Review by Booklist Review
Emily Westhill, owner of a donut shop called Deputy Donut, is intrigued when a young woman spends two afternoons sitting at the shop, then hurriedly leaves in a panic, dropping an earring. After determining the identity of the woman, Emily stops by her rental to return the earring and finds the woman, Pamela Firston, dead. Emily quickly becomes the chief suspect in what is determined to have been murder. It doesn't help that Emily's police detective boyfriend is out of town, and the new police chief, whom no one trusts, seems determined to close the case using the flimsiest of evidence. The rather unbelievable police chief--a supposedly experienced big-city investigator who continually flaunts accepted police procedure--is a problem here, but this latest in a long-running series will hold readers' interest with the baking frame, the beautifully described northern Wisconsin setting, and the well-delineated characters.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Wisconsin baker learns that no good deed goes unpunished. Emily Westhill can't help noticing the woman who sits alone at a table in Deputy Donut for two days in a row, making her mug of coffee last all afternoon and taking home a bag of cinnamon twists. When the woman leaves through the back door after giving Emily's cat a catnip toy, Emily can't help thinking there must be something wrong. The woman rushes off down the alleyway, but in her hurry, she drops part of her gold earring on the ground before she disappears. Emily pockets the donut-shaped dangle. Later that evening, on her way to visit her parents at their campground, she realizes that the cabin the woman is renting from crafter Summer Peabody-Smith is on the way. So she stops to return the dangle and see if her customer is all right. She isn't. Emily finds her dead on the floor of the cabin, her dinner burning and the smoke alarm blaring. A severance paycheck from Happy Times Home Health Care suggests that the dead woman is named Pam Firston but gives no clue as to why she rented the remote place or who didn't want her to survive her vacation. Unfortunately, Chief Agnew, the new boss of the local force, thinks the answer to the second question is easy: It's Emily. He shuffles the ranking investigator, Det. Brent Fyne, off to Green Bay and takes over the case himself, bringing his inquiries literally to Emily's doorstep. Emily's determination to keep doing the right thing in spite of mounting pressure from a cop who knows no boundaries is a tribute to the winning ways of shopkeeper cozies. Like a good raised donut, Bolton's latest is light but consistent from first bite to last. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
