Dollycas's Thoughts
Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia are the stars of this new cozy mystery series.
Rose finds out her cousin Nettie is getting married, but the venue in St. Olaf has burned to the ground. Nettie and her betrothed have decided to elope, but Rose has other plans. She will plan a perfect wedding in Miami with all the St. Olaf traditions. With help from Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia, she should be able to pull off the week-long events. Blanche is more worried about what she will wear, while Dorothy is pulling out all the stops to come up with a date for the big event. She has decided to try a new VHS dating service.
While Rose tries to find enough herring necessary for all the traditional events, Dorothy goes on a date with a man she connected with on the video service. She soon learns he is not the man she thought he was and decides to attend the wedding with the girls and whoever Blanche brings.
When it is time for the first meeting of the families, Rose has big plans, including cheesecakes, but when she opens up the freezer door at the hotel, she finds much more than her favorite dessert. A dead man face down in one of the cheesecakes. The man just happens to be the man from Dorothy's awful date. This is bad. Dorothy is the prime suspect, but anyone could have put the man in the deep freeze.
With the wedding coming up fast and all the traditional events that have to happen, the girls become amateur sleuths to catch the real killer, so by the end of the week, Nettie and her groom are hitched, and the killer is behind bars.
I am a huge Golden Girls fan and was so excited to read this book. Being based on a popular television show, readers can easily visualize the characters and hear the voices as they read their words. Their home, the living room, that front door, the kitchen, and the lanai are all firmly planted in our memories. The author had a huge task to capture the characters' personalities, mannerisms, and actions. That being said, the first interactions felt forced, but they felt more true as the story continued. Blanche, the ever romantic, is set on a younger man, Dorothy, trying to find a man that isn't Stanley, Sophia with her sharp barbs in every direction, and ditzy Rose brings her St. Olaf stories to life when her relatives come to Miami for the wedding she knows has to be just perfect.
All of that would have made a great episode, maybe a two-parter when you throw in the dead body, but for me, this story missed the cozy mystery mark. The St.Olaf traditions were fun at first, but soon they completely overtook the mystery in the story. Like the show, the book is set in the 1980s, and I loved all the references, Ovaltine, the fashions, and big hair. But every time the murder mystery came to the forefront, it was beaten back by herring, herring, and more herring, and I don't mean red herrings that are popular in cozy mysteries. I didn't give up and kept reading. The ending was exciting, the girls were brave and resourceful, but I had the guilty party pinned down early in the story.
Murder by Cheesecake is an entertaining read for fans of the series nostalgic to reconnect with the girls and their humor and sarcasm, but it is very light on mystery. Those who read cozy mysteries and enjoy following the protagonists and clues to solve the whodunit may be disappointed, like me.
Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia are the stars of this new cozy mystery series.
Rose finds out her cousin Nettie is getting married, but the venue in St. Olaf has burned to the ground. Nettie and her betrothed have decided to elope, but Rose has other plans. She will plan a perfect wedding in Miami with all the St. Olaf traditions. With help from Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia, she should be able to pull off the week-long events. Blanche is more worried about what she will wear, while Dorothy is pulling out all the stops to come up with a date for the big event. She has decided to try a new VHS dating service.
While Rose tries to find enough herring necessary for all the traditional events, Dorothy goes on a date with a man she connected with on the video service. She soon learns he is not the man she thought he was and decides to attend the wedding with the girls and whoever Blanche brings.
When it is time for the first meeting of the families, Rose has big plans, including cheesecakes, but when she opens up the freezer door at the hotel, she finds much more than her favorite dessert. A dead man face down in one of the cheesecakes. The man just happens to be the man from Dorothy's awful date. This is bad. Dorothy is the prime suspect, but anyone could have put the man in the deep freeze.
With the wedding coming up fast and all the traditional events that have to happen, the girls become amateur sleuths to catch the real killer, so by the end of the week, Nettie and her groom are hitched, and the killer is behind bars.
I am a huge Golden Girls fan and was so excited to read this book. Being based on a popular television show, readers can easily visualize the characters and hear the voices as they read their words. Their home, the living room, that front door, the kitchen, and the lanai are all firmly planted in our memories. The author had a huge task to capture the characters' personalities, mannerisms, and actions. That being said, the first interactions felt forced, but they felt more true as the story continued. Blanche, the ever romantic, is set on a younger man, Dorothy, trying to find a man that isn't Stanley, Sophia with her sharp barbs in every direction, and ditzy Rose brings her St. Olaf stories to life when her relatives come to Miami for the wedding she knows has to be just perfect.
All of that would have made a great episode, maybe a two-parter when you throw in the dead body, but for me, this story missed the cozy mystery mark. The St.Olaf traditions were fun at first, but soon they completely overtook the mystery in the story. Like the show, the book is set in the 1980s, and I loved all the references, Ovaltine, the fashions, and big hair. But every time the murder mystery came to the forefront, it was beaten back by herring, herring, and more herring, and I don't mean red herrings that are popular in cozy mysteries. I didn't give up and kept reading. The ending was exciting, the girls were brave and resourceful, but I had the guilty party pinned down early in the story.
Murder by Cheesecake is an entertaining read for fans of the series nostalgic to reconnect with the girls and their humor and sarcasm, but it is very light on mystery. Those who read cozy mysteries and enjoy following the protagonists and clues to solve the whodunit may be disappointed, like me.
