Dollycas’s Thoughts

We arrive in Fallingbrook, Wisconsin just in time for the Faker’s Dozen Carnival. The folks from Deputy Donut are serving a variety of corn fritters hoping the event brings them nothing but good luck on this Friday the 13th but soon after their arrival, they notice their container of confectioner’s sugar has gone missing. After a quick delivery from the bakery, fritters are being fried, coated and eaten by many at the fair. The Deputy Donut tent is busy with a long line waiting to be served. Emily and Nina are thrilled that a mime and a magician are entertaining the crowd . . . that is until the magician takes advantage of the crowd and sticks his hand in the cash box grabbing several bills before he and the mime hotfoot it out of the park.

The bad luck continues after the park closes when Nina’s loft is broken into and a huge painting almost ready to be shipped for her upcoming show has been vandalized. On the plus side, the missing confectioner’s sugar has been found. Much of it on the painting and the rest over the mime’s head along with the bucket it came in. Sadly the mime dies after inhaling so much sugar and the police quickly decide Nina is the killer while Emily thinks that beyond a reasonable doubt, Nina was the intended victim. Now, she just has to prove it before the killer strikes again. For right now the safest place for Nina could be a jail cell.

Emily is a wonderful protagonist with a huge heart. She is trying to learn how to live her life after losing her police detective husband in the line of duty. His former partner has feelings for her and she seems to for him as well but she just isn’t ready to move in that direction yet. I really appreciate the author not rushing this relationship and allowing Emily to set her own pace. Ms. Bolton has also surrounded Emily with a great group of family and friends to support her in every way, even when she is tracking down a killer.

Readers are treated to a very complicated mystery with a plethora of suspects. Some I quickly discarded including one I truly shouldn’t have. There were so many twists and the motive was unclear throughout most of the book when finally a connection was found that finally stuck. I was totally caught up in the mystery with one theory after another but never got on the right path to solve the crime. I love when that happens. I love a sticky story that I can sink my teeth into and tests me. Beyond a Reasonable Donut sure did that in more ways than one.


https://pixabay.com/photos/carnival-summer-concession-stand-2456911/
One little nit-picky thing. I have lived in Wisconsin, where this book is set my entire life, and attended hundreds of fairs, festivals, and carnivals and have never seen or heard of cotton candy being called cotton “floss”. To me, cotton floss is the thread used in embroidery or cross-stitch. So I asked some friends and family if this was something I missed and they all agreed with me. So I went to Mr. Google/Wikipedia and found:

Cotton candy is made and sold globally—as candy floss in the UK, Ireland, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, and as fairy floss in Australia and New Zealand.

Machine-spun cotton candy was invented in 1897 by dentist William Morrison and confectioner John C. Wharton, and first introduced to a wide audience at the 1904 World’s Fair as “Fairy Floss” with great success,

Joseph Lascaux, a dentist from New Orleans, Louisiana, invented a similar cotton candy machine in 1921. In fact, the Lascaux patent named the sweet confection “cotton candy” and the “fairy floss” name faded away. In the United States, National Cotton Candy Day is celebrated on December 7.

So I learned something new about this spun sugar treat. You will find it called cotton candy in the U.S. and served at festivals everywhere, but also at movie theatres and shops and stores too.

I totally enjoyed Beyond a Reasonable Donut. It was a fun read with characters I am invested in. I can’t wait to see what they get into next.

The fifth in the Deputy Donut Mystery series. Who doesn’t like a festival in a small town? I really liked the tag… “Faker’s Dozen Carnival in Fallingbrook, Wisconsin—a festival held on Friday the thirteenth to celebrate good and bad luck.” Even though I don’t consider corn fritters donuts, I can see them at the festival. There’s apple so why not corn?

This book is well plotted, the characters are terrific, and the story line is interesting. It kept me turning the pages.
I liked the characters, the story and of course all the misdirection. There is plenty to keep you interested.
Can’t wait for the next installment.

Bonus included – a few recipes in the back of the book.

I was given an advanced reader’s copy by Netgalley and am not required to leave a positive review.

What is Hooligan's name??? Aargh! i want to know!
Fun book, very enjoyable mystery. Didn't see the end coming at all. Lots of twists and turns.

This fifth installment of the Deputy Donut Mysteries, BEYOND A REASONABLE DONUT, by Author Ginger Bolton, is my favorite to date.

It’s clear that author Bolton has nurtured this series. The growth of the characters is evident. Don’t get me wrong, the characters have been wonderful from the beginning. But, they have evolved since the first book into a group of people I would love to have in my life.

The characters aren’t the only thing to have evolved. BEYOND A REASONABLE DONUT is the best of the best in this series. The story is solid, with all of the elements expected in a cozy mystery, amped to a new level. With finesse, the author filled my head with misleading clues, and had me self-doubting myself right up until the reveal.

If you’re a fan of the Deputy Donut series, you so not want to miss BEYOND A REASONABLE DONUT! If you haven’t read the series, what are you waiting for?!

What more can you ask for in a cozy escape read? This series has it all, and this book has everything you could want and more!
A wedding between best friends, family and friendships closer than family, hints of romance (besides the wedding) and animals with tons of personality! There are also secrets and family feuds and MURDER! Did I forget to mention dessert? Of course with a wedding you have to have a cake, but this series revolves around DONUTS and fritters and pastries... I am making myself hungry.

I love a good Halloween story line, but it can't always be October.
The next best thing is Friday the 13th! A carnival type festival to celebrate luck, both good and bad, is being held.
Keeping with the theme of luck, pranks, puns and overall fun, the ladies of Deputy Donut set out to cater to tourists and fun loving locals alike. At the fair they meet all sorts of personalities, including a fast fingered magician.

Luck seems to be against them, especially Nina, as her apartment is broken into, her artwork destroyed, and Emily is the one to discover a dying woman. How does this all connect to Fallingbrook's Fakers Dozen fair?

Fortunately there is a team of people to help them figure it out, including the deliciously dishy Detective Fyne. However, DCI Gartborg is back and could she also have eyes for him?

Twists and turns and danger as Emily discovers she doesn't know who is telling the truth.
Her gut tells her she can believe Nina, and that Nina is in trouble.
However, she might discover that she has misjudged someone else.

Settle in with something to snack on. You won't want to walk away until you find out Who~Dunnit and why!

4.5 stars

This is the 5th book in the Deputy Donut series by Ginger Bolton.

Emily and her assistant, Nina are at the Faker's Dozen Carnival manning their Deputy Donut vending booth. The book starts out with the annoying lady taking money at the front gate won't let them drive down to their booth to unload supplies. Then a mine distracts them while a magician steals a was of cash from their cash drawer.... Plus one of their big buckets of confectioners sugar goes missing. It is not turning out to be a good day.

Then after driving Nina to the supermarket, she backtracks after she realizes Nina has left her wallet in the van. Here is where she discovers the mime dead at the foot of Nina's paimting.

This book had me questioning Nina big time and the likelihood she might have killed the mime. All roads seem to point to her and This becomes the story to prove Nina innocent.

This story really keeps your attention since Nina is the main suspect plus she acts uber suspicious for her putting her in the police's cross hairs. I liked how the story was resolved and how all these new insights made Nina a much richer character. This book definitely kept me on my ties.

Definitely pick this up if you are a cozy mystery lover.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title. Opinions are completely my own.

I always have to prepare myself before settling down to read a book in the Deputy Donut series. The donuts make me crave really good donuts and, unfortunately I don't have very far to go to get some and the mystery is so engaging that I forget time - including bedtime. This, the 5th in the series, didn't disappoint me.
Emily co-owns Deputy Donuts with her father-in-law. It's Friday the thirteenth and the town of Fallingbrook, Wisconsin is having a carnival for a fun celebration, calling it Faker's Dozen Carnival. Things don't go smoothly and Emily takes a couple of business hits - a stolen bucket of sugar and money stolen from her sales. Before too long the bucket of sugar turns up but not in a good way. It's connected to murder and her friend and employee, Nina, is the prime suspect. The corpse is in her loft studio and one of her paintings has been trashed...with the sugar. The police connect the dots and case closed. Nina is now behind bars. She won't stay there long if Emily has anything to say about it. Let the sleuthing begin.
What do the events of the carnival, a mime, and a magician have to do with Nina and her past that she keeps silent about? Emily, with the help of family and friends (and assorted animals) will sort it out and take down the killer. Along the way we get to hang out with some great recurring characters, good food and a wonderful cat, Dep - short for Deputy Donut because of the marking on her fur. Put it all into a can't put it down mystery and it's a easy five star read in a five star series.
My thanks to the publisher Kensington and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is another great entry in an enjoyable series that features well drawn out characters, a protagonist who is not TSTL and a well plotted mystery that is not easy to guess. It works fine as a standalone even though it is the fifth in the series.

And murder by powdered sugar-never seen that before :-)

I received an ARC from the publisher but the opinion expressed is my own.

Fun, quick read that made a long, gray afternoon fly by. Well plotted mystery with enjoyable characters combined into a delightful book.

Beyond a Reasonable Donut is magical Deputy Donut mystery

Posted on May 15, 2021 by michellelovatosbookreviews, world's first book color commentator, book reviews with a twist

Good help is so hard to find. Perhaps that’s why Emily Westhill fights so hard to clear the name of her donut shop assistant, Nina, who police accused of murdering a mime by way of powdered sugar.
Talk about a super sweet but bubbling mess! This crazy Deputy Donut Mystery series story is a sugar-coated confectioner’s concoction of mimes, mystery, and murder.
It all starts at the Fakers Dozen Carnival. Devoted duo Emily and Nina are hard at work creating deep-fried corn fritter finger lickers for party participants when they learn someone stole a giant tub of powdered sugar from Emily’s car. What?
Then, Zippy the mime and a mean ol’ magician trick customers in the Deputy Donut tent line while distracting everyone present just enough to steel the donut shop’s cash box. Oh, no!
Seriously? What did these two expect? Here they are at a carnival designed to celebrate Friday the 13th, good and bad luck. What could go wrong in this house of mirrors mystery of distorted truth?
Languishing love interest, Detective Brent Fyne, shows up in perfect time to pull Emily from her tent to talk, tease and taste a bit of future love that he’s still not able to tether. Though Brent is “working” the carnival undercover with the hopes of catching a serial carnival cashbox crook, he misses the opportunity to be Man of the Hour. That’s because a mean ol’ magician makes off with the donut shop’s money, just moments after Brent drops the tantalized Emily back at her tent and tends to other carnival business away from Deputy Donuts.
Well, that’s not the end of Emily’s lousy luck. Late in the evening, while carrying cash in her car, which was plain dumb, Emily realizes Nina forgot her purse.
Dang. Now Emily must return to Nina’s apartment, where she finds the strangest circumstances surrounding the silent sugar snatcher, who snuck into Nina’s art studio space and smeared sugar across Nina’s masterpiece then fell from a ladder to her death.
Of course, Nina is guilty of this menacing mime’s murder. It’s her apartment, after all. It doesn’t matter that she was miles away at the time of the murder. Or was she?
As the heavily-trained department detectives dive into their latest murder mystery, they arrest Nina and hold her without bail. And Emily, a police widow of seven years and employer of the donut-making Nina, must uncover the true killer and clear the name of her friend. Enter Deputy Donut, the crime-fighting cat.
Beyond a Reasonable Donut is a delightful fifth book in the darling dough-themed Deputy Donut Mystery series by Ginger Bolton and delivers a delicious melodrama for all of us to devour.

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Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him. You will enjoy what you work for, and you will be blessed with good things. Psalm 128: 1-2

A great addition to this series! Emily is working a festival and is surprised by a mime and a magician, who steals from the cash box at their stand. When Nina leaves her bag in the donut car, Emily works to connect to her by going to her apartment. When she arrives, she discovers the mime on the floor with powdered sugar on the latest painting. The mime dies and the suspects include Nina. Emily works to figure out who the murderer could be, as well as revealing some family secrets. Well plotted, enjoyable characters and a story that keeps you guessing. All the pieces that make for a great read!

Beyond a Reasonable Donut is a cozy mystery set in Wisconsin. Emily is a young widow who owns a coffeehouse named Deputy Donut. When she and her assistant are working a donut concession at a traveling carnival, they unexpectedly become involved with a number of seedy characters ... and end up working to solve a murder back in town.

I wanted to read this book because I enjoy foodie cozies, and the carnival setting sounded very appealing. I have not read the previous books in this series. It took me a few chapters to learn the characters and their relationships, but after I did I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a standalone.

Emily is a very likable protagonist. She is tenatively romantically interested in a local detective, Brent, but she plays amateur detective herself to solve a complex murder with lots of suspects. She puts herself in jeopardy a couple of times, but I was cheering for her to solve the mystery.

The author did a good job with setting the small town scene. I felt like I had visited Fallingbrook from all the charming descriptions. I especially enjoyed the latter part of the book set at a resort with old fashioned cabins and lodge.

There is a storyline about a mysterious antique locket with an old photo and a coded message. I found that particularly intriguing and it pleased my inner Nancy Drew.

Beyond a Reasonable Donut was lots of fun to read. I hope to catch up with more books in this series in the future. I recommend this cozy mystery for fans of food mysteries (yes, there are recipes in the back of the book!), small town settings, and lots of cozy charm.

The Faker's Dozen Carnival turns out to be a real mess for Emily and Nina, who had hoped to have a good day selling treats but find themselves stymied by missing sugar and an obnoxious mime. The latter, however, turns out to be even more trouble when Emily finds the mime dead in Nina's apartment. Of course, Emily is alone in her conviction that Nina didn't do it but she's got to pull out some secrets and work through red herring to get to the truth (with help, believe it or not, of her cat!), I like this series for Emily's good relations with Tom the father of her deceased husband and Brent his partner, who is a love interest that just hasn't come to fruition. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, Don't worry if you haven't read the earlier books - this will be fine as a standalone.

small-business, small-town, law-enforcement, widow, family-dynamics, family, friendship, artist, amateur-sleuth, Wisconsin, cozy-mystery*****

Emily is a police widow of seven years and operates a donut shop with her father in law in a small town in Northern Wisconsin. Her good friend Nina is an artist and they have a run-in with small time crooks while working a local fair. That night one of them is found near death in Nina's loft under suspicious circumstances and Nina is arrested for murder. Lots of plot twists and red herrings, tests of friendship, and a whole host of secrets kept. A good read!
Not exactly an unbiased review because I'm from Wisconsin and the setting is a tourist town in Wisconsin near Duluth. Besides that, I Back the Badge.
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

What a fun series! I made the mistake of trying to read this one without reading the others in the series first and it kinda felt like I was walking midway into a conversation. So I read all the books ahead and LOVED all of them! The characters are so well developed and with each book, it feels like the mysteries get better and better. I can’t wait to read the next one!

It's carnival time. The Faker's Dozen Carnival is happening and Emily Westhill and Nina Leeper are working the donut booth. Things are going well until a magican and a mime steal money from the booth. Nina gives chase but looses them. Later that night the mime is found dead n Nina's apartment.. Seems she fell from a ladder while trying to destroy Nina's prized painting. Emily tried to save her but fails. Things aren't looking good for Nina when she can't provide an alibi and she's arrested for the murder. Why was the mime in Nina's apartment? Who was she? And why destroy a painting? Emily promises to let the police handle things but she just can't sit back and allow Nina to go to prision . She knows Nina is innocent but how to prove it and what happens when she finally figures out who did do it?? Will Emily become the next victim ? Lots of action in this latest Deputy Donut Mystery. .

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. In this new entry in the Deputy Donut series, Emily has to investigate when Nina is accused of murder. While all the clues point to Nina's guilt, Emily puts her skills to work to help her friend and employee. The storyline is multilayered and very well built. New information and insight are provided on characters, which adds to the pleasure of reading this book. There is a quick reference to Boston Scream Murder, but no spoilers, which will most likely make newcomers to the series interested in reading it. I really like Emily as the main character, she is sweet and pleasant. I also like how she is close to Tom and Cindy, it definitely adds to the charm of the series. In all, a very satisfying and pleasant book.

Emily Westhill is the widow of a police officer killed in the line of duty. Now she owns and operates Deputy Donut with her father-in-law Tom. This day she's going to man a booth at the Faker's Dozen Carnival, with help from her employee Nina. But then the day is ruined by several incidents -- among them an annoying mime, a thieving magician and a missing container of confectioner's sugar. But when the day winds down and Emily drops Nina off at the grocery store, she sees that Nina's tote bag is still in her car and goes back to give it to her. After seeing that Nina is not in the store, she goes to her apartment and finds that the door to the loft has been forced. Emily is worried that Nina might be in trouble, so she enters the apartment and finds a woman with the sugar container on her head. When Nina arrives they call 911, but it may be too late.

On top of everything else, Emily is going to be in the wedding of a friend who's marrying this week, and see's preparing for that all the while trying to find out who the murderer is and keep Nina out of prison. Even though others think Nina might be guilty, Emily refuses to believe it, and will risk her own life to prove the same...

This is the fifth book in the series and I have read every one of them. I've watched Emily try to recover from her grief of losing her husband, build her business, and keep her personal relationships going. I, along with others I am sure, love Deputy Donut the Cat. She's able to tell friend from foe, and has a knack for keeping Emily safe if she's able to do so. She's one of the best parts of this series. Like Emily's friends, I would like to see her move on with Brent and hopes their relationship will progress in the next book.

When the murderer is discovered and the motive revealed, it's rather twisted, but nonetheless a very good ending, and gives us something to look forward to in the next book. Highly recommended.

Genre: cozy mystery
Series: Deputy Donut (book 5)
Pub date: May 25th
Recommend or not: yes, I enjoyed it! (3.75 stars rounded to 4)

It's Friday the 13th, and that means Deputy Donut's Emily and Nina will be serving up corn fritters at the Faker's Dozen Carnival. But it's not all fun and games - a large container of powdered sugar disappears and a magician robs the cash register. Things get even worse when a body is discovered in the missing powdered sugar - and the cops start to think Nina was the culprit. 

This is my first book in the Deputy Donut series, and I'm excited to read the rest of the series. Even though I haven't read the first four, it was easy to get a sense of Emily and Nina's characters and their backstory. The plot focused a lot on Nina's backstory and family history, and I appreciated the deep dive into the character. There was also plenty of wit and slapstick humor in these pages - the carnival scenes had me laughing as I read.

The only thing I struggled with was the complexity of the mystery - there were so many characters to keep straight! But this was resolved in the end with a satisfying conclusion.

Thank you to Kensington Books for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads and Instagram 4/23/21.

I have read all the books in this series and love them all, but this one made me want a donut more than all the others. I wish this place was real, I would be a regular!

Once again we are taken to the small town of Fallingbrook, Wisconsin. Emily and her co-worker Nina are at a carnival celebrating all things bad luck handing out delicious fritters, donuts and other treats. A crime at the carnival, a dead mime, a doppelgänger and a mysterious man all have a hand in the new whodunit.

I am delighted to say I had no idea at the end whodunit, which to me is the best kind, but when all is revealed everything makes sense. Deputy Donut, or Dep, the kitty, is the star of the show. I am getting a wee bit tired of the push pull relationship between Emily and Brent. I am thankful it is not a love triangle but the do we or don't we is wearing a little thin.

That did not detract from my enjoyment of this book. I look forward to more Deputy Donut books, hopefully many, many more. And if that crème brulee donut should happen to make an appearance in the next book, all the better!