Sweet Revenge

I've enjoyed other books in this series of Goldy the Colorado Crime Solver/Caterer, but this one is just plain bad. I actually searched on the internet to see if she started using a ghost writer. The "local color" was mostly rich folks houses. Her repeating characters were out-of-character and there were too many other characters. Not surprised so many reviewers gave this one poor marks. Took me forever to finish.

Skip to the last chapter. Read that. It's faster and less painful.

I can suspend reality and accept the coincidences of all those involved in the murders are in Goldy's life right now, that she's super-sleuth compared to the cops, and similar quirks associated with the murder-mystery genre. But Super Goldy, as she is in this book, is just too much. What human can set up for a catering event, and deal with cops after finding a body one evening, then the next day cater three events, plus run around town, deal with visitors dropping by, and taxi her son and his friends from snowboarding, and the next day get up early for church, crash a car, fall down a ravine (hitting treeS and rocks), run around town again, visit the ski slope and be show more knocked out, go to the hospital, get up the next morning for a quickie with her husband before catering another event...and solve a mystery. Did I mention that it was snowing the whole time? Caffeine is great, but please. That's 72 hours. No way.

My other big beef with the book is that the plot, at least for the first half of the book, only moves along by people TELLING Goldy information. What a boring way to develop a mystery. And then once a chapter (at least) Goldy reviews the information and events (I swear she narrates the main murder three or four times within 50 pages of it happening). She throws in speculation/question after speculation/question that are already obvious to a reader only half paying attention. "Why is Sandee here? How did she not die in the fire? Who murdered Drew Wellington?" Duh. We realize those are questions to be answered: you don't have to spell them out for us OVER AND OVER.

The characters are all pretty flat and unimaginative, and in this audio version, the men all sound impatient, angry, and rude; the women are self-centred and weepy; and the kids are whiners. Or maybe that's just the writing.

If you like to read a chapter a week, this book is for you. If you want to be treated like an intelligent reader, try [a:PD James|344522|P.D. James|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1245013536p2/344522.jpg]. I think I'm done with Goldy Bear and her stupid catering business "Where everything is just right boring". show less

The holiday season means lots of business for Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz. She has a full weekend of bookings, starting with a Saturday morning staff breakfast at the public library. Goldy's event set-up isn't the only thing going on at the library late on Friday afternoon. Just before closing, ex-DA Drew Wellington is found dead in a corner of the library. Who might the culprit be? His ex-wife? His current fiancee? A disgruntled partner in his map dealing business? A rival dealer? An unhappy client? Goldy will have an opportunity to do some sleuthing as most of the suspects are on the guest lists of her weekend catering events.

All of the suspects have something to hide, and their behaviors provide lots of red herrings. I found show more Goldy's behavior really irritating in this one. She couldn't stop meddling in her policeman husband, Tom's, investigation, and made a nuisance of herself with his police colleagues. Why Goldy and Tom aren't headed for divorce court, or at least marriage counseling, is beyond me.

I usually try to read series books in order, but for some reason I've never done that with this series. In this case, it was a mistake. The events in this book are closely tied to an earlier book in the series that I haven't yet read. This book includes major plot spoilers for the earlier book. Thus, I recommend that you read Double Shot before reading this one. show less

I've read other books in this series but not necessarily in order. I found this one on the book exchange shelves at the Y. I don't think it's the best in the series.

There are a couple different "mysteries" going on in this book, so not all the plot points go to the same mystery.

Goldy makes stupid choices--and more than once within the confines of this novel. Sometimes I do wonder how she's still alive--or what it will take to smarten her choices. Then again, I also wonder why people keep choosing her as their caterer when dead people seem to "follow" her around, so . . .

I enjoyed the history of maps that was a small part of this book's plot. It was interesting to learn that maps had to sometimes be smuggled out in the past because they show more were considered an important commodity--and also to learn about some of the inventive ways people found to smuggle them out. show less

Another good installment in the Goldy the Caterer series. My only complaint was the killer who came back from the dead bit was rather cheesy. I didn't expect that from this author. The rest of the story was the usual comic happenings.

Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson is the fourteenth of the Goldy Bear mysteries. As with all of the others I've read, I listened to an unabridged audio performed by Barbara Rosenblat. I'm not being particularly careful about reading these books in order. Sweet Revenge comes immediately before Fatally Flaky.

Sweet Revenge takes place in those weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Goldy is completely booked with catering gigs, enough, to leave her extra through the post holiday slump. Things go awry, though, when a rather surly map collector is found dead at the public library.

Goldy is further distracted from her obligations by the potential reappearance of another of her ex-husband's exes. This character's role Sweet Revenge is by show more far the most spoilery piece of the mystery. Thankfully, though, Goldy in her internal monologues provide enough background to follow along.

Although I do enjoy these Goldy Bear mysteries, I know a big part of that enjoyment falls to Barbara Rosenblat's performance. Without her somewhat askew take on Goldy, I would be questioning the character's motivation — especially when she is dropping her work to recklessly put herself in danger in the hope of solving the mystery. Rosenblat, though, just plays Goldy as crazy and it makes these otherwise unbelievable scenes, fun.

As with some of the other books in the series, I figured out the gist of the mystery long before Goldy did. Some of the clues this time seemed rather basic — details that one would expect to find in a Scooby Do, rather than an adult mystery (even a cozy). How though everything is tied together was something I couldn't quite get. Having a surprising end made of a satisfying audio book. show less

Goldy Schulz, caterer, thinks she sees the murderer of her ex. Said murderer died in a forest fire, but no remains were ever found. It is Christmas time in Aspen Meadow, Colorado, the busiest time of the year for caterers. Goldy is hired to cater a breakfast at the public library. However, the afternoon before the event, a former DA and map connoisseur is found dead in the library. The murderer could be the same woman who killed Goldy's ex last summer. Goldy also has a few events to cater for a wealthy map collector. Lots of quirky characters, stolen maps, catering events, blackmail, vengeful ex-wives, ski boarding, winter storms, stymied police, haircuts, and the holidays create mayhem in Aspen Meadow.

The book is written very unevenly. show more The author has reverted back to having Goldy constantly reviewing the crime over and over, ad nauseum, which put me to sleep, so I skipped over this several times. This puts a crimp on the
action and sometimes fun dialogue. Also, I'm rather tired of Goldy's son Arch's constant teenaged angst and general spoiled brat behavior. Despite this, it is an interesting plot, but could have been edited into a much better read. show less