woman sets up serial murders of old women to disguise killing of her own mother

Gladdy is living the retired lifestyle in Florida, with her clique of "girls". When 2 of her pals- including her very best friend- die unexpectedly the evening before their birthdays, her instincts get suspicious- but how to persuade anyone to take her suspicions seriously?

The "girls" mean well, are but almost as much hindrance as help! They're well-depicted, though there are sufficient of them that I found it hard to keep a couple of them straight.

The mystery was solid and well-paced, with a plausible solution. And I hope the real-estate conspiracy has gotten nipped in the bud...

This is the first book in the series, and the second I've read. I enjoyed both enough to get a couple more in the series. It's probably best enjoyed by women of a certain age, however! ( )

I was passing the library's book truck and spotted Getting Old is Murder among the books waiting to be reshelved. I'm glad I plucked it off and checked it out. Like Gladys 'Gladdy' Gold, I'm a former librarian and a fan of Misses Marple and Silver. 75-year-old Gladdy is 15 years older than I am, but she and her 'gladiators' (two older and two younger than she is), solve the case. Ms. Lakin sneaks some effective red herrings in her pages.

Gladdy should be reading Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow mysteries. She's a lot like an elderly version of Meg -- the sensible, organized one who gets stuck with the responsibility of the moment. Unlike Meg, though, only one of the persons expecting her to take responsibility is a relative. Evvie (Evelyn) is Gladdy's younger sister. Most of the other characters live in the same or one of the other buildings in their condominium complex. Their crazy-making personalities provide humor for readers who don't have to put up with them.

We are thoughtfully provided with a map of buildings P & Q of Lanai Gardens, a cast of characters, and Gladdy's Glossary of the Yiddish that's used in the book. (I wish a pronunciation guide had been included with that last one.)

The prologue and some of the chapters are italicized glimpses into the victims' final minutes, as well as the mind of a suspect. If not for Gladdy, those would have passed off as natural deaths. All of the victims were over 70. Two leave best friends to mourn and one was almost universally beloved, the kind of person who makes his/her bit of the world a little better for those around.

There are plenty of 'characters' among the characters. One of them is a widow who raids the dumpsters and paints or soaps verses that take mean little digs at Lanai Gardens residents. Some of them provide subplots, such as the husband unwilling to admit that his beloved wife's Alzheimer's is worse enough that he can no longer care for her by himself. There's also a survivor of the Holocaust. She and her late husband both lost their entire families in the death camps. Enya is still haunted by the horrors she suffered.

On the brighter side, Gladdy has two friends at her local branch library: Conchetta the head librarian and Barney, one of the employees. Even nicer, unlike Jane Marple and Maud Silver, Gladdy gets to have a possible romance with a handsome widower. His first name is the same as her late husband's. Given her annoyance with her memory failing to yield all the words she wants when she wants them, that's a real plus.

If not for my annotated volumes of Sherlock Holmes, I wouldn't have realized that the phrase about the game being afoot comes from the movies, so I can't fault Gladdy for not clarifying that in chapter 45. However, she is old enough to know that 'the proof is in the pudding' is a corruption of 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating,' so I was annoyed when she used that phrase in chapter 16. (It's a handy thing to know in case some kid asks you why the proof is in the pudding. Sure beats trying to come up with a reason, doesn't it?)

As for the chapter decoration of a fly-swatter over a rolling pin over a plunger, don't worry. It will be explained.

I think I shall have to check out some more Gladdy Gold. ( )

First Line: The poison was in the pot roast.

75-year-old Gladdy Gold of the Lanai Gardens in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, finds herself a self-professed private investigator when her friends begin dying in very similar ways. Her credentials? More than thirty years of reading mysteries. (Works for me....)

Gladdy and the rest of her friends squeeze sleuthing into their daily round of poolside chatter, early-bird specials, and grocery shopping while one of their neighbors in Lanai Gardens, Greta Kronk, seems to be going out of her way to become Suspect #1.

This book contains both a cast of characters, which I didn't refer to after an amusing initial reading, and a glossary of Yiddish terms, which I found to be very useful. The identity of the killer seemed rather obvious to me, and the humor often fell flat.

Humor is very subjective. You may think Gladdy and her friends going shopping and dining and purposely driving sales clerks and waiters crazy is hilarious. I don't. I've spent almost all my working life in customer service dealing with people like this. If it's not purposely done, it's all right and I don't turn a hair. If people who can't seem to find anything better to do with their free time purposely come in to create as many problems as possible, steam starts leaking out of my ears. See? I told you my reason was very subjective!

If Getting Old Is Murder sounds like your cup of tea, enjoy! As for me, if I want to read about Senior Citizen Sleuths, I'd rather read something like Mike Befeler's Retirement Homes Are Murder. ( )

When Gladdy Gold's neighbor, Selma Beller, dies, Gladdy is saddened, but not concerned, at 75 and living in a retirement community, Gladdy is accustomed to death. But when her best friend Francie dies, Gladdy is heartbroken and begins to be suspicious since both Selma and Francie died around the time of their birthdays. Gladdy tries to convince the police that murder may have taken place, but they don't believe her so she starts investigating on her own. After two more deaths and a couple of autopsies that show the victims were poisoned, the police finally believe Gladdy. But will they be able to catch the murderer before Gladdy becomes the next victim?

"Getting Old is Murder" is a nice, humorous first entry in what looks to be an enjoyable cozy mystery series. Gladdy is a wonderful creation, very funny and still full of life (and romance) at 75. Her friends are all well written, with a nice touch of humor that makes them seem real but doesn't poke fun at the elderly. Each character stands out as an individual: the wisecracking Hy and his wife Lois; Gladdy's sister Evvie, a movie critic; Sophie with her slightly off-kilter cliches ("you're a broken record, play another"); Harriet who is young but lives there to take care of her elderly mother, Esther); Enya who never got over the loss of her family during the Holocaust; and Denny, the mentally slow handyman. Although the book is a cozy mystery and the elderly don't hesitate to solve the crime, it also shows the real problems of getting old, especially in the bittersweet case of Irving struggling to take care of his wife who has Alzheimer's. All of these characters are well written and come alive on the page.

The mystery itself is nicely done with some neat red herrings and when the murderer is finally revealed, there is a real motive behind the slayings. There are some minor flaws - Francie's death is well telegraphed (it's never a good sign when the heroine in a mystery wonders what she'd do if something happened to her best friend!). There's also some minor editing errors, such as when Gladdy remembers dropping a friend off at the dentist when she never did so. Not a major error, but enough to stop the flow of the story for a second or two. Rita Lakin takes you into the victim's minds as they are dying, which I found unsettling in a cozy mystery.

But these are indeed minor flaws and this is a very enjoyable, funny cozy mystery. It's worth buying just to read the scene in which Gladdy convinces a gang of teenagers to help her break into her car after she locks her keys in it. One of the funniest scenes I've ever read! ( )