As is often the case, I found this ebook at Amazon’s Kindle shop for free; it is the 1st in a series, and of course the idea behind the freebie is to make readers buy the rest of the series.
And also as is often the case with such offers, while I really enjoyed the book I doubt I’ll buy the following ones.
The setting is a retirement home where a group of residents are drawn into investigating cases of petty (and not so petty) theft in their midst.
Sounds familiar?
Maybe at first glance it does, but let me assure you that the story and the characters have nothing in common with the Thursday Murder Club books.
For one thing, it all happens in the US, not in the UK. Also, there are no former spies involved, and nobody dies.
The main character is Josephine, who could very well still live on her own but whose somewhat estranged son puts her in the home. She does not want to let anyone into her apartment and is not keen on socialising with other residents, but ends up playing poker with a group and cautiously begins to establish friendships with both residents and staff.
However, things start to disappear from people's rooms, and Josephine is clearly not the only person at the home harbouring a secret…
Eventually, with a resident who becomes her friend, a trustworthy staff member and a helpful police detective, she gets to the bottom of it all.
I am not going to tell you more, in case you’d like to read the book yourself.
It is well written with chapters switching between the characters, but you always know who’s “talking”.
Most of what’s happening is plausible, and the ending is neat enough to satisfy the average reader while also keeping enough storylines open for the series to continue.
The author's website gives you more information about her and her books.
Still seems to be a popular concept just now (a group of seniors/neighbours solving mysteries together...) - as also in the series I recently wrote about...
ReplyDeleteYes, it seems to work for many authors and most readers.
DeleteBy the way, on the author's website one of the reviews compares this series to the Thursday Murder Club, but in my opinion the series are worlds apart.
I've never used a Kindle.
ReplyDeleteI'm reading books by Elif Shafak that are so different from the mysteries I usually read but are very well written. I really enjoyed her "The Island of Missing Trees" and am now reading "There Are Rivers in the Sky."
There Are Rivers in the Sky is one of the best written and most touching books I have ever read, Ellen. My sister has a set of paperbacks by Elif Shafak (in German), which I may read sooner or later.
DeleteWithout my Kindle, I would have to carry around a book in my handbag on my train trips to and from work and to and from O.K.'s, and I am very happy to go without that extra weight :-) Also, the Kindle allows me to read with my gloves on when I'm standing on a wind-swept platform in winter, and even in bright sunlight without white paper blinding me. It will never replace physical books for me but is the best travel companion.
Intriguing title. Does the 'naked' refer to the stripping away of secrets?
ReplyDeleteIt does indeed, Janice. And those secrets play an important role in the book.
DeleteI enjoyed reading the Thursday Murder Club but hated the version that Netflix produced -not the same story at all !
ReplyDeleteSiobhan
Hello Siobhan, I love the Thursday Murder Club books and have reviewed them all on my blog. I also liked the film although of course I could not help noticing the differences to the books; the great actors and the (largely) sticking to the original storyline still makes it good to watch, in my opinion.
DeleteI could stir brown sugar in my caffe macchiato in the time it takes to say this title !
ReplyDeleteLong titles are fashionable :
* And To My Nephew I Leave the Island What I Won Off Fatty Hagan in a Poker Game *.
* Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse *.
Petty crime in a retirement home could be the subject of a Muriel Spark novel.
Josephine is in conflict with her own secrets, and there are the extra-personal
conflicts that Robert McKee analysed in his writing manual, *Story*.
Enjoyable, but not enough to read any more in the series ? Faint praise ?
Oh, I'd surely read more of the series if the books "happened" to come my way. But my To-Be-Read pile of books on the shelf is still high, and unless a series really captures me (like the Yorkshire Murder Mysteries that I enjoy so much, last but not least because I know so many of the places where the stories happen), I'm not starting to buy another series. Nothing to do with the author's work; she's a good writer and storyteller.
DeleteAh, to know places in the story ! Yorkshire with its towns and moors has magic.
Delete*Looking Glass Sound* by Catriona Ward ( The Last House on Needless Street ).
Not as creepy as The Last House. Twisted tale of ghosts & murders & revenge.
* A Granite Silence * by Nina Allen. Thriller set in Aberdeen 1934. Most original.
* A Schooling in Murder * by Andrew Taylor a master of suspense. Set in 1945.
Taylor has a spare compelling style like your own. All three are new paperbacks.
By the way I don't take sugar in my macchiato ! A wee bit of Swiss chocolate.
It sounds very similar to the Thursday Murder Club and well worth a read.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it and can recommend the book, but I didn't see it as similar to the Thursday Murder Club. The only thing the two series have in common is that some of the main characters live in a retirement community.
DeleteI hear that today is your birthday, Meike! Hope it is great and your year is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ellen! It was a wonderful day - report will follow in due time :-)
DeleteSuch a cool blog!
ReplyDeleteYou think so? Thanks... although I am by no way certain that you are a person and not a bot.
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