The Grilling Season: 07/07/13

The Grilling Season by Diane Mott Davidson is the seventh in the Goldy Bear catering series. I'm catching up to the books I read early on before I decided to read them in order. So if my review seems more disjointed than usual, that's probably why. I should also note that as I listened to this book, read by Barbara Rosenblat, I have no idea how some of the character names are spelled!

Arch's father (aka, "the Jerk") is dating one of Goldy's clients. Of course, this client (who has a bit of a reputation for a temper, herself) ends up dead. All the evidence points to John Richard — all too conveniently. But Goldy, having survived through his abuse, is too blinded to see anything else except that her abusive ex-husband has finally gone too far. Arch, though, insists that she do her usual snooping around to prove that his father didn't do it. Either — he's an unusually dense child who is completely blind the abuse (doubtful) or he's inherited his mother's Spidey senses.

While Julian is away at college, Goldy is loaning his room to McGuire. He had been working as her assistant, but he's been laid up with mono (which I can tell you from personal experience, is no fun!) and even she can't get him to eat.

Between trying to get McGuire to eat and trying to help Arch (against all of her better judgment), Goldy also has the Babsie Doll conference to cater. Think Barbie meets American Girl. Then throw in the crazy cosplay that sometimes goes hand in hand with conferences.

I enjoyed the book. Goldy seemed more out of sorts than usual but given the circumstances, her emotional state makes sense. As I am coming up on books I've already listened to, I had some deja vu moments — mostly in recognizing people who will be important in future volumes. For anyone paying close attention, all the clues are there. The how, why and and who are all there.

Five stars

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