TOUGH COOKIE

Everything is going wrong for Goldy Schulz, Diane Mott Davidson's popular caterer and sometime sleuth. On the way home from a disastrous live cooking show performance, she finds the dead body of the chairman of the State Parole Board, and then she's dragged into the middle of the police investigation. The story is lightweight and overwritten, offering lots of scope for drama and over-the-top personalities, which Rosenblat only occasionally delivers. This is an uneven performance--sometimes spirited and hammy, in the manner of Davidson's writing, sometimes labored and flat. While Rosenblat's "golden voice" is almost always terrific, this time she's just okay. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 01]