Survival of the Fritters (A Deputy Donut Mystery)

Survival of the Fritters (A Deputy Donut Mystery) - Ginger Bolton When Emily Westhill's husband Alec is shot and killed while in the line of duty she decides to quit her job as a 911 operator, and starts making donuts to help with her grief. Emily and her father-in-law Tom are co-owners of Deputy Donut a donut and coffee shop, they name the shop after Emily's cat Deputy or Dep for short who is the shop's mascot.

The shop is the favorite gathering spot for the town's police officers, local residents, and the Knitpickers a ladies knitting circle. When group member Georgia Teeter doesn't show up for the meeting and she doesn't answer her phone when fellow member Lois Underlay calls her to check on her Emily and the others in the group start to worry. Emily and the knitpickers decide to go to Georgia's house to check on her, the group enters the house and discover Gloria's body is found on the kitchen surrounded by donuts and doll pieces. One of the police who arrive at Gloria's house is Brent Fyne Alec's former partner, and this brings up old memories and feelings for Emily.

While in her backyard Emily hears Dep start to meow and follows him to a secret cat sized tunnel in her brick wall and hears someone call out for help, Emily runs to the house behind her's and discovers the new neighbor laying on the ground. While helping the lady up Emily realizes that the woman is Lois and she had been hit on the back of her head. While they talk about what happened Emily starts to realize that the murder and attack may have had something to do with the murder of Gloria's son Mattias 5 years ago, which was on of the last cases that Alec and Brent were working on but never closed.

Emily starts to renew her friendship with Brent while she and Lois start investigating the crimes on their own. By the time Emily thinks she has things figured out she finds herself in a life/death situation.

The mystery is well plotted and intriguing. Ginger did presented the story with enough twists and turns to keep the story interesting. The characters are well written and interact with each other well. I can't wait until the next book in the series comes out.