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    Dark Tort
    Dark Tort
    Dark Tort
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Dark Tort

    Written by Diane Mott Davidson

    Narrated by Elizabeth Marvel

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    I tripped over the body of Dusty Routt sometime after
    10 o'clock on the evening of October 19. . .

    The New York Times bestselling author cooks up a knockout treat featuring the irrepressible caterer Goldy Schulz.

    Goldy Schulz has a lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm. It's time-consuming, but Goldy is enjoying it -- until the night she arrives to find Dusty, the firm's paralegal, dead. The poor young woman also happens to be Goldy's friend and neighbor, and now Dusty's grieving mother begs Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.

    Just because the police are on the case doesn't mean Goldy can't do a little snooping herself. While catering a party at the home of one of the firm's lawyers, she manages to overhear an incriminating conversation and ends up discovering a few clues in the kitchen. Before long, Goldy is knee deep in suspects, one of whom is incredibly dangerous and very liable to cook Goldy's goose.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 11, 2006
    ISBN9780061154362
    Dark Tort
    Author

    Diane Mott Davidson

    Diane Mott Davidson is the author of seventeen bestselling novels. She divides her time between Colorado and Florida.

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    Reviews for Dark Tort

    3.5/5

    308 ratings37 reviews

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    • 5/5
      We are living during a time of copious choice. Prosperity washes us with abundant possibilities. Yet, when we receive what we thought we wanted, we often find ourselves wanting.Barry Schwartz, a Swarthmore College professor, citing research results from psychologists, economists, market researchers and decision scientists makes five counter-intuitive arguments in this book, The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More. We would be better off if we:1.Voluntarily constrained our freedom of choice.2.Sought “good enough” instead of “the best.”3.Lowered our expectations about decision’s results.4.Made nonreversible decisions.5.Paid less attention to what others around us do.Schwartz notes we are constantly being asked to make choices, even about the simplest things. This forces us to "invest time, energy, and no small amount of self-doubt, and dread." There comes a point, he contends, at which choice becomes debilitating rather than liberating. Too much of a good thing becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being, he states.In the final, Schwartz offers an 11-step program for reducing choice’s “tyranny.”1.Choose when to choose.2.Be a Chooser, not a picker.3.Satisfice more; maximize less.4.Consider the opportunity costs of opportunity costs.5.Make your decisions nonreversible.6.Adopt an “attitude of gratitude.”7.Regret less.8.Anticipate adaptation.9.Control expectations.10.Curtail social comparisons.11.Learn to love constraints.I have always had trouble accepting the virtues of what Isaiah Berlin, the political philosopher, terms “negative liberty” or “freedom from.” In my mind “positive liberty” or “freedom to” is always the preferred option.Schwartz’s book makes a compelling case, however, that less can be more.Penned by the Pointed PunditNovember 6, 200610:24:50 AM
    • 4/5
      decided to buy fewer appliances after reading this book
    • 4/5
      The Paradox of Choice is all about how America's vast array of choices bogs us down by forcing us to wrap up all our time and energy in making good decisions about a lot of inconsequential stuff. We feel the need to sample or view ALL of the choices before making a decision-- particularly if the decision is an important one-- and we still cannot attain the perfect choice. As a result, we are less happy with the end result. The author is very engaging and offers many examples to build his case. Although I find most non-fiction incredibly dry, this book is accessible and easy to get into. I found it a fascinating look at American society.
    • 3/5
      New reader is very different. The plot story itself classic Goldy!
    • 5/5
      Some of the conclusions drawn by the author I disagree with, but I do grant that sometimes we get too bogged down in the choices to really actually DO anything. Another good point he touches on is that many people are so tightly bound to keeping their options open, that they have actually put themselves into a teeny tiny little box that keeps them from experiencing anything too deeply.
    • 4/5
      This is another in a seemingly endless procession of recent pop-psych/pop-econ books. So many to choose from!Like so many others, Schwartz describes concepts and phenomena like opportunity cost, diminishing returns, loss aversion etc. in terms of his thesis. That is, contrary to popular wisdom (side note: with all these pop-psych/pop-econ books out there, I'm beginning to think that only the ideas that have any merit are those that run contrary to popular wisdom.), the widening array of choices everywhere in life has a detrimental effect on our happiness.For starters, I partially disagree with his premise that freer markets lead to more choice. Freer markets also lead to firm concentration and scale or volume effects, which put downward pressure on the number of choices available. For example, shirts that used to be sold by collar size are now S, M, L, XL. I can't find jeans made with heavier gauge denim anymore. The quirky independent bookstore with the eclectic selection went out of business. But, overall it seems like there are more choices out there in many markets, and that is enough to make his premise functional. Whether there has actually been an increase in the differences between choices (personally, I would bet on a decrease) is another matter.Next quibble: it isn't until you are well into the book that Schwartz admits the abundance of choice negatively affects only a subset of the population: the maximizers, or those who try to wring every last drop of utility from their decisions. The paradox is not universal. At this point it turns into more of a self-help book for maximizers.Final complaint: This book is padded for length. Badly. Many sections reminded me of a student trying to stretch his or her essay out to the minimum number of pages, much to the detriment of the book. The thesis is stretched beyond its limits of applicability. A section on the downside of peoples' choices of religion? Another on their choices of race??? And there is example, after example, after example. I will be so, so relieved when today's technological upheavals in the publishing industry finally do away with this standard length (~75,000 words) for popular non-fiction.Overall I think this is a worthwhile read, especially for those who tend to agonize over their decisions.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful book that argues that while some choice is a good thing, too much choice makes us very unhappy.It shows us in what parts of our lives we get too much choice, and what psychological mechanisms play a part, and some ways we can stop ourselves from sufering more than necessary.Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I don't think there's much new psychology research in this book, but it's written in an easy-to-read manner. It's particularly worthwhile for those of us who build things in the digital world (and, of course, for anyone who wonders why they are anxious about the choices they make.)
    • 3/5
      This book is an argument for the idea that the proliferations of choices we choose from is making us sick and in fact is reducing the quality of and happiness surrounding the choices we make. This is basically a research paper turned into a commercial product. I found the book entertaining but incredibly long winded and repetitive. The essential message of the book can be gotten by reading the Prologue: The Paradox of Choice: A road map, Part I: When we choose and Part IV What we can do. What lies between are the details of and the supporting evidence for his premise.

      The book is dated in its references to technology. It was written in 2004. The book’s message none the less is still relevant for today’s readers. The phenoma it is addressing has only gotten worse. This book is similar to The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg and Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World by Donald Sull, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt both these books are better than The Paradox of Choice., in that their basic message, application of their message and writing styles are more concise. That is not to say the book is not worth reading. The supporting data in this book is excellent. It is has a great index and fantastic references.

    • 4/5
      In a society where anything is possible, picking just one thing can be overwhelming. This book vividly details the causality of anxiety in choice of plenty and sites remedies in appreciating the everyday. This book is an excellent source on the road to finding satisfaction in the culture of abundance, as it is well written and sited.
    • 3/5
      I had such high hopes for this book. I was expecting it to focus largely on consumer culture, and to have some profound 'light bulb' moments that would really make me stop and think. Not that it didn't try, but unfortunately it never really hit the spot for me.In actual fact, Schwartz focuses more on the psychological than the sociological, and widens his arguments to cover the choices we make in everything from education and careers to houses and cars to jeans and jam. The prevailing theme of the book is how the growth of choice in modern society, and the emphasis on the individual as the maker of choices, has taken us beyond freedom and into the realms of tyranny. Choice no longer liberates us; it spins us into its web and holds us there, stuck in our own uncertainty and fear. We no longer choose between three pairs of jeans in a store - we choose between ten different fits, three different leg lengths and four different colours. The same decision, however trivial it might be, now has higher stakes and many more alternatives to consider. This, Schwartz argues, plunges us into a constant whirlwind of regret, comparison, uncertainty, disappointment and even depression.I think Schwartz provides a compelling and relatable case against excessive choice, which certainly made me stop to ponder just how much of our time we devote to comparing, researching and choosing between different options in even the most inconsequential areas of our lives. His eleven methods for reducing the negative effects of choice make sense, though for me as one of his 'satisficers' (people happy with 'good enough', as opposed to 'maximisers' who make their task more difficult by always looking for the best) I didn't feel I really had too much to learn from them.My main problem with the book was that it was just too long. There was a lot of repetition - of ideas, anecdotes and examples - and the middle of the book really started to drag. Cutting the whole thing down by about 50 pages and sharpening the pace would have improved the reading experience without damaging the argument. I also noticed from the notes at the back that some of Schwartz's examples had been directly lifted from other people's work, without it being evident in the main body of text (the notes aren't numbered), which I thought was a bit sneaky. To sum up, maximisers and perfectionists might learn something important from this book, but satisficers - I wouldn't bother. It'd be like preaching to the choir anyway, so use your superior powers of choice to take you on to the next book!
    • 3/5
      One would think that with more and better choices being presented to us all the time, we would experience greater satisfaction with our lives. In fact, the opposite often happens. More choice means more time trying to find the best choice, and more dissatisfaction when we do finally choose, because of the cumulating opportunity costs of all the choices we reject. Paul van Delst suggested this book to me as a way to understand why an IDL development environment that provides unlimited choices for me is making my life less fun and productive and not more so. Schwartz provides an interesting analysis of the problem of choice and makes several suggestions for how we might structure our lives to live in an increasingly complex world.
    • 5/5
      This book talks about the classic irony of how having more things or more choices can ultimately work against us. This may sound obvious, like "who needs to be told THAT?"... but Schwartz shows us examples of how we bury ourselves with so many things and so many options that in the end we drown in our mass of possibilities.I've tried to learn from his examples. Take T shirts: in my drawers, I probably have 40 or 50 of them. But I have favorites: if you broke it down, I probably have 10 or 12 that I wear most of the time. And since I wear them, they get washed, put back on top of the rest, and it's just that much easier to pick out the same 20% over and over.The question becomes: why don't I throw the rest out?In the more complicated world, I have answers like "that one was a gift" and "I wear that one in the summer". Or probably,"I wear that one A LOT", when in truth, I really don't know what I do on a day-to-day scale.Schwartz' book makes you think about that--how choices are made in spite of our supposed "awareness". If you've ever moved you know exactly what I'm talking about--not just the work of packing and loading, but the anxiety of deciding, of coming to grips with the fact that you don't need (and rarely use)most of the things you have in life. It's easy to forget, and even easier to deny. Whether it be books you'll never get around to reading or sweaters that will never fit again or decisions you'll never get around to making because there are too many options to consider, we end up ultimately making only one decision: to not make any, at least for the moment.
    • 5/5
      A book about psykchology and economics that is presented in a way that makes it fun to read. The examples the authors uses are so relevant -- and in my non-fiction book discussion group, everyone had examples of their own. Explains a lot of the frustration people feel when they're forced into a buying decision that has waaaaaay too many variables.
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting look at how, while having no choice is definitely bad, too much choice can almost as detrimental to our psychological well-being. Schwartz examines the differences between maximizers, who attempt to get the absolute best of everything, and satisficers, who are willing to settle for good enough. Good enough could very well be high quality, but satisficers are all right with the idea that there may still be something out there that is even better. Maximizers are bothered by this, and have difficulty making choices, since there are always more options available that might be better. I tend to fall on the satificer end of the scale for most things, but there are some exceptions. I have a hard time picking a meal in a restaurant, for instance, because I can't decide which one will be the best experience. This book was an interesting look at how unlimited choice can make us less happy with what we have, and I picked up some good tips for being satisfied with my life, even though the tips themselves weren't anything I hadn't heard before. Having more of an explanation behind them makes it easier to apply these ideas to my life.
    • 4/5
      A solid read in the same vein as 'Blink', 'The Tipping Point, and 'The Wisdom of Crowds'.I think a lot of my life is based on the philosophy this book espouses... My Dad thinks my motto at restaurants is "He knows what he likes and he likes what he knows". This seems to go along with this book's position of satisficing when a menu of options is large.Some noteworthy quotes:"A New Yorker piece about this phenomenon identified at least six different kinds of casual: active casual, rugged casual, sporty casual, dressy casual, smart casual, and business casual. As writer John Seabrook put it, "This may be the most depressing thing about the casual movement: no clothing is casual anymore."- pg 36"One way of achieving this goal is by keeping wonderful experiences rare. No matter what you can afford, save great wine for special occassions. No matter what you can afford, make that perfectly cut, elegantly styled, silk blouse a special treat. This may seem like an exercise in self-denial, but I don't think it is. On the contrary, it's a way to make sure that you can continue to experience pleasure. What's the point of great meals, great wines, and great blouses if they don't make you feel great?"- pg187
    • 4/5
      A psychological study of mind's decision making and choice process, and consequence of that in current world of choice-overload. Drastic, in general, (not to me) but often repetitive in its conclusion yet fascinating in the process and studies cited.
    • 4/5
      Why, with so many options availble to us, are we not happier? Author Barry Schwartz opens this book by walking us through his neighbourhood grocery store, where there are 85 brands of crackers, 285 brands of cookies, 75 iced teas, 360 types of shampoo........This is an economics perspective on the utility of choice. Easy to read, insightful, thought-provoking. When is "enough" enough?
    • 5/5
      Very insightful and very challenging. This was one of the best books I've read in a long time.
    • 4/5
      Paradox of Choice offers an interesting theory that there is such thing as too much choice, and shows how choice restricts freedom albeit not convincingly. Still it is thought provoking, and some people who are sure they need to have the 'best' choice (a.k.a the perfect choice, just another more narrow version of perfectionism) are people who suffer. The author calls them maximizers. The author then argues that the unlimited choice actually creates maximizers, and this is the part that is unconvincing.My own struggles with perfectionism lead me to believe that perfectionism is not always pervasive. Perfectionism with regard to the knowledge I have and the way I express it, but never with my choices of clothing or groceries (I guess I am not a maximizer), but yes with my choice of computer and computer games/software/hardware (so yes a maximizer here). So, maximizers are not always pervasive. Yes, agreed that the seemingly unlimited choice is sometimes irritating, but you have to try the jeans or khakis on before you leave anyway (different manufacturers have different ideas of sizing). So, I still think the problem lies with the PERCEPTION and not with the seemingly UNLIMITED CHOICE itself. Being able to make decisions easily is one of the attractive qualities of a leader, and since most of the society is at least somewhat lacking in leadership abilities it is not surprising that the society has trouble choosing the 'good enough' (author calls them satisficers) choices rather than anguishing over the 'best' choice.With that said, this book deserves 4 stars. (It made me think about other ways in which I COULD express my perfectionism, but thank goodness, I have up till now chosen not to.)
    • 1/5
      The information in the book was interesting, but the writing was not great. It was like the author (who is a college professor) had someone transcribe his lectures for the semester, and he then did slight editing to make a book. Something was missing. And he referenced points, like "wouldn't it be interesting to know...?" and never followed up-fine for a class, but I would expect an author to do that.
    • 3/5
      I haven't enjoyed this series for a while, but this is an earlier entry that I had somehow missed and I hoped it might belong to the "still good" era. Alas, no. The opening sequence is a typical tired slapstick about caterer Goldy tripping over a dead body, which provides plenty of scene-setting without the subsequent throwing about of food all over a posh law firm's lobby. It's all just so over the top and ridiculous, and I swear this time I am really done with this series. I can't keep reading books where I'm rooting for the murderer to take out the main character, can I? At least not without knowing it actually happens at some point — that book, I would happily read.
    • 3/5
      I listened to the audiobook version of this title. I think they changed readers for the audiobooks because it sounded like a different person than the last book in the series that I listened to as an audiobook. The narrator's raspy voice didn't do the audio version as much justice as the former narrator's did. I kept thinking I'd get used to it, but I never did. I did catch the double meaning of tort/torte long before it came up in the book. It's a dessert and a legal term so it does double duty in this case since the murder takes place at a law firm where Goldy's been catering breakfasts and lunches--something that apparently started in between the events of the last book and this one as best I can tell.Goldy's son Arch is learning to drive. Yet Goldy's the one who ends up taking the door off Julian's range rover then leaving trash bags in it for a week or so. Poor Julian!! Also, at the party, it sounded like she asked Julian to take additional trash bags out of the trash bins but when she goes to the repair shop to get the bags after the mechanic demands she come get them, it sounds like only one bag. So which is it? Especially since that trash is what tips off the murderer. Would most people miss one bag of trash from their trash bin? I don't know--maybe.
    • 5/5
      A friend and neighbour of Goldy's is the victim in this latest mystery. Lawyers, art, and tasty food are all part of the backdrop of Goldy's latest snooping adventure.
    • 4/5
      A good cozy mystery. Lots of talk about food with recipes at the end.
    • 4/5
      For someone who isn't a homicide detective, Goldy sure has a lot of contact with murders! This latest involves lawyers (automatic bad guys, right?), infidelity, theft, and jealousy. Goldie manages to put all the pieces together, but not before her own brush with death.
    • 5/5
      Goldy is going in to help a young friend learn to bake, they meet weekly at the law office the young woman is working at as a paralegal. When Goldy stumbles and falls coming into the office, she is hurt and has thrown food all over the place. Turning to look at what caused her to fall, she finds her friend, Dusty. Dusty is unresponsive and after performing CPR for quite some time, Goldy gives up, calls the police and starts a chain of events that lead to theft, murder, infidelity and puts Goldy at risk.As usual there are some delectable foods woven through the story, Goldy is catering, trying to find out who killed Dusty, keeping track of Arch and Gus, and generally having a very busy, very confused and very dangerous week.I do love this series and am enjoying spending some time catching up on it, still several books behind so have more Goldy left to read.
    • 5/5
      not bad, kept me interested. and there are recipes after the last chapter
    • 3/5
      It's been a few years since I last read a Goldy mystery. I thought maybe I'd grown so critical in my reading that I'd not like these books -- that I'd find them super cheesy and ridiculous (possibly why I'd stopped picking them up), but this one is a pleasant surprise. It's escape literature, for certain, but decent in that category. At least for this book, any time Davidson gets close to sappy or silly, she quickly backs away and moves the story forward. I appreciate that. This type of book is good for listening while I drive.

      I was a bit exasperated that all the "action" in the book (that is, all the info Goldy was collecting in her investigation) came in the form of talking to people and hearing their stories -- a type of passive writing as opposed to active. However, perhaps this is just more realistic as far as murder investigating goes. The lady does come across a lot of murdered people in her otherwise friendly small town. How much action could she expect? So I forgive the book for that disappointment.
    • 3/5
      One of the ones I’d missed was Dark Tort (about lawyers, and also cake – puns are de rigeur in cozies’ titles), which is what I’m reading now… NOT one of the better ones. I think in the whole of FF DMD managed to avoid one little quirk of hers which appears in nearly every other book, which always makes me roll my eyes so hard I’m afraid they’ll get stuck. In Dark Tort (Goldy Culinary Mysteries, Book 13), it’s: “My mouth watered as I placed the potato puff on a plate. With the first bite, I almost swooned.” She “almost swoons” a lot. Don’t get me wrong – I plan on making the potato puffs. I just gag a little every time she “almost swoons”. Reading about writing has made me much more aware of how characters are described. DMD’s Goldy books are also first-person, and Goldy … looks in mirrors now and then. Oh dear. The writing in these really does vary wildly in quality. This one … Um. Waitaminnit – there’s no recipe for the potato puffs? This one sucks.