DECK THE DONUTS

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.