Catering to Nobody - Diane Mott Davidson

- started: 29/03/2025
- finished: 04/04/2025
- rating: 3.5/5 (as like. writing quality i guess. i could find faults with it but i generally loved it)

as a first impression, after literally picking it up off the ground and buying it for 4 euros in coins from an old man selling old books next to my university, the cover just charmed me. the blurb on the back seemed a bit confusing though, it sounded like the story would be quite convoluted with many names and complicated relationships. i have to keep track of Goldy's former father-in-law and her son's teacher? and also her ex-husband's other ex-wife (the one he married after divorcing Goldy)...? proceeding to flip through it, another selling point besides the cover were these recipe card-like snippets included in some chapters that gave you exact directions for what Goldy was cooking. this made me not hesitate to hand over my last coins (that i normally use for the laundromat so they're quite valuable!) to the old man running the stand.

for me, the book was a light and entertaining read (despite it featuring some honestly pretty heavy topics like suicide, spousal abuse, alcoholism, abortion and miscarriage, sexual assault of minors and obviously murder). the myriad of names, characters and relationships is manageable as you get to know everyone. there are some beautiful and humorous descriptions of the mountainous landscape of the setting (one of my favorites: "Overhead the sky was a deep periwinkle blue, as if a celestial housecleaner had spilled a bottle of bluing agent to the four corners of the earth." -- the main character was on her way to a housecleaning job) that help you get into the picturesque and peaceful atmosphere of the small town while at the same time keeping you aware of the characters' contrasting mood. Goldy, the main character and the voice of the 1st person narration is a strong, to-the-point woman who fights to get what she wants, and i really liked that. it's also really shown that she loves her work as a caterer/chef, and she sometimes relies on the stability and calmness of sinking her hands into a freshly proofed dough to process and get over her emotions and whatever life throws at her. and buddy i feel her.

at times, her history with her abusive and hateful ex-husband seemed a bit much to me. like, i felt like the author put her through so much lol. the woman got inadvertently stabbed in the back with a knife in an open dishwasher when her ex-husband pushed her during a fight, leaving her with recurring nightmares of being raped... come to think of it, a large majority of the characters are women, and none of them seem to be having the best of times, which is mostly because of the men in their lives. in fact, Goldy even runs a fortnightly (yes. not biweekly) complaining-about-men club at her house where she invites women in her town to say what's on their mind. hm. interesting. i wonder if this book passes the bechdel test.

but, overall, the whole read was very charming. it flowed well, and as the mystery kept unfolding, it only got more and more interesting. the ending, while i can't say it was the kind that's all tied up with a nice bow, was extremely satisfying and left me wanting more: more of Goldy's clumsy, chaotic, and forceful detective work, more of her dynamics with other characters -- especially with her 11 year-old D&D playing son Arch (short for Archibald. girl of course he gets bullied you named him Archibald). it was cute watching her try to figure out if his DMing was making him secretly evil (which i'm guessing are remnants from the "D&D is evil and satanic" moral panic from the 80s), making him "dungeon bars" (recipe included), and sewing him a lich halloween costume.

so, you can imagine the joy of my face as i finished the book, i read the "about the author" bit on the last page mentioning it was her first novel, and after searching to see if she wrote any more i was met with the information that this was a 17 book series, all cleverly titled with food-murder puns and some editions with beautiful covers. i felt so lucky that this book i just happened to pick up was the first in the series!! i'm not sure if it's a narrative succession too or if they're standalone, but they all follow Goldy and Arch. even better, i found a seemingly reliable second-hand online bookstore (bookbot.com, operating from czechia, not unlike the british worldofbooks.com), and the second book, Dying for Chocolate, is on its way to me right now for the low low price of 6.24 euros, including shipping! can't wait.