Part of Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery, book 8
First published 2000
Caterer Goldy Schulz watches her business crumble as a ruthless competitor drives away clients. Her kitchen lies in ruins thanks to a bungling contractor. She agrees to cater a fashion shoot at a remote nineteenth-century mountain cabin with her mentor, French chef André Hibbard. The pair battle an ancient kitchen while serving a shallow crowd of models and photographers. Personal conflicts explode when someone hurls a camera through a window into the buffet table. Then Goldy's contractor turns up dead, hanging in her friend's house. A second murder follows. Goldy must crack the case while preparing for a high-society event that could save or destroy her catering business. Her detective husband Tom has been suspended by an overzealous district attorney, leaving her to investigate alone. The mystery involves stolen historical cookbooks, food sabotage, and the contractor's sordid history. Goldy races to solve the murders before she becomes the killer's next target.
Genres: mystery, contemporary, cozy-mystery, culinary
Vibes: cozy, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family
Setting: Mountain Cabin
Period: 19th-Century
368 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Bantam