Double Grudge Donuts (Deputy Donut Mystery #8) by Ginger Bolton #bookreview #mystery

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Title: Double Grudge Donuts

Author: Ginger Bolton

Publisher: Kensington Cozies 

Publication Date: February 20, 2024

Page Count:  286 

My rating: 4 stars

About the book:

The countdown is on as Deputy Donut Café owner Emily Westhill gets ready for married life. But before she takes the plunge, she’ll need to poke a hole in a deadly criminal’s plans . . .

When the Fallingbrook Arts Festival rolls into town weeks before she’s set to tie the knot, Emily expects talent and friendly competition at the week-long summer series to go together like coffee and double fudge. But the fun crumbles fast after a lively bagpiper takes first place on day one and turns heads for the wrong reasons—all before Emily and her tabby cat find him dead in a clear case of murder. Along with a distinctive weapon at the crime scene, several strategically placed items leave disturbing clues about the killer’s identity, including a broken piece of a Deputy Donut mug . . .

While detectives aren’t sure who silenced the bagpiper’s music, they don’t trust Emily or her family to tell the truth. With her nuptials and career on the line, Emily launches an unsettling investigation to save herself from trouble and bring a dangerous figure to justice. The search not only brings too many suspects into the picture, but also leads to a strange discovery on Deputy Donut’s rooftop. A discovery that tells Emily she better get cooking, because someone may be watching her every move . . .  and carefully plotting to turn a wedding into a funeral!

Double Grudge Donuts by Ginger Bolton is the eighth book in the cozy Deputy Donut Mystery series. As with most cozy mystery series each book of this series can be enjoyed as a standalone or in any order with the mystery being completely solved within each book. Of course there is some character building that carries over from book to book for those that follow the series from the beginning.

In the first book of this series we met Emily Westhill who co-owns the Deputy Donut donut shop named after her tabby cat in small-town Fallingbrook, Wisconsin. Emily used to work as a 911 dispatcher until the day her husband who was a police officer was killed so now she and her retired police chief father-in-law sell donuts at their shop instead. Although Emily thought opening a donut shop would be safe she keeps finding herself mixed up in solving murders.

This time around it’s almost time for Emily to walk down the aisle but just weeks before the big day is the Fallingbrook Arts Festival. Every day new talent will be performing all around the small town and Emily hopes to enjoy it all while working at her donut shop, that is until a rude bagpiper interrupts other performers. As annoying as the interruptions could be they certainly didn’t call for murder so when the bagpiper if found Emily vows to catch another murderer.

The Deputy Donut Mystery series is another cozy series that I have followed from the beginning and always enjoy returning back to with each new book. I love that law enforcement is so prevalent in the stories and not made out to be bungling idiots like some cozies tend to do. Emily is surrounded by police and has more knowledge of investigations so it’s fun to return to her sleuthing and there’s always a nice mystery to follow along with all the fun laughs I also enjoy in this genre.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

I like donuts and I like coffee. I like reading and I like writing. I like lots of things, actually…

People gather in donut shops to drink coffee and eat delicious treats, and also to spend time with neighbors and friends. What if a murder occurred in a small town? Wouldn’t patrons who spend time enjoying each others’ company in the town’s favorite coffee shop gossip about the tragedy and the possible culprits?

And the people who own that shop would hear things that might lead them to a murderer. Anything could happen…

Usually, when people ask where I get my ideas, I say, “Everywhere.” That’s true, but the idea for a donut shop run by people with connections to a police department came from Cops & Doughnuts. You can read their wonderful story at copsdoughnuts.com.

Finally, I have a confession. I have an alias. Readers might know me as Janet Bolin, author of the Threadville Mysteries.

Ginger Bolton, GingerBolton.com

Janet Bolin, ThreadvilleMysteries.com