A Deputy Donut Mystery Book 10
Author: Ginger Bolton
Genre: Mystery
Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496749635
Kensington Cozies
304 Pages
$17.95; $9.99 Amazon
August 26, 2025
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With Emily Westhill's popular Deputy Donut Cafe rolling out seasonal summer treats, everyone in Fallingbrook, Wisconsin wants a taste. But when a limited batch box turns up near a dead body, Emily and her curious tabby are pitted against the worst kind of customer -- a cold-blooded murderer!
Emily feels like a protective big sister around bubbly twenty-something Izzy -- a new regular whose enthusiasm for peaches and cream donuts is surpassed only by her dream to start her own business. As if blown in by an August breeze, Izzy pulls Emily into her plan to buy a property at the edge of town to grow and sell fresh produce. But she's not the only fan of Deputy Donut's peachy delights...or the only patron vying to own the lush parcel of land. And the competition is fiercer than the two women imagined...
Petty squabbles turn deadly when a developer with a mean streak is found murdered on the vacant stretch of land. Worse, Emily's signature donuts are spotted nearby, leading to several potential suspects who could have left their sugar-frosted fingerprints all over the crime scene -- including the mayor, a handsome, out-of-towner, and even sweet-to-the-core Izzy. When her detective husband discovers poisonous ingredients in the discarded desserts, a shocked Emily must reveal holes in a collection of very fuzzy facts and nab the killer before someone else takes their last bite.
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Emily Fyne owns Deputy Donut, along with her late husband's father, Tom Westhill. They've built the business up, and are doing well. One morning someone from Emily's past turns up, a young woman named Izzy who remembered Emily being kind to her when she was a child. But Emily now has a plan: she's going to purchase a large plot of land and build greenhouses that will grow fruit and vegetables year round. It seems like a wonderful idea -- until it isn't.
It seems that there's an environmental group that is against her cutting down any of the trees, and a local developer that wants the land for himself and intends to get it any way he can. There's also a mysterious man who might have interest in it. But then Emily's nasty cousin Hope turns up with plans of her own.
When someone is murdered in an awful way, and Izzy is a suspect, Emily has her own stake in it when her donuts are left at the scene. Now she has to prove herself innocent and keep Izzy out of jail, too. But with so many suspects, will she be able to help or hinder?
This is the tenth book in the series and I have read them all. This is a delicious mystery, one you can really enjoy all the way through the book. People (suspects) are introduced throughout, but none of it is confusing, and there are plenty of secrets to go around.
Plenty of intrigue, too. When it's discovered that Hope has her own secrets to keep, it only enhances the story, and gives us more information to sift through. Of course, there are subplots that only add to the tale but don't overpower it; no one wants the subplot to become the plot, of course; and then there is the intrepid Dep, the cat that actually starts it all and becomes as much a part of the tale as Emily herself. (I love Dep!)
When the person is killed, the characters become the suspects, and Emily, along with her employees Jocelyn and Olivia, are more than ready to figure it all out, all the while trying to stay under the radar of both police and suspects. What I do love is the fact that when they find something out they inform the police immediately instead of keeping it to myself. I love that integrity in these guys. Yes, these characters come to life on the page, and that's one of the things I love about this series. You're pulled in from the first chapter, and unfortunately, continue to read the book to the exclusion of all else (good thing my husband doesn't mind takeout once in a while!)
With her shop being closed for investigation, what else is Emily supposed to do? She needs to reopen to keep her reputation, and she needs to get Izzy -- who is way too trusting -- out of the eye of the detectives on the case. The only thing she can do is utilize her skills and try to find the killer herself.
The clues are there, but they aren't easy to find. When Emily does start to have suspicions, it may not be healthy for her to try and go any further, but we know she will; and when she does, there is a climax that is definitely worth reading the entire book for.
With the killer caught (as we know they will be) everything seems to go back to normal at Deputy Donut. But there is an epilogue that gives us a perfect ending, and a perfect segue into the next book, which I eagerly await. Highly recommended.
I was given a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Ginger Bolton's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ginger-bolton/
