When Suzanne Hart, owner of Donut Hearts, sells a dozen crullers to a man she doesn't know, she also doesn't expect him to use them as ammunition. As he's throwing them at the store front window of her neighbor Gabby's store ReNEWed, she steps in to stop him. He starts accusing Gabby of stealing $10,000 and a vintage brooch from his aunt Jean when Jean donated a coat and it was supposedly in the pocket.

After the man leaves, Gabby insists she had nothing to do with the missing money. But when the man is later killed, and Gabby is the main suspect, she begs Suzanne to help clear her name. So Suzanne enlists the help of her best friend Grace, and her retired cop friend George to try and find the killer. But with plenty of suspects, Suzanne may have gotten herself in deeper than she wants, especially with a killer closer than she thinks...

This is the sixth book in the series and I have read every one of them. I have to say that this book is a breath of fresh air. Honestly, it is so nice to read a book that doesn't have an author's personal political views thrown in every which way they can lately. No offense to the authors, but I read a book for entertainment and to escape daily life, not to have you tell me what I should think and do. Perhaps that is why I feel the need to read older books so much. There's no nonsense in them, just pure fun.

And while this book isn't high literature -- it's not meant to be, after all -- it is fun to read. This time out Suzanne is partly on her own with her friends having to unfortunately leave her in the lurch even if they don't want to. It makes for an interesting time watching her handle things mostly by herself, and still manage to keep her business moving along.

We see a different side of the hard-hearted Gabby, as she softens toward Suzanne, and there are a couple of surprising twists as well to keep the story moving along. Because of this, it makes the reader want to finish the book in one sitting, which I did, anyway. When the ending comes and the identity of the killer is revealed, it also brings everything together nicely, and even gives us something to look forward to in the next book. Recommended. ( )

I started with the 6th book in the series but it was not like stepping into the middle of a series. It was written well enough to be a stand alone book. The characters are a bit one dementional but they are not boring. In this book, Suzanne's Crullers are used as ammunition by an angry man who soon winds up dead. Suzanne and friends investigate. ( )

For a short while, I had the idea that this series would be decent all the way through. But though these books are mostly awful, I can't stop reading them. Or rather, I can keep reading them. That counts. There are so many respected books that I've tried reading and were unreadable. I don't know how Jessica Beck keeps churning out books that are enticingly readable to most of HIS target demographic.

I'll try to make a few points. Suzanne Hart's big thing in the book was her being alone. Prolonged bouts of loneliness can be a pain, but here the whole tale was wrapped up in a jiffy. The heroine's problems were not problems at all. Consider her dilemma of moving away to her best friend's house, when and if her mother got married. Is that a real problem? Don't think so. Apart from the murderer there was nobody, except maybe Jenny, and Harry, who spoke harsh words against her. Hart never had any sort of ultimatum. So her life never was difficult. Conversely, she showed absolutely no detective skills worth going over. That's not only bland, it shows how the author can't be bothered in racking his brains for once. There are arbitrary statements that make no sense...like Hart's mother declining to join the book club, because that moment should only be Hart's. Doesn't make any sense.

A book of this type of humbleness doesn't have a climax worth discussing. But it had a twist (Hart's ankle) which sets it apart from other showdowns. Why can't cozy mysteries be more upscale? The genre is tailor made for me, but the writers lack so much ambition. Don't read this book. It's full of weird unexplained things that don't get tied together, like Gabby's missing gun turning up. Every single suspect is made of whatever is the opposite of sterner stuff. Don't say I didn't warn you. ( )

"Fresh Meat" by Katrina Niidas Holm for Criminal Element

These days, so many cozy heroines have antagonistic relationships with their mothers it’s almost a cliché. (Seriously—it’s right up there with “has a cat” and “is dating a cop”. Neither of which is a bad thing, of course, but still, some variety would be nice. Maybe an amateur sleuth who dates an undertaker and has a pet chinchilla? Anybody?)

Such is not the case, however, with Suzanne Hart, proprietress of Donut Hearts and protagonist of author Jessica Beck’s Donut Shop Mystery series. Suzanne may be dating a state police investigator, but she puts paid to the notion that you have to hate your mama in order to catch your quarry.

In Beck’s latest, Killer Crullers, Suzanne—a divorcee who lives with her mother —is having a devil of a time tracking down the person who shot and killed a man outside her donut shop. The murder investigation, though, is far less vexing to her than her mother’s burgeoning romance with the town’s chief of police...

(Read the rest at http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2011/12/fresh-meat-jessica-beck-killer-crul...