Like a good raised donut, Bolton’s latest is light but consistent from first bite to last.
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.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781496740199
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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