Sour Crime Donuts
Deputy Donuts Mystery #10
By Ginger Bolton
ISBN 9781496749635
Author’s website: gingerbolton.com
Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie
Synopsis:
With Emily Westhill’s popular Deputy Donut Café 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 . . . (Recipes included)
Review:
This well-written, complex mystery, like the others in this series, is perfectly balanced with the engaging characters and long-time relationships that draw me into each new release. Included is Emily’s cat, “Dep”, aka Deputy Donut, which inspired their shop name. The author hits another home run with this mystery! The plot was finely executed, and red herrings and fascinating twists kept me guessing. I would have loved a couple of Emily’s donuts or fritters when reading their delicious descriptions!
Emily was surprised one day by a happy young woman who came into Deputy Donut the first time. The curly-haired newcomer looked a bit like Emily and recognized her. They had met several years earlier, at the campground where Emily’s parents spent every summer, when the family of the girl visited another camping family. Emily is about ten years older than Isabelle – now Izzy – and back then, they spent the day playing in the woods, creeks, and waterfalls.
Fast forward to the present, and Izzy is all grown up. She received a large sum of money from her grandfather, and in a year, she must send him a written report regarding how she used the money to help him determine whether he will give her more. Izzy has found the piece of property she wants. It is incredible, with terraced-like tiers on a hill, streams, a pond, and a tiny waterfall. Her plans are to add greenhouses in which to grow fresh vegetables, fruit, and someday, have enough greenhouses to include fruit trees. All produce is shipped into Northern Wisconsin in the winter, no longer fresh when it arrives. She won the bid and signed the contract to purchase the land, and in a couple weeks, it will be hers.
People are giving Izzy trouble about the property. One is newcomer, Adam Noffty, who is running to be Fallingbrook’s next mayor. He bid on the land but didn’t win, and said Izzy wouldn’t get it as her contract wasn’t legal. The local environmental group members TWIG are having a fit because she needs to cut down a few trees. To them, even one tree is too many. Another man showed up, young and handsome, and sparks began to fly between him and Izzy when they met.
The day after Izzy showed Emily and her staff, Olivia and Jocelyn, the property, Izzy returned to the property to find Adam, mayoral candidate and wanna-be developer of the property, dead by the pond. In a little niche in the rocks, a box from Deputy Donuts, with what looked like two of the new Peachy Sour Cream donuts left, and the icing of another one inside. Three customers, plus Izzy, had purchased similar assortments: Jerry, the current mayor, Ramona, head of the local TWIG, and Mr. Mystery. Adam had not been in their shop.
Police thought Adam’s death was natural until the medical examiner determined he died of anaphylaxis from a severe allergy to almonds. Tests showed almond flour and cardamom in the specialty donuts, neither of which Emily or her staff added. Even stranger, a peach pit had been ground up and added to the donuts. It “looked like” Emily’s donuts, but not her recipe. The shop was closed for two days while police forensic techs searched. Izzy became a suspect in the eyes of the state detective, as was Jerry, and possibly even Ramona, the environmentalist.
Izzy heard about how Emily had helped solve murders in the past and wanted her help to find the real killer. When Emily visited her one evening, someone was parked, watching Izzy’s tiny home. Then, when Izzy was kidnapped, the gloves came off.
This mystery was quite a challenge! Nobody could identify a motive behind Adam’s murder, or why it was on Izzy’s property. The twists and turns kept me guessing! The real killer was the biggest shock of all. The end was quite satisfying, and I can’t wait until the next in the series! I highly recommend this to those who appreciate well-written cozy mysteries set in Wisconsin, with cats and amazing treats!
