Getting Old Will Haunt You (Gladdy Gold Series #9)

by Rita Lakin

Overview

Gladdy Gold and Associates are tasked with proving a deadly fishing accident was more than it appears in this hilarious cozy mystery. Restless after having no new cases for months and with their partners away on a safari, when a call comes through about a seemingly straightforward case in the Florida Keys, the girls accept the job no questions asked in hope of some excitement. Arriving at their destination they discover the case revolves around a man who’s been killed – speared through the stomach by a marlin as he was taking a selfie. All involved are adamant it was simply a bizarre fishing accident, except for the Wassingers, a dithering couple at risk of losing their family home due to the death. It turns out the reason the Wassingers are convinced of foul play is because they have a witness. Unfortunately for Gladdy and the team, the witness is other-worldly . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448301881
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	04/01/2019
Series:	Gladdy Gold Series , #9
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	163,883
File size:	997 KB

About the Author

Rita Lakin’s writing career includes staff writing on television programs such as Peyton Place, Mod Squad and Dynasty, as well as creating original series such as The Rookies. She won an Edgar Allen Poe award for her screenwriting and is the author of the Gladdy Gold mystery series.

Editorial Reviews

01/31/2019

Lakin’s shtick-filled ninth Gladdy Gold mystery (after 2018’s Getting Old Can Hurt You) finds Gladdy and her ragtag band of septuagenarian sleuths, whose motto is “Never Trust Anyone Under Seventy-Five,” bored and cranky. They haven’t had a case in months, and the activities on offer at their Fort Lauderdale, Fla., retirement residence aren’t enough to keep them amused. Fortunately, Gladdy gets a call from the Wassingers of Key West, who ask the old girls to investigate the death of their lawyer, Robert Strand. Aided by the large and colorful cast of an amateur production of La Cage aux Folles and a blackmailing ghost, Gladdy and her cronies set out to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, Gladdy’s pal Ida gets on the trail of an errant husband, the pesky curmudgeon Hy Binder. The slight mystery element is padded out by multiple digressions, including a discussion of the pros and cons of retirement home living, a lengthy exchange of opinions on favorite Columbo TV episodes, and a list of various types of tacos. This installment is for die-hard fans only. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2019-01-16

Gladdy Gold and her fellow Golden Agers (Getting Old Can Hurt You, 2018, etc.) hit the road for Key West on a case that's both more and less mysterious than they expected.

Even though their home, Gray Lady, is falling into decay, retired travel agents Sadie and Louie Wassinger are attached to it for several reasons. They're both over 90 and have no great desire to move. They don't like getting pushed around by the likes of Strand, Smythe, and Love, the law firm that's recently inherited the domicile upon the death of partner Robert Strand. They're convinced that instead of being speared by a marlin he was landing, Strand was actually murdered. And they've got a witness who saw the whole thing. The trouble is that their witness can't testify because he's even deader than the lawyer who'd promised to get Gray Lady listed with the Historic Society before his untimely death tossed the property to his partners. It's Papa, the ghost of Ernest Hemingway, who's long shared space in Gray Lady with the Wassingers. Small wonder that Sgt. Barbara Ella Robbson, of the Key West Police, has so little patience with Sadie and Louie—and even less with Gladdy, her sister, Evvie Markowitz, and their friends Sophie Myerbeer and Bella Fox. Don't worry about Ida Franz, the operative who got left behind because she was too ill to make the trip from Fort Lauderdale: She's recovered sufficiently to be up to her dentures in a search for Hy Binder, the neighborhood curmudgeon who vanished soon after posting a very unflattering photo of Gladdy and her buds.

Daffy sleuths butt heads with characters who often seem even more pixilated than them. The only ingredients missing are a laugh track and anything more than rudimentary detection.

Kirkus Reviews