JEALOUSY FILLED DONUTS by Ginger Bolton

"Donuts can be deadly...."

Jealousy Filled Donuts

Genres: Mystery Cozy | Mystery Woman Sleuth | Mystery Amateur Sleuth

Posted: August 26, 2019

The Fallingbrook Fabulous Fourth Festivities have a rocky start when the queen for the royal court in the parade doesn’t make a timely appearance, and once she arrives immediately berates and belittles others. Taylor Wishbard may be crowned a queen but her behavior towards others is rude… but is that enough to kill her? Someone apparently thinks so as they use donuts from the Deputy Donut Café to set off a firecracker explosion that kills Taylor later that evening. Emily Westhill, one of the owners of the donut shop, finds herself smack in the midst of another murder investigation, particularly when a sketchy acting photographer posts photos in the local newspaper implying that Emily is the killer. Who hated Taylor enough to commit murder?

JEALOUSY FILLED DONUTS is a fun and enjoyable tale, set in a fictional town that I would love to visit! The various shops and activities sound delightful, and I love the idea of a Knitpicker group meeting regularly. However, it is the characters who truly make this story come alive. Emily is a phenomenal main character! She’s inquisitive and caring, but she doesn’t rush headlong into danger without thinking things through. It probably helps that she is a former 911 operator as I appreciate that she doesn’t blunder wildly into solving the mystery. I’m curious as to where the potential budding relationship will go, particularly since Emily is still involved with her in-laws through the Deputy Donut Café.

A donut shop owned by a retired police chief and the widow of a detective? Who can resist such a premise! Ginger Bolton takes a cliché about cops and donuts and turns it into one heck of a good story in JEALOUSY FILLED DONUTS. I’m new to the Deputy Donut Mystery series, but Ginger Bolton does a great job at ensuring new readers can jump right in and appreciate both the characters and their relationships in this third installment of the series. However, I suspect readers will want to read more of the Deputy Donut Mystery series after getting a taste of JEALOUSY FILLED DONUTS!

Book Summary

When a firecracker becomes a murder weapon, Emily Westhill pursues a killer with a short fuse …

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 tries 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 …