クッキング・ママの遺言書

First I really like the character "Goldy", because I have been through physical and mental abuse, and could relate to what Goldy was going through. Diane Mott Davidson does write a good story. What I don't like, Diane began adding "Explicatives" or not so nice "potty" words. This bothers me as a reader. My personal opinion, no one needs to read the Lord's name in vain, which a character says to show startlement or anger. Until recently I did my best to overlook these words. I have begun reading other authors that don't use that type of communication. Their stories are well written and very enjoyable because I don't have to "re-write" the bad language as I read.

Was happy to find this book on sale in a Kindle edition. Mysteries (cozies) are my way of relaxing and this was a quick, enjoyable way to wind down.

Nice light read, Always a cute story, but could skip several pages and not miss a thing. Recipies nice touch.

the story needed way too much back story which the authr supplied but stopped the story each time.

Not as well written as her past books.

Though I am glad that the Jerk is gone, something other than that character was missing from this book. The ending was perhaps abit rushed . Is the DMD bored with her characters?

Feels like an outlined story that then has [insert distressed family member here] and [add protagonist perplexing here] and [introduce important denouement info here] just randomly sprinkled into outline. Relationship with policeman husband very stilted.

Plus food was just not that appealing or engaging. Plus how could a caterer be so completely clueless on a missing recipe ingredient. Usage as a suspense building tool is a complete fail. Y

I suspect that the author has run out of inspiration and is just phoning the story in based on her formula.

Editor should be demoted for not tightening up story by about 300 percent.

Not one of my favorites. Goldy should be smarter than to let her son who doesn't know how to drive back down a drive. Tom sure spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking instead of solving crimes. Just wasn't as much fun to read as some of her other books.

I've read many of her books. This one did not have the level plot or excitement the others did. A lot of characters running back and forth. A lot of detailed description of surroundings and clothes.

Now many times do we have to hear where the tomatoes come from? Can this woman stay in an upright position? She`s fallen and dropped moe food then she`s served. The business should be called Julian`s. He does more work then she does.

I asked for a paperback which I received but is a large size nd hard to handle. Cannot carry it in a purse to meetings.

I really liked the previous format where recipes are incorporated as part of the story.
As usual good recipes and a decent story.

This book had too much extraneous detail and description. Got tired of hearing about Goldy's son's life and activities when they contribute nothing to the plot. Also got tired of hearing about Goldy being so helpless when in other stories she has more guts. This was a really boring story and I skimmed most of it just to see who was the culprit. I like her writing but this wasn't up to her standards.

After gamely slogging through 232 pages of Goldy's feeling really, really bad about her friend Dusty's death, I skipped to the end. It turned out that two key characters hadn't been introduced in the first 232 pages (of 420), and that another character had only been shallowly introduced and characterized. Following the obligatory scene with Goldy's life being threatened, there followed a couple of pages of explanation of the perp's motivation that read like a plot outline. Too bad the book didn't live up to the outline!

The paperback places all of the recipes at the end of the book, instead of sprinkled through the text (which is a more interesting and fun arrangement). The recipes are the only thing that I can recommend--without having kitchen-tested any. However, I doubt that I will be purchasing another Davidson Culinary Mystery after having spent $7.99 for this turkey of a mystery novel.

Like others, I have read the whole Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery series and I have enjoyed each book...until now. This book is slow to start and as I am only on page 100 after a week, hasn't picked up speed yet. I can't get past Goldy wallowing in her sorrow. Granted, I have never tripped over a dead body only to find out that it was my neighbor, but enough is enough already. As another reader mentioned, there are a few disjointed parts for example, at one point Marla is driving Goldy to pick up Arch and Gus. A couple of paragraphs later, Goldy is turning into the parking lot...but I thought Marla was driving??? I hope that this book was a fluke and Diane Mott Davidson will come back with a mystery of the same caliber that all of her fans have come to expect and enjoy.

I had looked so forward to Mott-Davidson's latest book. It just wasn't as good as the others. I see that there are many other reviews that agree with me. What in the world happened? Has she perhaps, 'passed the torch'?

It just doesn't seem like her usual style. It was disjointed, there were a couple of really huge mistakes. She introduced two new characters, insinuating, they had always been there. It was a mess. I can only hope that the next one, if there is a next one, is better. C'mon Diane, don't let us down!