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Double Shot

by Diane Mott Davidson

Mystery author Diane Mott Davidson continues her very successful series of caterer and sometime sleuth Goldy Bear with Double Shot. Writing what is often called the 'cozy' mystery, Ms. Davidson manages to combine Agatha Christie type plots with a touch of Julia Child, and does it very well. Like Christie's Miss Marple, Goldy Bear isn't a professional private investigator or detective, but unlike Miss Marple, Goldy is often driven to unearthing the real culprit only because she is so often directly implicated or involved herself. Diane Mott Davidson always includes complete yummy recipes in her books, underlining this author's own love of cooking – and although the idea of including recipes isn't entirely new, the inclusion of such delightful, mouth-watering concoctions is. And I can vouch for both their authenticity and their delightfulness since I've tried some of them myself!

Double Shot begins with an attack on Goldy Bear. Arriving at her newly purchased Roundhouse facility early (five in the morning) with a cart full of pastries she'd baked at home for the Dr. Albert Kerr Memorial Luncheon, she's hit on the head and her cart upset by a fugitive in black with a ski mask. Later she also discovers that the compressors for the two walk-in refrigerators where she'd stored the rest of the food for the memorial service had been turned off, and all the food spoiled.

Hurrying to clean up the mess and replace the spoiled food involves Goldy's friend Marla, Goldy's husband Tom – who happens to be a cop – along with the policeman who first responded to her 911 call (a man named Sawyer), and her own staff which temporarily includes her son Arch. The luncheon brings together most of the people from the ob-gyn section of Southwest Hospital, where Dr. Albert Kerr had performed. They include most of the characters who will play major roles in the story, and include Albert's widow, Holly, Ted Vicarios and his wife Ginger with the questionable taste in clothes and makeup, the overweight gossip reporter Cecelia Brisbane from The Mountain Journal, Nan Watkins, an older nurse, Courtney MacEwan, recently dumped by Goldy's former husband John Richard Korman – who was also there with his newest and youngest girlfriend Sandee Blue.

John Richard was a handsome man, just released from an all-too-short prison term by the governor because he'd saved the life of a prison guard. The governor obviously knew nothing of John's abusive behavior with all his many wives and girlfriends including Goldy and Marla. They called him The Jerk.

While Goldy is trying to decide who might want to destroy her business, her ex-husband also insists on her bringing their son to see him at 4 PM that afternoon – a time extremely inconvenient for Goldy. But when she and Arch arrive at the house he's temporarily renting, no one seems to be home. Then Goldy discovers him in his car – in the garage – shot in the chest – and very, very dead.

Goldy is blamed for the murder, and her husband placed at a remove from the case. In order to save herself, Goldy attempts to discover who actually killed him and why. It doesn't help when another murder takes place.

Throughout the novel, whenever Goldy finds herself stressed out or preparing for another job, she tends to cook. And the reader is supplied with descriptions and smells of all preparations – along with the actual recipes which can now be located in the back of the book. Only a dedicated cook such as Diane Mott Davidson could write the kind of prose that has you drooling with anticipation and the definite desire to sample these inspired concoctions. Plus the fact that only a good author could so successfully combine such delicacies with cold-blooded murder.

Double Shot is only one of Diane Mott Davidson's books, albeit a recent one. But Ms. Davidson's expertise is evident throughout all
twelve of the Goldy books she's written so far. My only concern is that Ms. Davidson must actually weigh far more than her jacket photo shows. With all that delicious food she's got to weigh at least three hundred pounds!

Alan Paul Curtis

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