Review: THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE, Richard Osman

• 
  This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DJ1TQH16
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin, Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 25, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 409 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1405975629 
• Book 5 of 5: Thursday Murder Club Mysteries  

Synopsis (Amazon)

Who's got time to think about murder when there's a wedding to plan?

It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.

But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who fears for their life, the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into their most explosive investigation yet, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?

My Take:

 Joyce's daughter Joanna is getting married and Elizabeth is still not really herself. And then at the wedding itself comes an action which brings the Thursday Murder Club a task, after almost a year of inaction. And the old team prove that they've still got it, despite the failings that come with their advancing years. 

There were times when I found this latest incursion into geezer lit both challenging and exasperating.  I struggled at times to remember the background to each character, but thank goodness it all came together at the end. 

My Rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  - #1

4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE - #2

4.6, THE BULLET THAT MISSED - #3

4.8, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE - #4

4.5, WE SOLVE MURDERS

Review: WE SOLVE MURDERS, Richard Osman

• 
   this edition published by Penguin Viking 2024
  
• ISBN 978-0-241-60837-1
• 444 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

Combining the heart and humour of The Thursday Murder Club with a puzzling international mystery, welcome to the blockbusting new series from the biggest new fiction author of the decade, Richard Osman.

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job . . .

Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy? 

My Take

I wasn't prepared for the complexity of this plot. There is a lot to get your head around, and a lot of new characters to become familiar with. There are glimmerings of humour but not too many outright belly laughs, although some develop by the end. The quirkiness that was a feature of the previous series is there - scenarios that you feel could only come from Richard Osman's brain.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  
• 4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE 
• 4.6, THE BULLET THAT MISSED
• 4.8, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE

Review: KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE, Deanna Raybourn

• 
  This edition published 1923 by Hodder & Stoughton
  
• Supplied by my local library
• ISBN 978-1-399-71278-1
• 353 pages
  

Synopsis (publisher)

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death.

To get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman - and a killer - of a certain age.

My Take

I seem to have score a number of books about elderly or retiring assassins just lately. 

• 4.5, SEVENTEEN: Last Man Standing - #1
• 4.5, ASSASSIN EIGHTEEN - #2

I've added 'geezer lit' to my labels for this one. 

Four female assassins on the brink of retiring, highly trained, very successful, find that they in turn are on someone's list, so they must track down who is after them. They are not sure who to trust of their former associates, nor entirely sure what they've done. Some of them are aging more quickly than others of their group.

Entertaining reading.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

SILENT IN THE GRAVE

About the author

New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a double major in English and history and an emphasis on Shakespearean studies. She taught high school English for three years in San Antonio before leaving education to pursue a career as a novelist. Deanna makes her home in Virginia, where she lives with her husband and daughter and is hard at work on her next novel.

Review: THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB, Robert Thorogood

• 
  This edition available as an e-book from Amazon (Kindle)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B088F6TLVX
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HQ (January 7, 2021)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 348 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar.

Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…

My Take

Suffice it to say, that all the way through the reading of this novel, I thought that I had somehow read it before, but I never checked if I had, until I came to write this review, and then I discovered that I actually had. My earlier review is here.

Anyway. it seems that I have enjoyed it a little more this time around.

And did I find it derivative of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, a question that seems to worry many readers, afraid of wasting their time if they take the plunge? The answer to that is No. Similar in plot lines but not derivative. It stands well on its own.

My rating: 4.6

Review: MURDER ON FRIDAY STREET, Russell Cooper

• This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CJBCR7K4
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Red Balloon Press (September 19, 2023)
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 394 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1919602178
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1919602172
• #1 Friday Street Murder Mysteries
  

Synopsis (publisher) 

If you love Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, you’ll love this.

Eccentric twin brothers, Cedric and Ambrose, retire from MI6 to make honey and tackle crosswords at Tanglefoot Farm in England’s Surrey Hills.

The unsolved brutal murder of their long-lost friend drags them back into the secret life they left behind.

Can Cedric and Ambrose, along with Charlie, their dead friend’s daughter, and the seventy-five year old mystery woman who lives in a campervan, unravel the clues and crack the cold case before the killer strikes again?

The chase is on to solve the mystery and catch the murderer.

Murder on Friday Street is the highly entertaining first book in the Friday Street Murder Mystery series. If you like witty, feisty women, a tangle of clever clues, and hilarious adventures, then you’ll love Russell Cooper’s gripping murder mystery.

My Take

While I enjoyed reading this latest outing in the geezer lit genre, I am just a little uncomfortable with its close proximity to that other very successful series by Richard Osman. It feels a little to0 close to a spoof on a spoof, an author saying "I can do a little better.  ... instead of one retired spy lets put a few of them together and see what happens." (although I am sure this sort of thing happens more than I indicate in my reviews)

In the middle of it there is some serious plotting, a serious cold case, some delightfully drawn characters, some humorous and not-so humorous situations.

However, if you read it then come back here and tell me if you think I've been unduly harsh with my coattails analogy.

My rating: 4.0

About the author

Russell Cooper...grew up on a rich diet of spy novels and Sunday afternoon television dramas. Following a hectic career in the restaurant business I did a couple of undisclosed stints (nothing dangerous) with NATO & GCHQ. Today I live in Surrey UK and when I’m not writing, editing or reading, I support the demands of Winnie, my toy poodle.

Review: THE BULLET THAT MISSED, Richard Osman

• 
  This edition Large Print from Penguin Random House published 2022
  
• ISBN 978-0-593-63266-6
• 447 pages
• #3 Thursday Murder Club series
• read an extract
  

Synopsis (publisher)

It is an ordinary Thursday and things should finally be returning to normal.

Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club is concerned. A decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.

Then, a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill . . . or be killed.

As the cold case turns white hot, Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), while Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

My Take

Local television compere Mike Waghorn has come to interview members of the Thursday Murder Club at Cooper's Chase for South East Tonight. It was all Joyce's idea. Mike intends his focus to be on retirement communities, he doesn't know he is meeting the Thursday Murder Club. They hope to pump him for information about a former colleague whose body has never been found. Fate seems to have stepped in when Mike himself suggests her name for their attention.

There are a number of continuing characters in this series, so it really does help to have read the earlier books.

One of the aspects that I enjoy about these geezer lit stories is the underlying gentle humour.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

• 4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  
• 4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE
  

Review: THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE, Richard Osman

• 
  this edition published by Viking 2021
• #2 Thursday Murder Club
  
• ISBN 978-0-241-42543-5
• 420 pages

Synopsis  (publisher)

The second novel in the number one Sunday Times bestselling Thursday Murder Club series featuring the old (but far from past-it) team as they pursue a brand new mystery.

It's the following Thursday, and Elizabeth has just had a visit from a man she thought was dead. It's (one of) her ex-husbands, and he's being hunted. His story involves some diamonds, some spies, and a very angry mobster.

Elizabeth puts it down to his normal grandstanding, but then the bodies start piling up. So she enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for the killer. If they find the diamonds - well, that's just a bonus...

But this time the murderer isn't some small-time criminal, and it soon becomes terrifying clear that they wouldn't bat an eyelid at killing four septuagenarians. Can our team find the killer before the killer finds them?

My Take

The Thursday Murder Club usually spend their time solving cold cases, so when a real case comes up, they jump at the chance, especially when it involves one of their small group. First of all their undisputed leader Elizabeth, ex-MI5, gets a letter from someone whom she believes is dead. And then Ibrahim is attacked by some young ones, his mobile phone snatched, and he is kicked in the head.

And then, local detectives Chris and Donna are trying to nail their local drug dealer Connie. Without success. And Chris falls in love.

As the novel develops various subplots emerge, the story becomes a mixture of the serious and black comedy, and Joyce keeps us all up to date, as she did in the first book in the series, through her daily diary.

Entertaining geezer lit.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read 4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

Review: AN ELDERLY LADY IS UP TO NO GOOD, Helene Tursten

• 
  This edition made available by my local library as an e-book through Libby
  
• Originally collated in Swedish in 2017
• English translation published by Soho Press in 2018
• Translator Marlaine Delargy
• ISBN 978-1-64129-011-1

Synopsis (publisher)

Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and... no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten, author of the Irene Huss investigations, features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home.

Ever since her darling father's untimely death when she was only eighteen, Maud has lived in the family's spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. That was how Maud learned that good things can come from tragedy. Now in her late eighties, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father's ancient armchair. It's a solitary existence, and she likes it that way.

Over the course of her adventures--or misadventures--this little bold lady will handle a crisis with a local celebrity who has her eyes on Maud's apartment, foil the engagement of her long-ago lover, and dispose of some pesky neighbors. But when the local authorities are called to investigate a dead body found in Maud's apartment, will Maud finally become a suspect?

My Take

A very quick read.

A Collection of 5 short stories

• An Elderly Lady has Accommodation Problems 2012
  When one of her neighbours has designs on her apartment Maud takes swift action.
  

• An Elderly Lady on Her Travels 2012
  Maud sees a social notice that her ex-fiance, at 90, is marrying again, to someone she taught decades before.
  

• An Elderly Lady seeks Peace at Christmas time 2007
  Since her upstairs neighbours moved in a year before, Maud has had to put up with The Problem.
  

• The Antique Dealer's Death 2016
  Maud wants to sell some her father's gold and silver antiques, but a rapacious young antique dealer aims to cheat her out of her property
  

• An Elderly Lady is Faced with a Difficult Dilemma 2018
  This story gives you the background to the Antique Dealer's Death. 

In the last two stories Detective Inspector Irene Huss is the investigating officer. Huss of course makes her appearance in a number of Tursten's full length novels.

While Maud has good health she gives the impression at times that she is "not quite with it". But nothing could be further from the truth. Most of those who cross Maud don't live to tell the tale. 

A lovely collection of quirky tales.

My Rating: 4.7

I've also read

THE GLASS DEVIL
4.4, NIGHT ROUNDS
THE GOLDEN CALF
4.5, THE FIRE DANCE
4.4, HUNTING GAME

Review: THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, Richard Osman

• 
  this edition made available in my local library through Libby
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (September 3, 2020)
• 382 pages| 
• ISBN 9781984880987 
• Questions for discussion available

Synopsis (Random House)

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to…
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

Every Thursday, four unlikely friends meet in the Jigsaw Room at the luxurious Coopers Chase Retirement Village to solve cold cases that have been languishing on the books for years. There’s Red Ron, the infamous former socialist firebrand, still causing trouble wherever he can; gentle Joyce, widowed, pining for another resident, but surely not as innocent as she seems; Ibrahim, a former therapist who understands the darker side of human nature; and Elizabeth? Well, no one is quite sure who she really is, but she’s definitely not a woman to underestimate. Though they may be in their seventies, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Joyce, and Ron still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

When a local property developer winds up dead, The Thursday Murder Club finds themselves in the middle of their first live case — can the four catch the killer before it’s too late? 

My Take

Though the book follows the four friends—Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, and Ron—solving the murder, the only first-person POV is Joyce’s via her diary. We meet Joyce right at the beginning and she introduces us to the others and keeps us up to speed with events.

Elizabeth and her friend Penny, a former police inspector who now lies comatose in hospital, founded the Thursday Murder Club, to investigate some cold cases that Penny never managed to solve. After Penny had a stroke, Elizabeth invited other residents to join her on Thursdays in the Jigsaw Room to continue with the "work" that she and Penny had started. Elizabeth visits Penny, who is on life support, regularly to report progress.

Meanwhile PC Donna De Freitas, recently transferred to the country from London, arrives at the Coopers Chase Retirement Village to give a talk on home security and so meets the members of the club. This meeting is important for her career.

The Coopers Chase Retirement Village, billed, when it was first built on land bought from a convent, as "Britain's First Luxury Retirement Village", has 300 residents, and a local property developer is aiming to add to it by demolishing an old cemetery. Ian Ventham, the property developer, decides to get rid of his builder partner. A few days later Ventham himself drops dead after a struggle with people at the cemetery and the Thursday Murder Club are all witnesses.

Each member of the Thursday Murder Club brings different strengths to the club, all useful in tracking down suspects, and following leads. 

This is a delightful read, full of humour, but also rapidly moving. The plot turns out to be quite complex, and there is more than one death.

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Richard Osman is an author, producer, and television presenter. His first novel, The Thursday Murder Club, was a #1 million-copy international bestseller. Critics have already described The Man Who Died Twice as “his second novel.” He lives in London.

Review: THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB, Robert Thorogood

• 
  This edition published by Harper Collins UK 2021
  
• ISBN 9-78008-43590-5
• 338 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar.

Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape…

My Take

I have categorised this novel as "geezer lit" - a sub-genre of mystery crime fiction in which "old geezers" are the principal characters, usually as amateur sleuths. (see this link for further examples). The authors themselves often fall into the "old geezer" category too.

Judith, Suzie and Becks work with a local police woman to find the murderer first of Judith's "neighbour" and then of the two subsequent murders that take place in the small Thames village of Marlow.

The reading audience is probably those who are "of an age" and like their cozies. I found the story entertaining. Under the leadership of Judith, a 77 year old who likes swimming in the Thames naked on a summer's night, the trio investigate a number of suspects and commit some very audacious acts. I enjoyed participating vicariously with them.

My rating: 4.4

About the author 

Robert Thorogood is the creator of the hit BBC One TV series DEATH IN PARADISE.He was born in Colchester, Essex, in 1972. When he was 10-years old, he read his first proper novel – Agatha Christie’s Peril at End House – and he’s been in love with the genre ever since.He now lives in Marlow in Buckinghamshire with his wife, children and an increasingly cranky Bengal cat called Daniel.

Review: A CANTERBURY CRIME, Brian Kavanagh

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 386 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: BeWrite Books (October 19, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00480ODQU
• Published by BeWrite Books 2010 ISBN 978-1-906609-42-9
• source: I bought it.

This novel begins with a brief background to the history of Canterbury and in particular to the murder of its Archbishop in the Cathedral just after Christmas in 1170.

Antiques dealer Hazel Whitby and her Australian companion Belinda Lawrence have been asked to catalogue and value the contents of a deceased estate, the Manor House. It is just a few days to Christmas and Hazel and Belinda will be spending Christmas in Canterbury.

Professor de Gray died nearly six months earlier, supposedly from a heart attack. But Hazel and Belinda hear stories of there having been "blood on his head" and the Professor's body was cremated with almost indecent haste, the day after his death.

They have been commissioned by Miss Mowbray (who reminds Belinda of a modern Mrs Danvers) to evaluate the contents of the Manor House, which turns out to be a virtual Aladdin's Cave. Shortly after they begin work, Miss Mowbray goes up to London, and there meets with an accident.

As with the other 3 titles in this series, I enjoyed the historical background that Kavanagh uses to give depth to the story. Belinda's romance with the handsome Mark (who appeared in #2) and her partnership with Hazel provide continuity from one novel to the next. (If oyu are new to the series, I strongly suggest you read them in order). Like its predecessors A CANTERBURY CRIME is a pleasant whodunnit in the true cozy tradition.

There is a growing sub-genre of mystery crime fiction known as "geezer lit" (the term is not mine). Some of them are mysteries in which "old geezers" are the principal characters, usually as amateur sleuths. Mike Befeler's RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER and LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER are good examples of these.

There is though another side to "geezer lit" mysteries where the writer could (kindly) be said to be an "old geezer" - and surely Brian Kavanagh could lay claim to this status. Again, hoping Brian is not offended here, there are books where the main audience will be "old geezers" who love their reading.
A CANTERBURY CRIME will appeal to this audience. It is a cozy that is strongly part of the tradition. It will also appeal to those who on their travels have been to Canterbury and to the Cathedral in particular, and who enjoyed this taste of English history.

A CANTERBURY CRIME is a light enjoyable read, with a murder investigation by a couple of likeable amateur sleuths.

My rating 4.3

My reviews of earlier titles.

Review: THE MARATHON MURDERS, Chester D. Campbell

I read THE MARATHON MURDERS (publ. 2008) on my Kindle

Blurb
Did Sydney Liggett, assistant treasurer of Marathon Motor Works in Nashville, skip town in 1914 with embezzled funds, or was he framed and murdered? That's the question PI's Greg and Jill McKenzie are hired to answer when 90-year-old documents found during restoration of the company’s buildings disappear. They discover the contractor who had them has been murdered. As they follow the twisting path, more bodies are found and they fear their client, Liggett’s great-great-granddaughter, may be next.

ISBN 9780979916717

Although there are at least 3 nasty murders and some tricky situations for husband and wife team Greg and Jill, I found THE MARATHON MAN a fairly light read.
I have mentally put it into the category of geezer lit which means that is you are under about 60 you may not want to read it. Check out other geezer lit.
Greg and Jill, in their 60s, have been married for 40 years, and have only been working as private investigators since Greg's retirement. This is apparently their 4th adventure.



More about elderly author Chester D. Campbell can be found on his website.

My rating: 4.1

Review: LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER, Mike Befeler

This book, #2 in the Paul Jacobsen Geezer-Lit Mystery series, is the first book I've completed reading on my new Kindle. I noticed also that this book is available as an audio from Audible.

Finding that it was available on Kindle was great because the paper versions don't appear to be available yet here in Australia, and the US versions are quite expensive.

I read and reviewed the first in the series, RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER, earlier this year after we had been to Left Coast Crime in Hawaii and met the author Mike Befeler there.

The background to the series is that 85 year old Paul Jacobson has short term memory loss. Like most elderly people he remembers things from the past very well, but most of them will be thankful they don't have his peculiar affliction - sleep wipes the slate of his memory perfectly clean. So if he takes a nap, all that preceded it is gone, and overnight sleep erases the previous day. To counteract that, in the first in the series, Paul's granddaughter got him to write a daily journal so that he can read it the following day and and least get some idea of what he has been doing. In RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER, Paul was living on Hawaii in a retirement home, but his son Denny thought that was too far away and has persuaded Paul to come to live with his family in Boulder Colorado. The idea is really to keep a better eye on Paul, who always seemed to be getting into serious trouble in Hawaii.

But Paul's move to Boulder doesn't start too well - the man he is sitting next to on the plane rather inconveniently dies, and that's just the start of a succession of serious situations for Paul.
Like the earlier title LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS is an irreverent poke at the lives of the elderly. You'll discover for example that there is one thing that Paul can do that seems to prevent his memory loss, but is it a sustainable solution? Paul's son Denny is worrying that his memory may be going the same way, his daughter-in-law Allison is amazingly welcome, and his 12 year old granddaughter is delightful, a sleuth and lawyer in the making.

I kept thinking of what an amazing job the author Mike Befeler does of keeping his wires uncrossed. We, the reader, basically see the world through Paul Jacobson's eyes, and of course we can remember a lot of what he has forgotten. Just occasionally I felt like poking Paul, to tell him that we had already discovered the answer to that question - why the heck didn't he write it down!

You can probably tell from my tone that I thoroughly enjoyed reading LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER. I think Mike Befeler has hit on a story line that the elderly will find enjoyable too. It's not a long read - the hardcover version is 261 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1594147616.

My rating : 4.4

Review: RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER, Mike Befeler

Thomson Gale, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59414-515-5, 290 pages.

Waking up every morning with a clean slate may appeal to some but for Paul Jacobsen it is "crapola". Every time he sleeps Paul Jacobsen's short term memory re-sets itself, so it is a real incentive not to nap during the day. While he is awake he has a photographic memory of what has happened since he last slept. And he's been living with this for 5 years!

Paul's son Denny has helped him to move into a retirement home on Big Island, Hawaii, and he wakes the next morning with no memory of how he got there or where important things like the dining room are. That morning he discovers the body in the laundry chute.

Mike Befeler's debut novel is humorous, quirky, and a bit of a romp in more ways than one. Mike himself, whom we met earlier this year at Left Coast Crime, refers to it as "geezer lit" - hence the cap in the image to the right.

RETIREMENT HOMES ARE MURDER is simultaneously a murder mystery with the usual red herrings, and a realistic exploration of the problems that be-set the elderly with advancing age.

My rating: 4.3

Blurb from Mike Befeler's website:
Remembering nothing from the day before, crotchety octogenarian Paul Jacobson must become an amateur sleuth to clear himself as a murder suspect when he finds a dead body in the trash chute of a retirement home. As Paul’s snooping and short-term memory loss get him in trouble with the local police, his new friends and granddaughter Jennifer help him solve an expanding list of crimes. Paul finds romance as he struggles to escape a murderer intent on a repeat performance.

Mike Befeler now has a sequel in print:
LIVING WITH YOUR KIDS IS MURDER.
Blurb from Mike's site:
Imagine waking up in your son’s home, not remembering anything from the day before and being accused of murder. Or consider a male Miss Marple enmeshed in a light-hearted Memento with a dash of Fifty First Dates. In this, the second of the Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery series, crotchety octogenarian Paul Jacobson must solve two murders while struggling with the problems of his short-term memory loss. As Paul ends up suspiciously close to a bank robbery, kidnapping and drug bust, his granddaughter Jennifer helps him track down the real perpetrators. Paul juggles two girlfriends, experiences the vagaries of romance and must find a way to stay alive when he confronts the murderer.

Certainly a book I'd like to get my hands on.