About this title: When Goldy Bear's ex-father-in-law dies from rat poisoning from coffee served by Goldy, the catering sleuth must closely examine the ingredients to track down a deadly killer and save her maligned business.
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Description: Good. Spine is well creased. Covers show wear at the edges and corners. Good Grade C average reading copy. Binding is Mass Market Paperback. Pages tanning. Used books may have price stickers. Most orders ship on the next business day. read more
Description: Very good. SOFTCOVER. MMPB. Very Nice Condition copy. Slight paper toning only. Some spine creases. All pages are present, clean and un-creased. Cover has no tears. No underlining, highlighting, tears, stamps, bookplates, remainder marks, price clips, etc. Not an Ex-library copy. I ship International orders by Air Mail. read more
Edition: 21st Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Fawcett Books, New York, NY, USA
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780449220467ISBN:044922046X
Description: Good. A Culinary Mystery. Book has spine/hinge creasing, moderate cover/edge wear, no writing or store stamps inside, page yellowing. read more
Description: Very Good. 044922046X This mass market paperback book is in between very good & good condition! ! Some creasing of the spine. Standard signs of wear from reading. Different cover from AMAZON. SMOKE FREE HOME! Do not settle for worn, torn, throwaways. Pay a few pennies more for a nice copy! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Fawcett
Date Published: 1992-08-23
ISBN-13:9780449220467ISBN:044922046X
Description: Good. Clean copy with normal wear for condition. Spine condition is normal or better for the condition. May have book store stamp, price marking or former owner name. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Fawcett Books
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780449220467ISBN:044922046X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. VERY GOOD + CONDITION, CLEAN AND TIGHT BOOK-SHIPS QUICKLY. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 320 p. Audience: General/trade. VERY GOOD + CONDITION, CLEAN AND TIGHT BOOK-SHIPS QUICKLY. Davidson, Diane Mott, Fawcett Crest Books paperback, 1993-5th printing. Bear, Goldy (Fictitious character); Caterers and catering; Colorado; Fiction; Mystery & Detective; Suspense; Women in the food industry; Women Sleuths read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Fawcett Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780449220467ISBN:044922046X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. Minimal edge wear, in great shape overall. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 320 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Fawcett Books
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780449220467ISBN:044922046X
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Good to Very Good condition. Shows storage and reading wear. Still a solid reading copy. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 320 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780553584707ISBN:0553584707
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
"This is the first book in the Goldy catering series.
Goldy lives in Aspen Meadow Colorado and is a divorced mom of a young boy named Arch. Her birth name is Gertrude Bear and she uses her nick-name of Goldy because she has blond hair. She has a degree in psychology, but hasn’t found a way to pay the bills with it. Since she’s a good cook, she started a catering business.
This book opens with Goldy catering at a wake for a deceased teacher - one of her son’s in fact. During the meal, someone is poisoned and Goldy is a suspect. Unfortunately her business has been shut down, and so she is catering to nobody.
I enjoyed this book but thought the characters were all pretty intense. I suppose that is quite realistic given all that has happened to Goldy and her son. I also enjoyed the banter between Goldy and police detective Tom Shultz, who has taken a personal interest in Goldy.
"This series is an easy light read for people who enjoy the escape of a good mystery. Nothing too dark or sinister, not real graphic just good mystery. Some of the plots are easier to figure out than others. I enjoyed the recipes but find that most of them are very complictaed with unusual ingredients. Some parts of the chapters where she goes on and on and on about the prep work of a specific dish can get boring but I guess if you like to cook these types of dishes it would be interesting. Easier if you read them in order as the character development happens throughout the whole series."
"Hmmm, I'm not sure what I think. Maybe it's because I'm new to this genre, but they have the weirdest conversations. Who talks like this? How 'bout the kid keeping secrets, collecting weapons and discussing how to make Molotov cocktails with his friends. Maybe this was written pre-Columbine, but what kind of parent puts off that conversation? I'd like to read more of the series and I'd like to try the (complicated-but-tasty looking) recipes. Maybe some of the characters will flesh out in the following books. I never would have suspected **** (you really didn't think I'd tell did you?)"
"I can't decide on two or three stars for this book. While it was interesting and readable I didn't really like any of the characters. Goldy is very pushy when questioning her friends and neighbors. I think a bit more subtlety could have gotten her further. She also seems more concerned with her business reopening rather than troubled by her son's favorite teacher's death. Regarding her son I also think that she's pretty laissez faire when it comes to discipline. I don't know about anyone else but if my son freaked out during a game of D&D and told his friend and mother to shut up and start waving a mini-sword around I know I would have sent him to his room and then to a shrink. Her son also has a deep friendship with one of the female teachers at school and yet Goldy never thinks about asking her son any questions about it or even checking to make sure that nothing inappropriate is going on. Especially when Goldy is thinking to herself that some of the things the woman has said seemed very strange and she wonders if she was unbalanced.
Even the side-line characters were pretty annoying. Trixie, who is a minor character (fortunately), spends the entire book yelling and belittling people. I also think that anyone who chucks a weight into a mirror during the exercise class that she's teaching won't be working at that health club very much longer but everything seems to be peachy-keen. Patty Sue is so unbelievably stupid and naive it stretches the bounds of imagination. The woman can't cook, can't clean, can't drive and does little throughout the book except stuff her face and sleep. The rationale for her being so useless is that her parents are rich so she has been very sheltered but her rich parents have no problem foisting her off on a single mother who now not only has to make ends meet for herself and her son but now has to support a 20 year old child who can't do squat and has no capabilities to learn. Apparently she will also swallow whatever bilge a person shovels out because they are an Authority Figure. I don't know about you but if my doctor told me that my "cure" depended on his having sex with me I would be booking for the door so fast the carpet would catch on fire. Her big rationale for obeying him is that "He's a doctor and he said that if I didn't cooperate he would call my parents and tell them that I was being uncooperative." Remember, this is from a twenty year old woman. Detective Shulz is by turns patronizing, slightly chauvanistic and seems more determined to get into the caterer's kitchen (and get her to go on dates with him) than he is in solving much of anything.
The police seem clueless to the point of being inept. For instance, the book opens with the "suicide" of a teacher. They're reasoning for suicide is that there was no forced entry and her wrists were slit. No one thinks to notice that the woman doesn't even shave her legs (hence no razors. Apparently in Colorado if you're into feminism you're required to not shave.) The police don't look into her past or even think to wonder why the woman's car is not there. The plot is pretty easy to figure out and by about the middle you'll figure it out for yourself.
I'll give the series one more try with the next book but if that doesn't spark anything for me then I'm done with it."
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