Review of "Dark Tort: A Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery" by Diane Mott Davidson

In this 13th book in the 'Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery' series, Goldy Schulz, who's a professional caterer and amateur sleuth, sets out to discover who killed her neighbor. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****



Goldy Schulz, who has a catering business in Aspen Meadows, Colorado, caters delicious breakfasts for a local law firm and occasionally provides food for lawyer-client meetings.



Things take a bad turn when Goldy arrives at the law firm one night - to prepare for the next day - and stumbles over the body of her young neighbor Dusty Routt. Dusty had been training to be a paralegal for the law firm and was meeting Goldy for a cooking lesson.



Dusty's mother doesn't trust the police and begs Goldy to find out what happened to her daughter. Goldy, who's solved many murders in the past, agrees. To find Dusty's murderer, Goldy does her own sleuthing AND gets inside information from her husband Tom Schulz, who's a sheriff's detective.



As Goldy is snooping around she discovers that there have been shenanigans at the law firm, including extramarital affairs. Goldy also learns that Dusty may have stumbled on irregularities in the affairs of Charlie Baker, a deceased client and famous artist, whose possessions she was inventorying.



As all this is going on, Goldy caters a birthday party for one of the firm's lawyers; gives driving lessons to her fifteen-year-old son Arch (which are ALWAYS a disaster 😊); hosts Arch's recently discovered half-brother; prepares recipes with her assistant Julian; chitchats with her best friend Marla; snuggles with her hubby Tom; and so on.

There are plenty of suspects, but Goldy sorts through the flotsam and jetsam to solve the case.

The novel isn't as good as the early books in the series (IMO). The stories were more interesting when Goldy was a single mother struggling to make a living who had to deal with an abusive (but colorful) ex-husband named John Richard Korman (aka 'the jerk'). It was satisfying to see Goldy and her friend Marla plot against the troublemaker.

It's great that Goldy is now settled down and happily married, but the cozies are less exciting. Still, this is a pleasant read to pass an afternoon.

FYI: There's food preparation throughout the story, and - for people whose taste buds are stimulated - the recipes (including crustless asparagus quiche) are furnished at the end.


Crustless Asparagus Quiche

Rating: 3 stars