News of retired cop-turned-private -investigator Ernest McLeod’s
murder sets several parallel stories in motion for caterer/sleuth
Goldy Schulz in the latest culinary mystery, “Crunch Time,” by
popular Colorado writer Diane Mott Davidson, who started her series
17 years ago with “Catering to Nobody.”
As Goldy sets out to help her friend and fellow caterer,
Cuban-American Yolanda Garcia and her wonderfully eccentric Aunt
Ferdinanda, she learns that Ernest had several investigations
underway that will perhaps offer clues, or red herrings as to
whodunit.
Yolanda has just left an abusive relationship with wealthy Kris
Nielsen, seen her rental home burned as well as Ernest’s house,
where she and her aunt were living.
And then there are nine beagle puppies needing homes as a result
of a raid on a puppy mill, an arrogant Cuban wheeler-dealer who
stole from another Cuban man, an errant husband, several women
behaving erratically and Goldy’s sturdy, kind husband Tom, a
sheriff’s deputy and several of his colleagues in the picture.
Goldy has several near catastrophes due to her curiosity and
determination to solve the murder.
And then another body appears...
Davidson’s books are filled with descriptions of Colorado
scenes, colorful characters, tense situations often followed by a
delicious meal. Light and entertaining, they are well written and
structured. With good reason, she has many fans locally and across
the nation — this latest title is a New York Times best seller.
Interspersed with incidents possibly related to the murder are
catering jobs and descriptions of those scenes and the people
involved, as well as the food preparation involved in each.
“Crunch Time” is her term for the tense period just before a
party starts, when there are seemingly a million things to do.
Goldy invents a Crunch Time cookie recipe for a high school event,
with hungry boys in mind, including her own son Arch.
When Davidson isn’t writing, she is often cooking, and as is her
custom, that cookie recipe and several others, including Aunt
Ferdinanda’s Cuban pork and spinach quiche are included at the end
of the book — a real bonus after reading about those delicious
dishes and almost smelling them.
“Crunch Time” should be available at Tattered Cover and other
local bookstores or at your nearest public library.
