Deck the Donuts

August 15, 2021
Murder disrupts a Wisconsin town's winter celebration. Emily Westhill is going all out for Fallingbrook's Ice and Lights Festival. Not only is her Deputy Donut lavishly decorated, but she's commissioned a giant Frosty the Donut ice sculpture to be displayed in the town square. Even the crash of a tour bus on a nearby highway can't dampen the holiday feelings. Although bus driver Travis Tarriston is injured badly enough to wind up in the hospital, Emily's late husband's parents, Tom and Cindy, simply parcel out the stranded passengers to willing Fallingbrook families. Emily offers her own guest room to tour guide Paige, who's mildly traumatized since Travis is her boyfriend and the tour passengers have started blaming him for the wreck. Her trauma rises into the danger zone when Travis' body is discovered, clad only in a hospital gown, under the toppled Frosty statue. As Emily's boyfriend, Brent, the local police detective who'd been investigating the crash, turns his attention to the murder, the stranded families grow restless as their calls to the tour company go unanswered. Between supporting Brent and protecting Paige, Emily has her hands full, but she still manages to keep Fallingbrookers and their hungry houseguests supplied with a steady stream of tasty holiday treats. A standard small-town cozy with jingle bells.

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September 27, 2021
Set at Christmastime, Bolton’s sprightly sixth cozy featuring widow Emily Westhill, part owner of the Deputy Donut shop in Fallingbrook, Wis. (after Beyond a Reasonable Donut), takes Emily and her police detective boyfriend, Brent Fyne, one snowy afternoon to an accident scene after Brent gets a call that a tour bus has driven into a ditch. The inside of the bus reeks of alcohol, raising questions about the accident’s cause, while the injured, disoriented driver, Travis Tarriston, is taken to the hospital for observation. Early the next morning, Emily discovers that her shop’s seven-foot-tall Frosty the Donut ice sculpture, part of Fallingbrook’s seasonal Ice and Lights Festival, has toppled over. Underneath is Travis’s hospital gown–clad body. Once again turning amateur sleuth, Emily discovers that Travis had made enemies among the townsfolk. The romantic stakes rise when Travis’s murder brings in Det. Kimberly Gartborg of the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigations, who soon has hopes of more than a working relationship with Brent. Well-defined characters match the sufficiently complex plot. Delectable doughnut recipes are a plus. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency.