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Chopping Spree
Scris de Diane Mott Davidson
Povestit de Barbara Rosenblat
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For Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz, business isn't just booming--it's skyrocketing. But as her friend Marla is constantly warning her, "Success can kill you." Goldy knows she needs to slow down before she breaks down, and she vows she'll do it--right after her next booking: a cocktail party for the Westside Mall's Elite Shoppers Club.
It's the event of the shopping season: the Princess Without a Pricetag party for the wealthy shopaholics who drop at least a thousand dollars a week at the mall. Goldy has been hired by charming mall manager Barry Dean to cater the jewel-encrusted affair. But she has hardly begun setting up when she finds herself in the path of a truck that has no intention of stopping until both she and Barry are crushed beneath it. Muddied, bruised, embarrassed, but determined to do her job, Goldy manages to get the party started on time with the help of her trusted assistants Julian Teller and Liz Fury.
But with the outbreak of an ugly marital spat among the guests, the behavior of Barry's flighty young girlfriend, and Barry's own strange actions after the truck incident, the event is--by Goldy's standards--a catastrophe. And it's about to get worse. When she goes to pick up her check, she finds an old friend lying dead in a pile of sale shoes--stabbed with one of Goldy's new knives. Hours later, Julian is the prime suspect in the murder.To prove Julian's innocence, Goldy must catch the real killer. But to do that, she will have to figure out why the victim was carrying a powerful narcotic. And why was a private investigator called in shortly before the murder? Was the killer connected to a mall renovation project--or the eviction of a disgruntled tenant? Or was the villain the odd lover out in a violent love triangle?
Between whipping up Sweethearts? Swedish Meatballs, Quiche Me Quick, and Diamond Lovers? Hot Crab Dip, and digging up clues, Goldy knows this is going to be one tough case to crack. And her gourmet sleuth's instinct tells her that the final course will be a real killer.
It's the event of the shopping season: the Princess Without a Pricetag party for the wealthy shopaholics who drop at least a thousand dollars a week at the mall. Goldy has been hired by charming mall manager Barry Dean to cater the jewel-encrusted affair. But she has hardly begun setting up when she finds herself in the path of a truck that has no intention of stopping until both she and Barry are crushed beneath it. Muddied, bruised, embarrassed, but determined to do her job, Goldy manages to get the party started on time with the help of her trusted assistants Julian Teller and Liz Fury.
But with the outbreak of an ugly marital spat among the guests, the behavior of Barry's flighty young girlfriend, and Barry's own strange actions after the truck incident, the event is--by Goldy's standards--a catastrophe. And it's about to get worse. When she goes to pick up her check, she finds an old friend lying dead in a pile of sale shoes--stabbed with one of Goldy's new knives. Hours later, Julian is the prime suspect in the murder.To prove Julian's innocence, Goldy must catch the real killer. But to do that, she will have to figure out why the victim was carrying a powerful narcotic. And why was a private investigator called in shortly before the murder? Was the killer connected to a mall renovation project--or the eviction of a disgruntled tenant? Or was the villain the odd lover out in a violent love triangle?
Between whipping up Sweethearts? Swedish Meatballs, Quiche Me Quick, and Diamond Lovers? Hot Crab Dip, and digging up clues, Goldy knows this is going to be one tough case to crack. And her gourmet sleuth's instinct tells her that the final course will be a real killer.
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Începeți să ascultațiInformații despre carte
Chopping Spree
Scris de Diane Mott Davidson
Povestit de Barbara Rosenblat
Descriere
For Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz, business isn't just booming--it's skyrocketing. But as her friend Marla is constantly warning her, "Success can kill you." Goldy knows she needs to slow down before she breaks down, and she vows she'll do it--right after her next booking: a cocktail party for the Westside Mall's Elite Shoppers Club.
It's the event of the shopping season: the Princess Without a Pricetag party for the wealthy shopaholics who drop at least a thousand dollars a week at the mall. Goldy has been hired by charming mall manager Barry Dean to cater the jewel-encrusted affair. But she has hardly begun setting up when she finds herself in the path of a truck that has no intention of stopping until both she and Barry are crushed beneath it. Muddied, bruised, embarrassed, but determined to do her job, Goldy manages to get the party started on time with the help of her trusted assistants Julian Teller and Liz Fury.
But with the outbreak of an ugly marital spat among the guests, the behavior of Barry's flighty young girlfriend, and Barry's own strange actions after the truck incident, the event is--by Goldy's standards--a catastrophe. And it's about to get worse. When she goes to pick up her check, she finds an old friend lying dead in a pile of sale shoes--stabbed with one of Goldy's new knives. Hours later, Julian is the prime suspect in the murder.To prove Julian's innocence, Goldy must catch the real killer. But to do that, she will have to figure out why the victim was carrying a powerful narcotic. And why was a private investigator called in shortly before the murder? Was the killer connected to a mall renovation project--or the eviction of a disgruntled tenant? Or was the villain the odd lover out in a violent love triangle?
Between whipping up Sweethearts? Swedish Meatballs, Quiche Me Quick, and Diamond Lovers? Hot Crab Dip, and digging up clues, Goldy knows this is going to be one tough case to crack. And her gourmet sleuth's instinct tells her that the final course will be a real killer.
It's the event of the shopping season: the Princess Without a Pricetag party for the wealthy shopaholics who drop at least a thousand dollars a week at the mall. Goldy has been hired by charming mall manager Barry Dean to cater the jewel-encrusted affair. But she has hardly begun setting up when she finds herself in the path of a truck that has no intention of stopping until both she and Barry are crushed beneath it. Muddied, bruised, embarrassed, but determined to do her job, Goldy manages to get the party started on time with the help of her trusted assistants Julian Teller and Liz Fury.
But with the outbreak of an ugly marital spat among the guests, the behavior of Barry's flighty young girlfriend, and Barry's own strange actions after the truck incident, the event is--by Goldy's standards--a catastrophe. And it's about to get worse. When she goes to pick up her check, she finds an old friend lying dead in a pile of sale shoes--stabbed with one of Goldy's new knives. Hours later, Julian is the prime suspect in the murder.To prove Julian's innocence, Goldy must catch the real killer. But to do that, she will have to figure out why the victim was carrying a powerful narcotic. And why was a private investigator called in shortly before the murder? Was the killer connected to a mall renovation project--or the eviction of a disgruntled tenant? Or was the villain the odd lover out in a violent love triangle?
Between whipping up Sweethearts? Swedish Meatballs, Quiche Me Quick, and Diamond Lovers? Hot Crab Dip, and digging up clues, Goldy knows this is going to be one tough case to crack. And her gourmet sleuth's instinct tells her that the final course will be a real killer.
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Goldilocks' Catering is booming, and Goldy is frazzled by all the work she's getting. She's set to cater a party for rich shoppers at a local mall, and a few days later cater another party for the owner of one of the stores at the mall. Someone ends up dead, and Goldy's beloved one-time assistant Julian is jailed for murder. (At this point, I thought surely I had already read this one, but no.) Oh, and son Arch is about to turn 15, and has the sort of ridiculous demands for a gift that would have gotten me locked in my room until I was 25, rather than being indulged. Sigh.I really, really, really wish the author could control her cartoonish impulses to put Goldy into ridiculous situations that don't just strain credulity, they snap it off at the root. And while I know many teenage boys are jerks, could we just see and hear a little less of this one? Again, the recipes are the real stars here. The rest of it's pretty bad.
Rating: 3The plot for this mystery revolves around competition and jealousy. With multiple examples of over the top materialism and greed, the list of suspects seems pretty long. Leave it to Goldy to figure out the (literal) clues her friend leaves her. The title is a nice play on words as well, since shopping sprees are very much featured.
Rating: 4Some mystery
Some recipes (actually good ones!)
Some easy characters and reading.
Reading my way thru this series now and in future.
Read in 2004.
Rating: 3Some recipes (actually good ones!)
Some easy characters and reading.
Reading my way thru this series now and in future.
Read in 2004.
Goldy meddles, ignores police advice, figures out stuff (like who did it) and drinks a lot of coffee. And, oh yes, she caters, too.Interesting tidbit: too much caffeine can mess up a polygraph. Something to remember if you want your results to appear positive.Recipes far too rich and fattening for me, but I still would like her kitchen.
Rating: 3Chopping Spree by Diane Mott Davidson is the 11th book in the Goldy Bear catering series. It is also the only one not performed by Barbara Rosenblat. As I didn't want to revisit familiar characters with a different voice, I read the book in print.Goldy's catering service is taking off. It's the first time ever that she's earned enough money to think about splurging on things. Her now teenage son, Arch, has taken notice and has been bitten by the consumer bug. He wants an expensive guitar for his birthday. Goldy, feeling guilty for all their tight years as a single mother, agrees begrudgingly to get it for him after her catering gig at the new mall is complete.Goldy also needing to pick up her gratuity after the investors' dinner at the mall, stumbles upon her employer among a heap of shoes. Before she do anything about it (like call 911), she's clonked on the head.In fact, Goldy gets clonked on the head a lot in this book. When she's not being clonked on the head, she's drinking espresso — by the gallon it seems.The mystery here revolves around problems with the mall construction. I think the inclusion of a mega mall in the otherwise rural / ski and hiking oriented Aspen Meadow area made believing the events of this book less plausible. Maybe too, it was the change in medium from audio to paper.Then there was Arch's personality. He's usually a good, quiet kid who gets obsessed on his current hobby. Here, he's interested in music but he's so demanding. It's not like him and his personality change seemed mostly there for the sake of motivating the earliest chapters of the mystery.
Rating: 4Pretty fast, easy read. I didn't suspect whodunnit before the end.
Rating: 3This was definitely my least favorite in the series. I enjoyed it - I mean, it's Diane Mott Davidson, how bad can it be? - but there were a lot of materialistic characters, the stakes were low, suspense almost nonexistent, and Goldy's son Arch was almost completely obnoxious (until the end). I kept waiting for some moralizing about the acquisitiveness of the characters, but Goldy almost seemed to be buying into it - going to great lengths to get Arch an expensive guitar, Palm Pilot, etc. - while gorging herself with food. I am pretty sure the series got back on track after this one, however.
Rating: 3This was another good one by Davidson, however it wasnt as quick of a read as the others in the series. It wasnt as captivation. However a good read, I would definatley recommend this book and series to others that love mysteries.
Rating: 4I love this series. Great plot, you can't help but fall in love with Goldy and her sleuthing antics. Great recipes as well.
Rating: 5When Goldy Schulz is hired to cater a jewelry-leasing event in the Elite Shoppers’ Lounge at upscale Westside Mall, she doesn’t count on stumbling over the body of her client and old college chum Barry Dean, the mall’s general manager. Readers count on it, though. After all, murder is all in a day’s work for Goldy, owner of Goldilocks’ Catering and heroine in ten of Diane Mott Davidson’s earlier culinary mysteries, all set in Aspen Meadows, Colorado. Never shy about nosing her way into police investigations, this time Goldy is particularly interested because 22-year-old Julian Teller, her catering assistant, close family friend and niece of Marla Korman – Goldy’s best friend – is in jail charged with the murder. Getting into a fist-waving argument with the victim just before the murder and being caught with his hands on the murder weapon don’t particularly help Julian’s case. Goldy knows for certain Julian couldn’t kill anyone and sets out to find who did. Goldy uncovers several people who had better motives to kill Barry Dean than poor Julian did. Shane Stockham, the mall’s “Gadget Guy;” Teddy Fury, son of another of Goldy’s employees, whom Dean banned from the mall for shoplifting; Ellie McNeely, a banker who was dating Dean and who was likely being two-timed; and Lucas “No-Toe” Holden, who quit suddenly as construction manager for the mall’s renovation project all come under Goldy’s scrutiny. Shopaholism is a peripheral theme in Chopping Spree – but the author isn’t judgmental and doesn’t go overboard into preachiness. The Elite Shoppers’ Lounge, for example, is a club of sorts for shoppers who spend at least $1,000 per week at the mall. And the jewelry-leasing event that precedes the murder features $100,000+ jewelry items being leased for $2-6 thousand per month. Goldy is amazed to learn the Elite Shoppers’ Lounge is home to regular meetings of Shopaholics Anonymous – kind of like an AA group meeting in a bar. Diane Mott Davidson is a tried-and-true mystery writer I’ve been reading since the start of the series in 1990. I’ve been disappointed with the plots of the last few, but with Chopping Spree, I believe the series is back on track. The author is a master at creating multi-dimensional characters and delightfully complex plots – and with Chopping Spree, she’s in top form. Chopping Spree’s pages are also interspersed with ten recipes – with such themed dishes as Shoppers’ Chocolate Truffles and Diamond Lovers’ Hot Crab Dip. First published in Mystery News, August-September 2002.
Rating: 4Enjoy this character, love hearing about cooking/recipes
Rating: 3