Goldy Schulz agrees to cater the wrong wedding, the seemingly unlikely match of obnoxious, demanding Ms. Billie Attenborough to the much younger, Dr. Craig Miller. When Billie isn't changing the menu, the date, or the venue for the wedding, she's constantly calling or stalking Goldy for some nonsense purpose. In the process, Diane Mott Davidson draws a very funny picture of what brides can be like . . . at their very worst. This is the best aspect of the book.
Ms. Davidson's books often have unpleasant elements in them, including bad behavior, boorish manners, self-absorption to the point of harming others, over-indulgences, and stop-at-nothing mono-manias. In the earlier books in the series, there was an obligatory scene where Goldy was beaten up pretty badly. Fortunately, the violence is more muted toward Goldy in this book. But you'll meet a lot of very unpleasant characters. If you can laugh at them, you'll enjoy the book. If you feel like you are at the party, you won't enjoy the reading nearly as much.
As with the fourteen prior books in the series, there's murder afoot and no one will solve the crimes until Goldy sticks her fork in. As background, Goldy's godfather, Jack Carmichael, has unexpectedly moved across the street . . . much to the annoyance of his son who thinks Goldy is trying to get her hands on the family money. Jack's a "recovering" lawyer with lots of money and a yet to smoke, drink, and fish while claiming to be redoing his house. He's also casually dating Billie's mom . . . which helps set up some interesting complications for Goldy's catering.
Jack really likes to hang out with his old buddy, Doc Finn, who shares a love for drinking and fishing. When Doc is killed, Jack starts acting very mysteriously. He won't confide in Goldy . . . but that's okay with her. She's got her hands full with Billie who at the last minute picks the local spa as a wedding venue while increasing the guest list by 50 percent. Goldy couldn't think of a worse place to hold a wedding: The owner has a history of being an enemy and now he continually insults her and tries to sabotage her reputation. Oops!
Billie's wedding brings matters to a head . . . and turns Goldy loose looking for the key to the heart of the mystery. In the last third of the book, she gradually unravels what's been going on . . . with some surprising findings about the key characters. All in all, it's a mind-bending proposition.
As usual, the book includes some recipes. I was intrigued by the ones for Fatally Flaky Cookies, Totally Unorthodox Coeur à la Crème, and Arch's Flapjacks. Don't plan to lose any weight after eating these yummy sounding treats.
