Living in a small town in the mountains outside of Denver, figuring out the criminal in the style of the old who-dun-its and inspiring me to play gourmet chef, Goldy is my latest favorite character and Diane Mott Davidson my latest favorite author.
"A cross between Mary Higgins Clark and Betty Crocker."--The Sun, Baltimore
The quote on the cover of the Bantam paperbacks intrigued me. Already of fan of Clark and a sometimes gourmet cook wanna-be, I was hooked.
Books
c. 1990
Fawcett Crest
ISBN 0-449-22046-X
Catering the wake of her son's favorite teacher is not Goldy's idea of fun. Particularly when her former father-in-law passes out, nearly felled by a dose of rat poison.Investigating officer Tom Schulz, though smitten with Goldy and her food, is forced to shut down her business. That's the last straw. Goldy can't cater without a kitchen, so she'll just have to find the rat who posoned the coffee.
Everyone--from Goldy's ex-husband's other ex-wife to her eleven-year-old son Arch--seems to know more than Goldy does. Bus as she begins following the recipe to its logical conclusion, Goldy discovers that some very unsavory ingredients are flavoring the neighborhood and posoning her own family with the bitter taste of deceit and revenge.
Davidson's first novel, Catering has a somewhat different feel to it than her later novels. Goldy is portrayed as angier (we'll say it is because her divorce was more recent) and the pace is choppier. Overall, I enjoyed the book as background since I read later ones first, but prefer her later works.
c. 1992
Bantam Books
ISBN 0-553-56024-7
Cover art by David O'Connor
The CatererMeet Goldy Bear: a bright, opinionated, wildly inventive caterer whose personal life has become a recipe for disaster. She's got an abusive ex-husband who's into making tasteless threats, a rash of mounting bills that are taking a huge bite out of her budget, and two enticing men knocking on her door.
The Dish
Now, determined to take control of her life, Goldy moves her business and her son to ritzy Aspen Meadow Country Club, where she accepts a job as a live-in cook. But just as she's beginning to think she's got it made--catering decadent dinners and posh society picnics and enjoying the favors of Philip Miller, a handsome local shrink, and Tom Schulz, her more-than-friendly neighborhood cop--the dishy doctor inexplicably drives his BMW into an oncoming bus.
The Unsavory Killer
Convinced that Philip's bizarre death was no accident, Goldy decides to do a little investigating of her own. But sifting through the unpalatable secrets of the dead doc's life will toss her into a case seasoned with unexpected danger and even more unexpected revelations--the kind that could get a caterer and the son she loves...killed."
With a title like this, it's hard to live up to expectations. New publisher, new style. Davidson fleshes out her characters in Dying, which feels more like her later books.
c. 1993
Bantam Books
ISBN 0-553-56773-X
A Delectable DinnerThanks to her recent adventures in Dying for Chocolate, Goldy Bear, the premier caterer of Aspen Meadow, Colorado, is no stranger to violence--or to sudden death. But when she agrees to cater the first College Advisory Dinner for Seniors and Parents at the exclusive Elk Park Preparatory School, the last thing she expects to find at the end of the evening is the battered body of the school valedictorian.
A Fresh Corpse
Who could have killed Keith Andrews, and why? Goldy's hungry for some answers--and not just because she found the corpse. Her young son, Arch, a student at Elk Park Prep, has become a target for some not-so-funny pranks, while her eighteen-year-old live-in helper, Julian, has become a prime suspect in the Andrews boy's murder.
A Truly Tasteless Killer
As her investigation intensifies, Goldy's anxiety level rises faster than her homemade doughnuts...as she turns up evidence that suggests Keith knew more than enough to blow the lid off some very unscholarly secrets. And then, as her search rattles one skeleton too many, Goldy learns a crucial fact: a little knowledge about a killer can be a deadly thing.
Goldy finally agrees to marry Schulz--what took her so long? As the first Davidson novel I read, this is still my favorite. We actually get to know Julian a little bit, and the recipe for Cereal Killer Cookies sounds so good! (I'm going to try to obtain permission to reprint the recipes here.) Next time I'm in Denver, I want to visit Tattered Cover Bookstore, where parts of the book took place.
c. 1994
Bantam Books
ISBN 0-553-09587-0
Cover art by David O'Connor
It should be the happiest day of Goldy the caterer's life.... After years of struggling to put the disaster of her first marriage behind her, she has finally found the courage to love again. And soon she'll be walking down the aisle of St. Luke's Episcopal Church to wed big-bodied, big-hearted Tom Schulz, a county homicide detective who shares Goldy's passions for preparing food and solving crimes. But moments after Goldy's put the finishing touches on the scrumptious reception feast, and just before the ceremony is to begin, she receives an urgent phone call from the groom himself. The wedding is off, and the reason is murder....
The Last Suppers starts off with every bride's nightmare (whether she has ever thought of it or not)--last-minute postponement of the wedding because the priest was murdered--and quickly progresses to her worst nightmare--a missing groom. With Schulz missing for the entire book, Goldy hones her detective skills. As a current seminary student, the religious references fascinated me.
c. 1995
Bantam
ISBN 0-553-09588-9
I haven't tried the recipe for Killer Pancakes (I will report results when I do), but I was glad to see Goldy exploring some low-fat recipes. The story itself enthralled me as expected, maybe a little overkill on the cooking descriptions. I missed Marla, since her part was much smaller than in previous books, but Frances Markasian, the black trenchcoated, Jolt drinking, chain smoking journalist, was developed more fully.
Link to Bantam page on Killer Pancakes
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