Although I’ve listed the title of the first book, I’m really going to be talking about the series more generally.

The Goldy Schultz series was one of the first that I got attached to, and I was sorry it finished. Still, seventeen books can keep a person reading for a good while.

When I try to figure out what it is I liked about this series, I think of characters and intensity.

The main character is Goldy Baer, a caterer in Colorado. Goldy has problems. Some are financial, while other are related to her son, Archie, and his changing moods and interests as he grows. And then there’s her ex-husband, The Jerk. Her problem-of-the-month (or book) and the interesting characters that surround her, give these mysteries more intensity than others I have read. These are mysteries where I find myself suddenly pacing the house, wanting to wreak revenge on someone who has just been particularly unfair to her.

Don’t mistake my meaning and think that these books are depressing–they aren’t. But you will be very glad to see justice served at the end. You will not be ho-humming and wondering why any of this matters, as has happened to me on occasion with other books.

There is humor in these books, though I wouldn’t classify them as “humorous”. There are clues and twists. But it is the characters that make this series.