Customer Reviews

Fatally Flaky

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've always loved this series, but the last couple books have been a disappointment. There's always a few things you can count on - there will be one or more really hateful characters, Goldy will get hit on the head and knocked unconscious at some point, Goldy will hide evidence from the police, and you'll be told over and over how many shots of espresso Goldy drinks at any given time. I understand if the author writes these books so you don't need to have read the books that came before it, but I'm starting to feel like I'm reading the same thing over and over, and the plot/mystery is just filler. I won't buy anymore of this series in hardcover, it's just not worth it. I'll wait for the paperback, or check the books out at the library.

I've read every one of the Goldy books and I honestly am not sure why I keep reading them. Force of habit? Out of a desire that the books themselves become as good as their premise promises they will be? I do know that the series is getting old fast and doesn't hold the spark of fun they had originally. The series hasn't gone BAD the way I feel others have (Scarpetta for one) but it is just tired.

Additionally I don't find any of the characters to be particularly likable (with the possible exception of Tom and he has been relegated to a very minor character...he cooks for Goldy and he consoles her when she gets in a pickle and that's about it.) The plots of these books are well designed, the writing isn't terrible but the people who live in the books.....well they leave a lot to be desired.

In Fatally Flaky, Goldy's godfather's best friend is murdered and then the godfather is murdered. Goldy keeps going on and on about how much she loved her godfather and what a wonderful man he was but with one exception he just wasn't written as a very compassionate, warm or particularly wonderful man.

My final gripe about this series is how do these people eat the way they do and not weigh half a ton? I know she runs a catering firm but really!

This is completely out of character for me - writing a review when I'm only slightly over half way through the book. I'm writing this now because I'm not sure I'm actually going to finish it. This, in and of itself is a strange phenomenon when discussing any of DMD's books. I have been an avid reader of DMD's Goldy-the-Caterer books from day one, but I have to say I feel this one is not her best work.

Firstly, the writing is tedious and in some passages, amateurishly written. It's almost as if this were the author's first attempt at writing, not the 15th book in a series. Where was the editor, I wonder?

Secondly, who the heck is this godfather guy? He'd done so much for Goldy in her life and we just hear about him in her life now? Additionally, he's not even a likable character.

Thirdly, I used to have a catering business and am a professional harpist as well, catering and playing music for many wedding engagements over the years. It was the only way to have made ends meet in those lean times. However, NEVER would I accept an engagement from a family with a bride like Billie Attenborough. The way Goldy lets everyone walk all over her, it's amazing she's still in business. It's doubly amazing that Tom puts up with her constant interference in police business...It's a wonder Tom hasn't been fired by now - and BTW: he's the most likable character in the series.

I think there's still some freshness that can come out of this series, but it will take some serious thought on Diane's part. For instance; a 16-year-old in the household is no insignificant thing. With teenagers in the house, that typically takes center stage. However, Arch has become increasingly relegated to an 'extra' in her books. This feels totally unnatural.

It also feels like Marla and Goldy's relationship has gone cold; and the only thing they provide each other is gossip. There's no warmth.

I think what brought us all to the series is the spontaneity and wit of dialogue, more introspection by Goldy, the occasional bits of comedy, realistic daily challenges, the warm friendship between Goldy and Marla...the relationship between Goldy and her son, Arch...all of that seems missing now.

I'm going to make every attempt to finish this book. It may be that when I'm done, I'll need to revise what I've written here; in fact, I hope that's the case.

I think Diane is capable of so much more - she's proven it in the past. I'd like to look forward to seeing it in her next release.

I really have liked DMD's Goldy books in the past - even was willing to overlook the poor editing and outdated language. But this one is on the edge.

So much drinking and vomiting in one book! A godfather newly introduced, that is supposed to be admired as the one who taught Goldy how to care, yet is "too wasted" to pick up his mail? Marla, the former heart attack patient that wouldn't even drink wine in previous books, getting sloshed in the afternoon before a charity meeting?

I think DMD is on auto pilot now.

The most boring of the Goldy books ever! The same plot line is presented over and over, Goldy seems to have become more annoying with her investigations and flaunting of police procedures. The fun of the early books, with Arch as a young teen and Marla's sparkling friendship are things of the past. Besides, whoever heard of Jack the Godfather?

Like another reviewer, i wasn't sure I would finish this book. I did, but it was pretty much a waste of time; DMD had better come up with something new.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS .. Okay I have read all the Goldy books and used to like her but after Sweet Revenge and this one I think I have hit the wall on the series. Goldy used to be likeable and someone that I would love to sit down and chat with with which is why as a reader I would root for her but now she has become someone that i would just like to see arrested for her criminal behavior.

I am certain that it can't be easy to write a series,keep it fresh and keep old fans satisfied while pulling in new fans but maybe a return to some basics could get the series back on track-

Let Tom really be a respected member of the police force again - let him uncover things as well since that is what he is paid for. Let Goldy uncover clues as well but the type that are obtained when people that are your neighbors and friends would share with you where they wouldn't possibly share the same information with the police.

Let the clues be placed so that once again we can get a crack at solving the mystery and not this let's have a narrative passage where Goldy thinks (and we hear her) and wraps it up in 3 pages not from her own thought processes but because the dead doc left a jump drive. Question how could Goldy be so judgmental about Norman's drinking when her beloved Jack and Marla were drinking like fiends themselves -

Also I gather that Norman's family did not wish to reconcile even if he did go into rehab but Goldy promised him this silver lining - How would she have felt if someone had told her that (when he was alive) John Richard had gone into treatment and that he was heading over to reconcile ? I am glad that Arch has been played down in recent installments however maybe it is time to bring him back into the fold since he seems to have matured and I am sure there could be some fun mystery at Elk Park Prep again.

Let Goldy cater something that goes off well at least once in the book that helps also to make everything feel cozy again. and PLEASE bring back Marla as a real character and not just someone that Goldy uses that is not what true friendship is about. As for Jack the Godfather - gee could that phrase have been used more often in this book as the same with Smoothie Cabin not to mention the constant mention of the china and glassware on the pool floor arrgh. If Jack was so important why was he never mentioned before even as a passing statement and also is there a reason why Goldy didn't even call her family in NJ to tell them that the man had died ? Odd -

I've never written a negative review but having read the whole series I feel I need to speak up. I used to like Diane Mott Davidson's series, with a couple of reservations. Sometimes she was too much of a goody two-shoes for my taste. She over-worried, over-protected her son ad nauseum in the early books. But because it was a cozy and because it could be delightful, I accepted it. I don't have to like everything. The last couple of books, however, reached a serious level of disappointing. Still, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt and picked up Fatally Flaky.

At this point the only thing I see as fatally flaky is the direction of the series. It seems as though DMD had a word count to meet and just filled space between the covers with so many repetitive, inane words that added nothing. Is the author not aware of 'show, don't tell'? She told the reader so many, many times one should believe Goldy was grieving for a deeply meaningful character in her life. Someone who was pivotal in Goldy's escape from her role as a battered wife. Yet, he was never mentioned previously in the series. It doesn't work. And really, how many people refer to their godfather at all let alone continually? And in a serious way? The Godfather maybe. C'mon! It doesn't fly.

So many plot points don't fly. The way she allowed an abusive client to treat her? I don't know a caterer who would allow material changes two days' prior to an event - not without groveling and paying a ransom in return. To be ordered by an abusive client to clean up dishes not involved in the catering event - and do it? When she needed to get ready for the main event? When she knew it was likely she'd drop it all without a tray? To then feel responsible for clearing the anticipated breakage from a sulfur pool? Really? She needs help.

The absurdity of Jack's clues and the need for them? The outright promise to not enter Jack's house, a crime scene, and then enter anyway with only a fleeting thought to the promise given to her law-enforcement husband that she would not? The awful client's abusive mother tells Goldy to remove flowers from her home - totally unrelated to the catering assignment - and she does it? Is DMD trying to show us once abused always abused? Couldn't she please try deep therapy? And copper husband, Tom, not only tolerates her behavior while minimally complaining about it, he gives her status reports on the two murders? C'mon!

There was a time when Marla and Julian seemed to be real characters; they have become the equivalent of cardboard cutouts. Julian cloyingly panders to Goldy; Marla simply wants gossip, food and drink, not necessarily in that order. Then there's Arch. Once the smothered young boy now he's expected to rescue mom when she needs to be picked-up due to yet another co-dependent situation? Really? She wants to involve son in her escapades? The relationship is getting peculiar. He is essentially absent throughout the book (a blessing - I'd rather missing than doting) with ridiculous rationales. Is it feasible that a doting, over-protective mother would suddenly allow her 16-year-old to be gone for what seemed a couple of weeks? With little more than an occasional call to say he's at a friend's or his step-brother's?

So much of Goldy's behavior is irrational and ludicrous, not excused by hard-to-believe grief. Inane is the word that most often came to mind while reading Fatally Flaky. I almost gave up on it early on, but I didn't want to give up hope of it turning around. I could only read it in short doses, unusual for me. I wondered if it could have been due to my mood rather than the book's [de]merits. I would rather that had been the case, ultimately it was not. I'm sad to write off this author and series, but the reader deserves more serious consideration than Fatally Flaky could wrap itself around. I might take a peak at the next one, but won't read it (or future ones) if its vital signs are lacking.

I was really anticipating the release of Fatally Flaky, I even pre-ordered it so it would just come in the mail, I have to say it didn't hold a candle to Tough Cookie or Sticks and Scones or any of her previous books. The appeal to me of DMD has always been Goldy in her kitchen, drinking espresso, making something wonderful in other words a real cozy. I found it hard to believe that her godfather who has never been mentioned was so important. It also got a little old hearing Goldy call him Godfather or Goddaughter it seemed very unrealistic. I guess I just wanted this book to be more like my favorites. I'll keep reading but it will be at least another year for a new release.

This series is cursed with an entirely unattractive main character. Some authors do that on purpose, conscious of their protagonist as an anti-hero. Davidson, however, presents Goldy Schultz as someone we are supposed to like and respect and seems unaware that no sensible person would want anything to do with her on any level of intimate friendship or family tie.

Most of Davidson's plots are interesting, but they are advanced by having the main character behave like a melodramatic moron. In "Fatally Flaky," which could describe her heroine as much as any plot element, Davidson waits until page 165 to have Goldy commit her first felony (theft of a valuable piece of jewelry from a crime scene), but they come thick and fast after that. And why does Goldy swipe this item, when she could have pointed it out to a cop standing five feet away? Why does she steal it, handle it, and take it away from the scene, break the chain of custody? No particular reason. She just wants to bring it home to her cop husband, who could perfectly well have looked at it in the evidence locker. Now he has to go to work and explain that his wife stole it, and therefore it's useless in court, but that she meant well. Yeah, right. And there are no repercussions for him or for her over this. Yeah, RIGHT.

The crime spree continues. Goldy steals that $50K jewelry item. She breaks into a house and steals a gold clock. She sneaks into a country club to swipe evidence instead of letting the cops know it's there so they could acquire it legally. She trespasses here, there, and everywhere. She obstructs justice by withholding physical evidence more times than I can keep track of. She vandalizes costly camera equipment while trying to rob, er, "investigate," another location. At least she doesn't steal a stranger's car, as she did in the prior book. No charges are ever brought.

Goldy gets brutally slapped across the face in front of hundreds of witnesses, but having the perp arrested never crosses her mind. When she's breaking into a home where she has no legal right to be (despite having a key) and gets whacked in the head by the frightened owner, THEN she considers filing assault charges. And hey...what about her background as a domestic violence survivor? Shouldn't we expect a stronger response to the first assault here?

And she lies. She lies to everyone, sometimes for no apparent reason, but most especially to her husband, Tom. She'll look him in the eye, make a promise, and break it five minutes later with no regret at all. That's the behavior of a sociopath, not a responsible spouse. Twice Davidson has Goldy come home to find faithful Tom getting drunk in the kitchen while he awaits his wayward wife. I'd hope this is a plot development -- that she's driving him to drink, and eventually, he'll walk out on her as she richly deserves -- but nope, Davidson never shows or even hints at a bit of remorse on Goldy's part over her willful contempt for marital trust. I understand the need for dramatic tension, but they need to fight about something other than her felonies and falsehoods -- something like Goldy's neurotic smothering of her teen son, for example. Only in fiction would these two stay together.

There was an awful lot of alcohol abuse in this installment. Almost every adult character except for young vegetarian chef Julian drinks heavily, some enough to vomit, including characters who usually don't overindulge, such as Goldy and Tom. Finally - and I have to be careful not to give you a spoiler - this particular plot has a whopping medical flaw in it. All I can say here is, a week is not enough, but maybe this is forgivable for fiction's sake.

These books have done very well, and Davidson could surely hire a lawyer-editor to keep her sleuth on the right side of the law. She chooses not to. It's ridiculously insulting to her readers. Were it not for the intriguing sidekick characters Julian and, to a lesser extent, chubby millionaire Marla, there would be nothing of interest here. Goldy's a criminous narcissist and all-around egomaniac with contempt for both law and truth, her husband's a doormat, and her son exists solely so that Goldy can pitch histrionic fits about his whereabouts from time to time. Blessedly, he was off-screen for much of this book. I liked that part.

For a much, much funnier bridal mystery, go for Donna Andrews' MURDER WITH PEACOCKS.

Diane Mott Davidson got me into the culinary mystery genre and I am ready to publish my third book but.........I'm afraid I will have to agree with the reviews so far, that once again, it just seems to be much of the same. How is Goldy even surviving? What in the world would possess someone to dive into a hot springs bath at a health club, to retrieve dishes that she should not have tried to carry in the first place? Also, once again, the introduction of a character, Jack her godfather, who is anything but wonderful. He's a drunken idiot and how old is the guy? 50's, so how old was dear old fishin' buddy? 70's, who is murdered? (another character so far never even talked about?) There are just too many lose ends that do not make sense or are not tied up. At least this time, I didn't purchase the book, got it at local library. DARK TORTE, was the worst, SWEET REVENGE, wasn't a whole lot better. And my favorite character Marla? Why has she NOT had another heart attack and died by now? She drinks like a fish, eats like a pig and never does anything, ever, unless she gets something out of it, for her own pleasure. Shoot! (I'm trying to control myself, here) I think the Goldy series is done. No offense Diane but time to put her on the shelf and how about just putting together a cookbook? Isn't that what they all do, 'in the end'?