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Hold onto your sides as you wind your way through three decades of small town Central Florida, replete with quarreling townsfolk, a no-nonsense sheriff with a legendary ancestor, Cubano hit men, exotic dancers, a haunted house and a former Ziegfeld Follies girl who still high kicks at age 80. Stir in Dracula, a well-hung skunk and one nasty alligator named “Ol’ Clyde” and "A Dish Best Served Cold" by author David Carl Mielke has a recipe for laugh-out-loud mayhem.
A Dish Best Served Cold
David Carl Mielke
Mill City Press (2009)
ISBN 9781936107193
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (1/10)
As the author states at the beginning of the book, there are times in our life when we have been taken advantage of and want revenge. Does it help to be revengeful? Well, if you ask our two main characters Lena and Anne, the answer would be a profound yes. Follow these two gutsy ladies grow up and finally get the revenge they want on numerous people and along the way they find each other and what their lives are really about.
We start out with Anne who grew up in a funeral home that gave her daily headaches and the only way she could get rid of them was to take walks in the woods. She finds that she has some strange power to communicate with the dead and animals. When Anne leaves for college she finds that her roommate is less than tolerable, so she spends most of her time out of her dorm room. Then she meets “Mr. Wonderful,” Winthrop Stedman, III, but she is less than cordial to him. Stedman will not give up; he is used to getting his way and Anne intrigues him.
Lena finds that her body and looks can get her anything she wants and decides to take advantage of it. Her job is at Diamond Divas and her stage name is Electra. Lena is weary of others, has trust issues and mostly keeps to herself. Finding that she has made the money she wants, Lena goes into hiding in an RV in the forest. She wants to forget her life as Electra and find something more meaningful. Enter politician Winthrop Stedman, III, who will get what he wants at no cost and Lena is someone he wants. However, he wants to shut down Diamond Divas and Lena won’t let that happen- the trap is set.
Years later the two women meet and decide that it’s time to take their lives back and give payback for those that abused and used them.
The author has done a tremendous job in describing each character and their journey through life. You can smell the cigarette smoke and musty beer in Diamond Divas and you can smell and visualize what it is like to live in a funeral home.
“A Dish Best Served Cold” by David Carl Mielke is a fast-paced book with numerous seedy and loving characters. The action is never-ending, but blends well from one character or event to the other. You will meet criminals, users, a loving deputy and one mean alligator, “Ol Clyde,” who also has an active role in this story.
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