Goldy Schulz Culinary Mysteries 1-17 - Diane Mott Davidson

Written by Diane Mott Davidson
Read by Barbara Rosenblat
Format: MP3
Unabridged

Goldy Bear/Goldy Schultz Culinary Mystery series
by Diane Mott Davidson
Books 1-17, Pub 1990-2013

Book 1 Catering to Nobody
published 1990
Catering a wake is not Goldy’s idea of fun. Yet the Colorado caterer throws herself into preparing a savory feast including Poached Salmon and Strawberry Shortcake Buffet designed to soothe forty mourners. And her culinary efforts seem to be exactly what the doctor ordered…until her ex-father-in-law gynecologist Fritz Korman is struck down and Goldy is accused of adding poison to the menu. Now, with the Department of Health impounding her leftovers, her ex-husband proclaiming her guilt, and her business about to be shut down, Goldy knows she can’t wait for the police to serve up the answers. She’ll soon uncover more than one family skeleton and a veritable stew of unpalatable secrets–the kind that could make Goldy the main course in an unsavory killer’s next murder!

Book 2 Dying for Chocolate
published 1992
Now determined to take control of her life, Goldy moves her business and her son to ritzy Aspen Meadow Country Club, where she accepts a job as a live-in cook. But just as she’s beginning to think she’s got it made–catering decadent dinners and posh society picnics and enjoying the favors of Philip Miller, a handsome local shrink, and Tom Shulz, her more-than-friendly neighborhood cop–the dishy doctor inexplicably drives his BMW into an oncoming bus.
Convinced that Philip’s bizarre death was no accident, Goldy decides to do a little investigating of her own. But sifting through the unpalatable secrets of the dead doc’s life will toss her into a case seasoned with unexpected danger and even more unexpected revelations–the kind that could get a caterer and the son she loves. . .killed.

Book 3 The Cereal Murders
published 1993
Thanks to her recent adventures in Dying for Chocolate, Goldy Bear, the premier caterer of Aspen Meadow, Colorado, is no stranger to violence–or sudden death. But when she agrees to cater the first College Advisory Dinner for Seniors and Parents at the exclusive Elk Park Preparatory School, the last thing she expects to find at the end of the evening is the battered body of the school valedictorian.
Who could have killed Keith Andrews, and why? Goldy’s hungry for some answers–and not just because she found the corpse. Her young son, Arch, a student at Elk Park Prep, has become a target for some not-so-funny pranks, while her eighteen-year-old live-in helper, Julian, has become a prime suspect in the Andrews boy’s murder.

Book 4 The Last Suppers
published 1994s
It should be the happiest day of Goldy’s life. The Colorado caterer is about to tie the knot with the man of her dreams, homicide detective Tom Schultz. But minutes before the ceremony is to begin, Tom phones with an urgent The wedding is off, and the reason is murder!
Tom was on his way to the church when he stopped to pick up Father Olson—and found the rector shot and dying. Yet by the time Tom’s fellow officers arrive at the crime scene, Tom has disappeared. Has the groom been abducted by the killer? Or has he gotten cold feet and walked out of Goldy’s life?

Book 5 Killer Pancake
published 1995
While catering a cosmetics company luncheon, Goldy witnesses the hit and run death of a rising young sales associate. Could the death have anything to do with the animal rights picket line in the parking lot…or with the exotic blue rose found next to the victim’s body?

Book 6 The Main Corpse
published 1996
The Prospect Partners’ financial whiz, Tony Royce, with whom Marla is having a tempestuous affair, and Albert Lipscomb, who is personally managing Marla’s money, have hired Goldy to prepare a sumptuous party to kick off their latest venture: the reopening of the Eurydice Gold Mine. Anxious to take advantage of a golden opportunity, Goldy arrives at the mine site early, loaded down with goodies. Yet just when she thinks she can relax, all hell breaks loose–and the main culprit is Marla.
Her best friend is sure the mine venture is a scam. And when, several days later, Albert ends up missing, it looks as if Marla was right. Why, then, is the police captain treating Goldy’s best friend as if she had committed a crime? And how can Goldy keep her fourteen-year-old son Arch and his unreliable bloodhound from making matters worse?

Book 7 The Grilling Season
published 1997
Patricia McCracken is certain that her obstetrician and her penny-pinching HMO are responsible for the loss of her baby. Now she is suing both, and she wants Goldy’s advice on coming out on top. For Dr. John Richard Korman, aka the Jerk, is none other than Goldy’s abusive ex-husband. Goldy knows all about John Richard’s secret life–but even she is shocked when he’s arrested for the murder of his latest girlfriend.

Book 8 Prime Cut
published 1998
Together Goldy and André struggle in a hopelessly outdated kitchen to cater to a vacuous crowd of beautiful people whose personal dramas climax when a camera is pitched through a window . . . into the buffet. Then Goldy’s contractor is found hanging in the house of one of her best friends. A second murder follows and Goldy must somehow solve a mystery and prepare for a society soirée that could make—or break—her career.

Book 9 Tough Cookie
published 2000
When Portman’s killed in a skiing accident at Killdeer Resort with Goldy nearby, the police treat her with suspicion. It turns out that Portman was the easily persuaded head of the Parole Board, and Goldy’s ex-husband (a.k.a. The Jerk, who was imprisoned for domestic violence) is coming up for parole. But when Goldy herself narrowly escapes a chilly death after her van is forced off a snowy highway, she starts looking for connections and steps into a minefield of unsolved murders, including the three-year-old avalanche death of her friend Nate Bullock.

Book 10 Sticks & Scones
published 2001
For Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz, accepting a series of bookings at Hyde Castle is like a dream come true. It’s not every day that she gets to cook authentic Elizabethan fare–especially at a real castle that was brought over from England and reassembled stone by stone in Aspen Meadow. Goldy is determined that everything will go right–which is why, she figures later, everything went terribly wrong. It begins when a shotgun blast shatters her window. Then Goldy discovers a body lying in a nearby creek. And when shots ring out for the second time that day, someone Goldy loves is in the line of fire.

Book 11 Chopping Spree
published 2002
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 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’snew knives.

Book 12 Double Shot
published 2004
The governor of Colorado has commuted the prison sentence of Goldy Schulz’s ultra-handsome, ultra-charming, ultra-wealthy, ultra-venal ex-husband, Dr. John Richard Korman, otherwise known to Goldy as the Jerk. He’s released, and soon afterward Goldy becomes the victim of threats, rumors, and violence.
Then there’s a murder and suspicion centers on Goldy. Suddenly, she is faced with the challenge of running her successful catering business while fending off two persistent detectives.

Book 13 Dark Tort
published 2006
Goldy Schulz has a lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm. It’s time consuming, but Goldy is enjoying it?until the night she arrives to find the firm’s paralegal dead. The poor girl also happens to be Goldy’s next-door neighbor, and now her grieving mother begs Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.

Book 14 Sweet Revenge
published 2007
Goldy Schulz is thrilled to be catering a holiday breakfast feast for the staff of the Aspen Meadow Library. But little does she know that on the menu, alongside the Great Expectations Grapefruit, Chuzzlewit Cheese Pie, and Bleak House Bars, is a large helping of murder.

Book 15 Fatally Flaky
published 2009·
It’s been a long, rainy summer for Goldy Schulz, who is engaged in planning wedding receptions for what seems to be all of Aspen Meadow. It’s bad enough that Billie Attenborough, the bride from hell, wants to move the location to the Gold Gulch Spa just a scant two days before tying the knot to her doctor fiance. Then Doc Finn, best friend of Goldy’s godfather Jack, is killed when his car tumbles into a ravine. But Jack thinks Doc was murdered because of research he was doing at the spa, allegations that are confirmed when Jack himself is attacked.

Book 16 Crunch Time
published 2011
Goldy Schulz cooks up big trouble as she tries to help her longtime friend and fellow chef Yolanda Garcia. When the rental house shared by Yolanda and her irrepressible aunt Ferdinanda is destroyed by arson, the pair move in with cop-turned-PI Ernest McLeod. But then Ernest is shot dead and his house is set on fire, nearly killing Goldy, Yolanda, Ferdinanda, and nine beagle puppies that Ernest had recently rescued from a puppy mill.
Concerned for her friends, Goldy invites them to stay with her while the sheriff’s department investigates. Yet even Goldy’s house isn’t safe, and after a failed break-in by an unknown intruder a cop is sent to keep an eye on things. Then a second body is found.

Book 17 The Whole Enchilada
published 2013
Goldy Schulz knows her food is to die for, but she never expects one of her best friends to actually keel over when she’s leaving a birthday party Goldy has catered. At first, everyone assumes that all the fun and excitement of the party, not to mention the rich fare, did her in.
But what looks like a coronary turns out to be a generous serving of cold-blooded murder. And the clever culprit is just getting cooking.