Prime Cut (A Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery, #8)

Diane Mott Davidson

Bantam, 1998

Agent: Sandra Dijkstra

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Grilling Season comes a delectably deadly new novel of savory dishes and unsavory deeds, as caterer turned sleuth Goldy Schulz must find the missing ingredient to a killer concoction of high fashion, low-life, and murder.

An unscrupulous new rival has pushed Goldy's beloved catering business to the brink of collapse. An even more unscrupulous local contractor has left her precious kitchen in a shambles. Yet Goldy has joined forces with her old mentor, French chef Andre Hibbard, to cater a fashion photo shoot at a turn-of-the-century mountain cabin. There, in a hopelessly outdated kitchen, Goldy and the temperamental but kindhearted Andre struggle to create warming Models' Mushroom Soup, Savory Florentine Cheesecakes, and a luscious spread for a vain and vacuous crowd of beautiful people whose personal dramas climax when a camera is pitched through a plateglass window...into the buffet.

Things go swiftly from bad to worse when the infamous building contractor, Gerald Eliot, is found strung up in the house of one of Goldy's best friends, the president of the local historical society. Goldy is certain that her friend isn't a killer, even if he had every motive for murder. After all, how many others would have cheerfully strangled unethical Mr. Eliot, including Goldy?

Now Goldy readies for a society soiree tasting party against her archnemesis that could make or break her career.As she prepares Big Bucks Bread Pudding, Andre's Coq au Vin, and Jailbreak Potatoes, Goldy faces the shock of a second murder closer to home. Suddenly she must find the ingredients of a mystery that includes the dead contractor's unwholesome past, a food saboteur, the theft of four historical cookbooks, and an overzealous D.A. who has suspended Goldy's detective husband Tom from the force. What she comes up with is the perfect recipe for murder. And Goldy may be the next one on the menu!