Double Shot

I have read many of Diane Mott Davidson's tasty mysteries featuring Coloradosmall town caterer Goldy Schulz. The only one I have posted about previously is Dark Tort; this is the 12th book in the series.  Goldy has a teenage son, a truly despicable ex-husband she calls The Jerk, a loving current husband who is a detective with the Sheriff's department, a good friend who is another ex of The Jerk's, and helpers in her catering business, notably Julian. 

In this installment, John Richard Korman (aka JRK or The Jerk) has had his jail sentence (for physical assault) commuted by the governor and has returned to Aspen Meadows and to making Goldy's life as miserable as he can. When Goldy gets to her new event center to start prepping for a lunch, she is attacked, and then finds that someone has shut off all her refrigeration and the food is all ruined. She scrambles to recover but wants to find out who hated her so much that they would physically harm her and try to damage her business. As usual, JRK precipitates an argument in front of the lunch group--first with a former physician colleague and then with Goldy. Later, when Goldy takes her son Arch to meet his father, ostensibly for golf lessons, she finds JRK shot dead in his garage. Now, because the police find a gun registered to Goldy outside the garage and because of the very public argument with JRK, Goldy is the primary suspect. As usual, she can't wait for the authorities to find the murderer, especially since her husband, Tom, has been removed from the investigation--for obvious reasons. So Goldy and fellow ex-wife and best friend Marla decide to investigate on their own. There is a wealth of clues and suspects, another murder follows, and eventually Goldy solves the mystery--in between catering events. 

While she often describes food prep in the text of the story, the recipes have all been moved to back of the book. There is, of course, an actual cookbook available with all "Goldy's" recipes. I read Davidson's books as a break from darker fare because they are fun, create a sense of small town life, and sound delicious. 

A brief review is available from Kirkus, and a highly entertaining one from Publishers Weekly.