Prime Cut by Diane Mott Davidson

Am I obsessing over titles? I do think they are important, and I suppose that is what irritates me when the title seems quite unrelated to the story. And perhaps that is one of the things I enjoy about Davidson. Her titles are puns and they always have a foodie connection which generally is well tied to the cooking which takes place in the story as well as a line on the actually motive, manner, or setting of the murder(s).

In this case, the setting is a photo shoot for an upscale catalog, and in addition to the photo allusion of film cutting, we could also consider the treatment of models as meat -- lean meat, but . . .

I do have a complaint, though. It appears that the entire population of Aspen Meadow has been victimized by a contractor who consistently defaults on jobs and deliberate damages things to create more work for himself - which he again defaults on. Has this community no Better Business Bureau? And does no one ever consult it? And who hires a contractor without asking around about the quality and timeliness of his work? And what kind of friends lie to their friends about things like that. Come on, Diane, in a town that size, a guy like the one in the story would never have gotten a second shot - however gratifying it was to make him the first victim.

Davidson also did a very neat bit of foreshadowing in this one. Early in the story, Goldy recounts the tales of local buried treasure which her then much younger son, Arch, insisted of digging for in their free time. And a buried treasure is the focus of the greed which precipitates the murders. Of course, Arch himself breaks the code in the cookbook and is responsible for finding the treasure.

Definitely a satisfactory story with lots of lovely food in it. And Julian is home! He hated Cornell and has come back to fill the void which his departure left in the Schulz family.