Diane Mott Davidson's "Dark Tort"

I rarely read a mystery twice. What's the point? You already know "who done it?"

There are a few mystery authors whom I read for the pure joy of the fluid way they write, or because the characters are absorbing.

Diane Mott Davidson's series about caterer, Goldy Schultz is such a series. Goldy has become an old friend. It's as if she were a friend from college or high school I get together with a couple times a year. It is easy to pick up the conversation, just as if we talked just the day before. That's how I define a lifetime friend-- someone with whom the conversation never stops even when you don't see them but once or twice a year.

I care about Goldy, her family and friends. They could be my family and friends. Davidson's books are written in first person and everything is seen through Goldy's eyes. The plots are so thick and the characters so numerous that it would be easy to get lost or forget exactly how she resolves a given mystery. That's why rereading Davidson's novels are just as enjoyable the second time around.

The second helping of "Dark Tort" was no exception. This time I watched the interplay between the characters a little more-- the various partners and staff of the H & J law firm and their wives; the interplay between the Claggetts and the Ellises, the relationship between Nora Ellis and her father, Uriah Southerland, the things that the victim, Dusty Routt, had to say in her journal about various members of the firm, her former boyfriend, the famous artist and chef, Charlie Baker, and the mysterious "Other Mr. O."

I didn't do any better at guessing the killer the second time than the first, but I did enjoy paying attention to the details more the second time.

Anything by Diane Mott Davidson comes highly recommended to any mystery reader, and especially to fans of women sleuths.

Liz Nichols