos, she finds herself in quite a jam. To preserve her freedom and her shop's reputation, Emily needs to solve this case -- before the fuse-lighting felon goes off again...
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Emily Westhill is the young widow of a cop who was killed in the line of duty. She now runs a donut shop along with her father-in-law, Tom, and is fairly happy with the life she's created for herself in the last five years since his death. Right now she's creating donuts to sell at the Fourth of July picnic, and also gets to drive her "donut car," -- an old 1950s police car that has a giant donut on top -- in the parade while escorting the king and queen of the Fabulous Fourth Festivities. But when queen Taylor arrives late, she refuses to ride in the old car, so Emily finds herself escorting the duke and duchess, who love the car. Emily can't help but notice that Taylor isn't nice, and neither is the duchess, who is supposed to be her best friend,
When Emily returns to the shop, she notices something else: that her young employee Jocelyn disappears every time an oily-looking photographer comes into the shop, especially when he's taking pictures of his surroundings. Asking her about it, she admits to nothing, so Emily lets it go. But later on at the fireworks, Emily sees her own donuts being used to set off a firework - aimed directly at Taylor's back. She yells at Taylor and her date to run, but neither hear her, and the firework hits her. So when Emily is later accused of being the one who rigged it, she needs to figure out who really killed the woman and why. Otherwise, Emily might find herself in the line of fire herself...
This is the third book in the series and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more than the first two. Not that there was anything wrong with them; but they did have the 'evil nemesis,' and I do so abhor that situation in any book. Personally, I feel that there's no need for one at all to make a book interesting, and this book proves that to be true.
Emily is unfairly accused, so naturally she wants to find out who's trying to frame her and the reason why. Knowing who, is easy, but the why not so much. She also wants to find out who killed Taylor, and she knows enough not to go around blindly accusing people of murder without gathering all the information she can, which she proceeds to do admirably.
In the meantime, her matchmaking skills have been tested with her friends, and everything seems to be working out, while they are trying to match her with her late husband's partner Brent Fyne, which she is fighting with everything she has, telling herself she doesn't want a relationship again. She's also trying to figure out where her parents are, and why they haven't arrived at their campsite which they pay for year round at the RV park. But the big thing concerning her is why Jocelyn leaves the room every time a certain photographer enters, but won't tell her the reason; then when she disappears altogether, Emily starts to get worried.
So what ensues next is the heart of the book: the climax brings us to quite an unusual one: finding Jocelyn, the killer, and perhaps even more -- and hoping she can reach her friends in time for help. If not, she'll need to depend upon her own skills to save her life, which might not be enough...in the end, when the murderer is discovered, I honestly thought the person was deranged to have such a reason, but who knows how the mind of a killer works? I am also looking forward to reading the next in the series, since I have come to enjoy it so much that I read this in one night. Recommended.
More on Ginger Bolton's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ginger-bolton/
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