Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes by Janel Gradowski

You know what I love about a series of books – that feeling of comfort you get when you have a brand new one in your hands.  You know that you get to relax and visit with old friends and see what they’re up to this time around.  That’s exactly how I feel every time I open a new addition to Janel Gradowski’s Culinary Competition Mysteries.  Her newest is Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes and it was great to get back with the old gang and solve a new murder not to mention indulge myself in a world of yummy culinary treats!

Amy is one of my favorite characters because she’s so real and funny.  She’s not one of those perfect women with everything under control.  Mostly she’s just winging it with a coffee cup in her hand.  I adore her!  In Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes we find out early on that Amy’s best friend Carla is getting married.  In theory this would be great… except that Carla is getting married in three weeks.  Needless to say Amy flips out.  Amy needs more time than that.  She needs to plan everything and make it perfect.  However there is no budging Carla on this matter and Amy reconciles herself to the fact that for the next three weeks she’ll be driving herself crazy trying to make her best friend’s wedding the grand event that Amy wants it to be.

Then, as if Amy couldn’t be more stressed, she and Carla encounter a dead body while shopping for a tux for Bruce, Carla’s intended.  Yikes, what is it?  Does Amy have ‘dead bodies please seek me out’ tattooed on her forehead.  Well it appears so and it couldn’t happen at a worst time.  Now Bruce is going to be so involved in this case that he won’t be giving his wedding to Carla the attention it deserves and even more so if it’s not solved by the time they get married there won’t be any honeymoon.  Amy vows not to let that happen and so starts another mad dash to find a killer.  Amy had me laughing more than a few times in her endeavors to both try not to get herself killed and to find the killer.  So does she find the killer this time before he or she finds her?

Doughnuts & Deadly Schemes is an awesome addition to the series.  It was fun, there was a great mystery to solve, and even more than that it was nice to get back with Amy, Carla, and all the other great characters that live within this series.  It can’t go without saying that all the food talk is enough to give anyone cravings with things like doughnuts that taste like french toast with bacon, cherry cake with whipped honey filling, and cookies that taste like cherry cheesecake.  Ok, I definitely need those and as always there are recipes included in the back for the die hard foodie to try out!

I will be anxiously waiting to see what Amy, Carla, and the rest of the gang will be up next time!  It’s important to note that these books do stand on their own but it’s so much fun to indulge in all of them so you can really get to know Amy and her friends.  Highly recommended!

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Source: Digital review copy was received from the author for an honest review. No compensation was received.