Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage Series: Golden Girls #1
on August 13, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Humorous / General, Fiction / Media Tie-In, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Cozy / General
Pages: 409
Format: eBook
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"When Dorothy's obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, it not only ruins the gorgeous cheesecake but threatens the elaborate St. Olaf-themed wedding Rose is hosting. As the Girls all pitch in, Rose is thrilled that the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff event is perfect, not a herring out of place. That is until Dorothy's date is found dead--face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake. With every guest a suspect (especially Dorothy) and a marriage on the line, it's up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!"--
I have high hopes for this novel, this series. I can literally hear their voices coming out of my head as I read, the lilt and way of speaking, the accents, all the things. I can completely see the house as they interact, but I could really do without the deadpan description of the setting and the clothing they are wearing. It’s distracting, but I guess if there happens to be someone out there who either didn’t grow up with The Golden Girls or had parents that failed them, it may be necessary. But then if you are in the second category, you wouldn’t understand the outfits anyway (hello shoulder pads, my old friend).
I ended this book with mixed feelings. The unnecessary descriptions (there were some that were necessary and helpful, but were greatly outnumbered) continued throughout the book. I felt like the author tried too hard to capture the essence of the gals that made the sitcom so popular, and it almost made them too characterish. Rose was almost too dingbat, and Sophia occasionally crossed the line from her flippant sarcasm to mean. Finally, I felt like the ending was rushed. Almost like, our time slot is almost up, so we gotta wrap this up, ladies.
From a nostalgia perspective, though, the book hit. 1980s Miami with some middle age gals, a hint of Don Johnson, and a whole lotta chaos. And the musical references really sealed that 80s vibe. I thought the mystery was really well done as well. All the clues were there on the whodunit without being super obvious, and the twist on the dead guy was great. While Cheesecake didn’t hit all the marks for me, it did exactly what I wanted it to do. Bring a bit of my youth to the present. And I’m totally waiting for that next book to drop!
About Rachel Ekstrom Courage
Rachel Ekstrom Courage is the New York Times, USA Today, and American Booksellers Association bestselling author of Murder By Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery (Hyperion Avenue/Disney) and the Young Adult thriller Nothing Bad Happens Here (PRH/Delacorte). She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband (the children’s book author Nick Courage) and their family.
By day she’s the founder of Courage Literary, advocating for books and authors that make the world a better, smarter, and more interesting place. As a literary agent, Rachel has represented New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Best Sellers. Her clients include GoodReads Choice Award Winners, IndieNext Picks and Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections as well as finalists for the Lambda Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the ITW Thriller Award.
Rachel has led workshops, keynoted, and appeared on panels at Tinker Mountain Writers Workshop, The Loft’s Wordsmith Conference, Grub Street, SCBWI’s Winter Conference, Thrillerfest, Writer’s Digest, Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, University of Pittsburgh, Chatham University, Seton Hill University, LWC}NYC, Jambalaya Writers Conference, South Carolina Writers’ Workshop, New England Crime Bake, PNWA, RWA, New York Writers Workshop, Unicorn Writers Conference, Digital Hollywood, PennWriters and more. She’s also the co-founder of Littsburgh, a community celebrating the literature of Western Pennsylvania, and occasionally appears on CBS Pittsburgh to talk about books and literary events.
Her publishing career began in New York City where Rachel started out as a bookseller before becoming a book publicist, promoting mysteries and thrillers for Minotaur in the historic Flatiron building. She next took on a directorial role for Penguin’s Dutton and Gotham imprints and finally worked on blockbuster fiction and nonfiction for St. Martin’s Press (highlights of which included throwing publishing parties at Bouchercon and watching a live Oprah taping from the green room). Along the way, she enjoyed stints as a fifth-grade teacher and as a bookseller at a children’s bookstore inside FAO Schwartz.
When she’s not busy working on books, you can find Rachel playing with her dog and restocking her Little Free Library.
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