The Cereal Murders

By: Diane Mott Davidson

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling author Diane Mott Davidson has cooked up yet another tantalizing feast of murder, mystery, and mayhem. Dubbed "Queen of the Culinary Mystery" by her fans, Ms. Davidson adroitly defends her crown with this delectable offering of suspense, spiced with a dash of romance and a pinch of humor.

Goldy Bear, Aspen Meadow's caterer extraordinaire, is catering a dinner at the exclusive Elk Park Preparatory School. At the end of the evening, a horrified Goldy discovers the school valedictorian's battered body heaped in the snow. When a series of disturbing pranks leads her to believe that her son might be the next victim, Goldy launches her investigation. Delving into the scandals permeating the halls of academia, she stumbles upon another grisly murder, and another.

Forces collide to make this book truly a gourmet experience. Barbara Rosenblat's full-bodied and witty reading, Ms. Mott's deliciously fast-paced plot, and her heroine's recipes for such enticing delights as Sugar Plum Cake and Sweetheart Sandwiches leave the reader satisfied, yet hoping for more.

©1993 Diane Mott Davidson (P)1997 Recorded Books, LLC

College prep...

Love this book. Great story and some great recipes! I want to try some of them out myself.

ND South Dakota

I have read numerous books by this author. They have all been very good. I especially like it when they are read by Barbara R.

excellent 👍

Good read and wonderful recipes! On to the next book. narrator is my favorites always

Great Read

I love this series! I'm a fan of cooking shows and cookbooks so this helps me stay busy and focused during health procedures.

Barbara Rosenblat is the Voice of Goldie.

I love this narrator for these books. She brings the character alive, and you truly feel like you are in the story.

Not my kind of mystery

I found this book on a sale table at a used book store, it seemed interesting but I really found the plot line to be a little more "young adult" than I was expecting. I do not mind young adult novels but I do not think this was meant to be written as such. The story was interesting enough for me to get through the book, however there was such a focus on SAT prep and what everyone was eating it lost my attention often. I do not think I will be picking up another book in this series.

love her books

great writing.I loved this book
can not wait to listen to the next one.
Have got to tell my sis to listen

Love Goldie but a bit slow.

Too many boring characters to keep track of. I listen to series back to back and maybe I just get bored with author's style of writing. Wish there was more excitement.

Excellent development of the main characters

A very well-plotted and atmospheric mystery, with some relationships happily developed and some deplorable people unearthed as supporting villains or not. Great food atmosphere as well as the wonderful Colorado mountain town. I am very much enjoying the re-reading this series! I love Goldy, despite her penchant for taking highly risky chances. Outstanding narration by Barbara Rosenblat.

A good story, but a little rushed at the end

I think overall this is a good book and if you like Goldy Bear mysteries, such as the first two, this is a good addition. You will likely enjoy this book and the recipes are included this time unlike in the audio version of Dying For Chocolate.

Barbara Rosenblat delivers a strong performance. While I still don't love some of her inflection it is clear she is trying to give Goldy a voice and style for these books. I genuinely appreciate Rosenblat's attempts to give many different voices and characterizing the voices. I think she does a good job. However this audio recording has several odd pauses and breaks that made me check to see if my player was working properly. Further it does not divide by chapter, which some audio book readers find frustrating. It isn't a deal breaker but it is frustrating as I think this fails Barbara Rosenblat as a voice actor and the Diane Mott Davidson's story.

I really do love the Goldy Bear mysteries and I think Diane Mott Davidson can have an interesting way of delivering a story. I genuinely liked this book more then Catering to Nobody and Dying for Chocolate (which were both enjoyable). I think the story worked, the clues made sense, and the motive while incredibly petty worked. I think Goldy's monologue on the end was a bit much but clearly some people need to have ideas spelled out.

Overall the mystery itself works, I like how the clues fit together in the end, I enjoyed the escalation of events. I think it had a lot of good moments. I do think Diane Mott Davidson tends to write younger characters a tad peevishly. I found myself feeling that I'd enjoy the story more if Goldy would sit down and have a more earnest heart to heart conversation with some of the characters besides Schulz. At the same time I could easily see a woman like Goldy struggling in her connections to her son Arch.

My big complaint for this novel is that the ending feels very rushed and several plot threads for other characters (especially some of the students and one of the teachers) isn't wrapped up very well. I would have enjoyed a little more time to see some of the other characters lives and the impact of the revelation of who the killer was in this book. I also found the multiple times Goldy consummated her relationship with Schulz to be a bit much for my personal tastes.

To the author's credit she does a great job detailing how Goldy's trauma from her abusive husband as well as the trauma of seeing these deaths impacts her. Diane Mott Davidson makes it clear how these horrifying events impact Goldy and that Goldy does use a therapist. I think reminding the readers that in this book a teenage boy dies horrifically is a good thing to note. I do love how Goldy struggles emotionally to connect with people due to her trauma and how she is healing from her own pains. It was nice to see her move the relationship with Schulz forward finally and it is good to see Goldy healing from her trauma and not staying in the same place we saw her in the first book. I do admit sometimes I find Goldy's judgement and snark about some things frustrating. She can be a very judgmental person and I do wonder why some people talk to her and tell her secrets (the bit in the church in this book frustrated me). The thing is I do appreciate that Diane Mott Davidson wrote such a complex character with so much nuance.

So overall if you liked the first two books in this series you are likely to enjoy this one. I think it was a good story well written.