The good
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Strong, interesting, unique characters. Their voices and personalities come through in a fun way and it’s fun to spend time with them.
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An interesting setting: old folks in a retirement home solving murders. I heard a brief interview with the author, and he explained the motivation for this book, which I thought was lovely: although we take them for granted, and even underestimate them, many of the old folks in a retirement home have had life experiences—being a soldier, a spy, a business mogul, whatever—that many of us can’t even imagine. And if you do a murder mystery in a retirement home, these folks would have the time and inclination to solve it!
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A generally uplifting book throughout. And that’s impressive, because the book touches on plenty of dark themes—murder, suicide, aging—but it does so in with a lot of empathy and care.
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A decent sense of humor. This isn’t a laugh-out-loud book, but you’ll find yourself frequently smiling, and occasionally even chuckling.
The not so good
- The mystery is overly convoluted. But it almost always has to be in mystery stories to be able to carry the story forward for the length of a book.
Rating: 4 stars
Yevgeniy Brikman
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