Stars, Stripes & Murder: An Oceanside Cozy Mystery – Book 38 by Susan Gillard

The Fourth of July is just a few days away and Heather Shepherd has created the perfect donut to celebrate the big day, the Red, White, and Blue Baked Coke Donut.

The whole community of Key West, Florida was excited about all the fun that was planned for the Fourth. Unfortunately, murder crept its way in to put a damper on everyone’s good time.

When an explosion was heard on the beach everyone ran to see what happened. It was there they found Gary Ozmore laying on the sand, dead and burned from the fireworks he was setting up for the festivities. For years Gary did the fireworks display. He also had a band that played for everyone. No one could believe that Gary made a mistake that would kill him, he’d been doing the fireworks for too long and was very careful.

Upon investigation it was soon discovered that someone fooled around with the remote ignition button and killed Gary. But who would do that? He was a well-liked man and had no enemies.

Heather, her best friend, bakery assistant, and fellow P.I., Amy Givens, along with the police department, start to investigate and they soon found some suspects. Could the murderer have been one of Gary’s band members who might have been jealous of him? Could it have been one of the people who spoke to Gary as he was setting up the display on the beach? Was it a neighbor who Gary asked to watch the fireworks when he left for a few minutes, or was it the wife of one of the town’s officials? It could have been any of them or someone else but Heather is determined to find the guilty culprit so the rest of Key West would be able to celebrate the nation’s birthday.

“Stars, Stripes & Murder” is the 38th book in author Susan Gillard’s Oceanside Cozy Mystery Series and it’s a real blast. All the usual characters are there helping Heather to not only solve the murder but to partake of her delicious donuts.

The book is fun even though there is that murder to solve but everything turns out for the best at the end.

This a terrific novel to read on the beach during a heat wave waiting for your town’s fireworks display to begin.

“I received an ARC of this book prior to publication and I voluntarily review it and my opinions are my own.”

To see other reviews of Susan Gillard’s books please go to Susan’s page on my blog.