That Tuesday in early August started like any other workday for me. In a suit and tie, I drove to the police department in Fallingbrook, Wisconsin. Even though I’m a detective, I do a lot of police work that big-city detectives might never be expected to do. I spent the afternoon mostly with paperwork. I love Fallingbrook and its people, and I love my job.

The afternoon was unusual. Fallingbrook was holding an Arts Festival, and that day was Troubadour Tuesday. Singers performed outdoors all over town. Other police officers and I strolled out to the broad stone front porch of the Victorian town hall that houses both the police department and the municipal offices. I didn’t see every act. I had more paperwork to finish, and besides, I planned to see the same performances during the evening competition in the village square’s bandstand. My fiancée Emily promised to save me an aisle seat. Her parents were to be two of that evening’s three judges.

After eating dinner at my desk while I tidied away the day’s work, I changed into khakis and a polo shirt and walked through our treed village square to the rows of folding chairs facing the bandstand.

And there she was. Emily. Her dark curls contrasted with her eyes, which were the warm, deep blue of cloudless Wisconsin skies on sunny days. Emily is tiny, at least compared to me, and also sweet and funny. I admire her resilience and independent spirit.

She told me about the afternoon at her donut shop. The man who had won the Musical Monday competition the night before brought his bagpipe to the sidewalk in front of Deputy Donut. While a barbershop quartet of teenagers sang “For Me and My Gal,” the bagpiper played “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean.” Flustered, the kids scampered away, but the bagpiper followed and interrupted them at the pub just up the street, too. A music teacher who had taught those teens was on Deputy Donut’s patio. The teacher, Emily said, became very angry. Emily pointed the teacher out to me. She was a judge that night, sitting in front with Emily’s parents.

Naturally, Emily and I chatted about our wedding, which was only a couple of weeks away, and our honeymoon plans. Almost everything was ready.

The show began and went well until the teen barbershop quartet sang.

His kilt swinging, the bagpiper marched behind the back row of seats. His bagpipe squawked and screeched. Did he have a grudge or something against those poor kids?

The music teacher jumped up from the judging table. Her face red with fury, she left Emily’s parents behind and started toward the noisy bagpiper.

I was closer to him. I managed to politely persuade the bagpiper to “practice” farther away, and Emily convinced the teacher to return to the judge’s table.

Emily and I believed that our problems with that bagpiper had ended.

Things don’t always work out the way you think they will. . .

Double Grudge Donuts, A Deputy Donut Mystery Book #8
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: February 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

The countdown is on as Deputy Donut Café owner Emily Westhill gets ready for married life. But before she takes the plunge, she’ll need to poke a hole in a deadly criminal’s plans . . .

When the Fallingbrook Arts Festival rolls into town weeks before she’s set to tie the knot, Emily expects talent and friendly competition at the week-long summer series to go together like coffee and double fudge. But the fun crumbles fast after a lively bagpiper takes first place on day one and turns heads for the wrong reasons—all before Emily and her tabby cat find him dead in a clear case of murder. Along with a distinctive weapon at the crime scene, several strategically placed items leave disturbing clues about the killer’s identity, including a broken piece of a Deputy Donut mug . . .

While detectives aren’t sure who silenced the bagpiper’s music, they don’t trust Emily or her family to tell the truth. With her nuptials and career on the line, Emily launches an unsettling investigation to save herself from trouble and bring a dangerous figure to justice. The search not only brings too many suspects into the picture, but also leads to a strange discovery on Deputy Donut’s rooftop. A discovery that tells Emily she better get cooking, because someone may be watching her every move . . . and carefully plotting to turn a wedding into a funeral!

About the author
Ginger Bolton, who loves donuts and coffee, writes the Deputy Donut mystery series—coffee, donuts, cops, danger, and one curious cat. Double Grudge Donuts is the eighth Deputy Donut Mystery. Watch for Blame The Beignets to arrive on store shelves in the end of November. When Ginger isn’t plotting, writing, or reading, she’s crocheting, knitting, sewing, interacting with an overly dramatic rescue dog, or generally causing trouble. As Janet Bolin, Ginger wrote the Threadville Mysteries—murder and mayhem in a village of crafty shops.