Review: Getting Old Is Murder

Getting Old Is Murder Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Rita Lakin
Class/Genre: Mystery Woman Main Character Senior Sleuths Cozy
Series: Gladdy Gold Detective Agency # 1
Bantam Dell: A Division of Random House, 2005, 297 pages

This first in a series features Glady Gold and her Gladiators, senior citizens forced into solving the murder of several of their friends who resided in an aging retirement codominium in Florida. This appears to be an ambitious series which will feature at about 20 regular characters unless she kills off several per book and there were a couple I would cheerfully do away with. I found the number of characters overwhelming despite the character list at the front of the book, and the picturegram of how all the various residences relate to each other.

The story was carried along almost exclusively with action and conversation. Very little effort was spent on the usual prose female cozy writers add to their book. The description of anything visual was abbreviated almost to the point of stage notes. This is one of my least favored writing styles.

On the positive side it is written in the first person, a challenging style but gives the reader access to every clue and piece of information except one clue at the end, and thus a fair chance to figure it out for themselves. And that one clue wasn't withheld to keep the reader from finding the answer. I had already thought of the question and it was only held back for a few pages. It seemed to be held just to maintain the pace of the plotting. By about page 50 I was muttering to myself that it reads like a TV script, at a couple points even thinking "Heres where the commercial break would fall", and sure enough at the end of the book, the author bio credits her with a lot of writing for television. So its probably not suprising by about 120 pages I had correctly identified the killer, the motive, and the poor soul who would be mistakenly blamed for the murder and predicted the development of the love interest. Predictability does not equate with boring however.

I also give the author credit for avoiding my pet peeve on trite endings for first mysteries in terms of motive. One motive was very timely. The multipage glossary of Yiddish words was helpful to those of use who don't have a large Jewish community in our neighborhood.

I don't think there was much originality. Cross Corinne Holt Sawyer's retirement community populated with a dozen or so Jewish versions of Jessica Fletcher and throw in the over the top cutesy writing style a la Evanovich, and you've pretty well got the entire ingredients of this formulaic offering. While much about this book was not particularly to my taste, others may find it delightful. There is a lot of potential for growth of the author and the series. Its a very acceptable beach read.

Book Review: Getting Old Is Murder