Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage on August 13, 2025
Genres: Cozy / Mystery, Fiction
Pages: 409
Format: eBook
When Dorothy’s obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, it not only ruins a gorgeous cheesecake but threatens the elaborate St. Olaf–themed wedding Rose is hosting.
Things are heating up, and not just because of Blanche’s hot flashes. Rose’s cousin is eloping to Miami, and Rose is playing host. If she can’t balance the groom’s family’s snobbery against the traditional St. Olaf wedding week guidelines, her hometown may never accept her cousin again!
Dorothy quickly realizes she needs a date with whom she can exchange wedding-related wisecracks. Turning to a newfangled VHS dating service, she believes she’s found the ideal conversationalist. Unfortunately, what looks good on TV can actually be a total jerk in real life. It seems she’ll just have to enjoy the company of Sophia, Blanche, and whomever Blanche has targeted for a hookup.
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, the four besties must ID the real killer, get the should-be-happy couple down the aisle, and make sure nobody from St. Olaf gets lost in the wilds of Miami. It’s up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!
Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage sounded like the perfect book to ease into summer. After all, nothing says warm, cozy chaos quite like the Miami sun and the beloved cast of The Golden Girls. Fun fact: I’ve never actually seen The Golden Girls. You see, Mama thought the show was downright filthy, and well, that’s a story for another day when I can put on my best Rose impression and tell you all about the backward way I was raised in the foothills of the Carolinas.
I’ve seen the girls captured in reels here and there, and I have to admit it’s piqued my interest. I might even end up watching it with my own old golden girls. I, very obviously, am Dorothy. The bestie is Rose (she insists she is Sophia—she is not). The other bestie is somehow a mashup of Rose, Dorothy, and Sophia, depending on the day. Oy, I’m getting way off track here, so let me get back to it. Even without having seen the show, I felt the book captured the personalities I’ve picked up from clips and random moments online, though I know that opinion may change once I finally watch the series myself. Still, the author presents these classic ladies in a way that made me want to know them better.
The book has an undeniably cute premise for a cozy mystery, and I’m a big fan of that blend of comfort and crime. For example, one of my favorite cozy mystery series is by Vannetta Chapman, which centers around coffee shop murders. Stories like those prove that murder mysteries don’t have to be dark and gritty—they can be warm, comforting, and even a little bit fun. There’s something oddly appealing about discovering an obnoxious date facedown in a freezer full of cheesecake, especially when a quirky character like Rose is involved. Cozy and murder can go in the same sentence!
Unfortunately, that’s where the appeal starts to fade a bit. The author is incredibly long-winded in her descriptions. Even without seeing the show, I know exactly what their living space looks like because the author lovingly describes every inch of rattan furniture like she’s being paid by the wicker. Mind you, I’ve seen enough clips online to know half the women of that era had the same furniture anyway. My Aunt Aggie absolutely did, right down to the aggressively floral cushions. The book also tries a little too hard to be conspicuously “woke.” While I can’t speak firsthand to the original series, from what I’ve gathered, The Golden Girls didn’t have to force being progressive—it simply was. The show tackled topics like sexuality, chronic illness, aging, and acceptance long before it was common to do so. Rose didn’t need reminders that St. Olaf had gay bars, and Dorothy would’ve accepted students with disabilities without turning it into a performative moment. Here, those points are brought up in a way that feels less natural and more like someone repeatedly announcing how open-minded they are. The mystery itself eventually starts to feel like an afterthought buried beneath endless descriptions of décor and repeated reminders about how progressive everyone is. From what fans say, part of the charm of the original series was that it trusted the audience enough not to overexplain its heart.
I kept hoping the author would eventually rein in the excessive detail and shift the focus back to the mystery itself, but instead, the plot wraps up in about three pages after nearly 200 pages of minute descriptions. To make things even stranger, the ending suddenly veers into full-on Scooby-Doo territory with a boat scene, a dramatic unmasking, and an actual “I would’ve gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling women…” moment. All it was missing was a swamp monster and Scooby snacks.
Overall, this was a really cute idea, and I genuinely wish I’d loved it more. Unfortunately, the reading experience kept getting chipped away at for me, and the handful of typos I spotted along the way didn’t help. I initially wanted to give this book three stars, but the longer I sat with it, the more generous that rating felt. In the end, 2.5 feels closer to the mark. There’s a fun idea buried in here somewhere, but it gets smothered under excessive detail, awkward messaging, and a mystery resolution that feels like it sprinted to the finish line after wandering around for 200 pages.
CW / TW:
This piece contains references to:
Murder, Death, Kidnapping, Classism, Sexism, Drug use, Alcohol
Recommended Age: 12+
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.
Leave a Reply