Suzanne Hart owns Donut Hearts doughnut shop on Main Street in April Springs, North Carolina. She enjoys spoiling her customers and working with her employee, Emma. The start of ILLEGALLY ICED sees her friend, blacksmith James Settle, stabbed to death. Soon after, one of the locals accuses Suzanne of killing James since they had gotten into an argument earlier that morning.

Having been accused of murder before and knowing how quickly small town gossip can spread, Suzanne is determined to prove her innocence. Though the police believe her alibi (a customer vouches for the fact that she never left her shop all day), she wants to catch the killer and lay any doubt to rest once and for all.

Suzanne's friend Grace decides to help when she unexpectedly receives an unpaid week off of work. One of the biggest puzzles is how someone managed to kill James in broad daylight in a crowded park without anyone seeing what happening. While they try to figure that out, they investigate James' life and find out that he wasn't who they thought he was. He's been living under an assumed name, is the heir to a large fortune, and is part of a family who founded a nearby town. He had a disagreement with his family when he tried to rid himself of his portion of the family fortune, and he lived out the rest of his life away from them.

Suzanne and Grace set out to discover how much of his past life has come back to haunt James. Did his status as the black sheep of the family cost him his life? The sleuthing pair trek to his hometown and dig into his past, digging up family secrets in an effort to figure out who had the biggest motive to kill him. Could someone from his own family really kill him? Or does the answer lie with his ex-girlfriend?

ILLEGALLY ICED is a fun mystery filled with characters who never fail to deliver. Suzanne and Grace are alternately fun, funny, and clever, but never at inappropriate moments. Suzanne serves as a maternal mentor to Emma, while she still lets her mother nurture her. Her mother, in turn, navigates the dating scene with the local police chief, which sometimes presents Suzanne with tricky situations. Overall, these characters come together for a great read.