I’ve been READING!!! Which I usually avoid, because it is very bad for me. But I’ve decided life’s too short, I’m taking a risk! And yes, I threw my shoulder violently out, and gave myself a migraine. Extreme Reading.
Thursday Murder Club
This is the first series I read! And the one that threw my shoulder out. If you stay up until 2 am reading and holding a heavy book without changing position, you wake up with shoulder pain and a swollen hand. But it’s WORTH IT.
It’s a lovely cozy mystery, 4 retirees in a retirement home solve murders. The first book was a little shakey, the author was getting to know the characters and sort of figuring things out. But the second book hit his stride, and by the 3rd book it was throw-your-shoulder-out good. The 4th book just came out and sort of takes the characters to a new level, and now the author is gonna take a break. So you can read 1-2-3-4 and have a complete arc in many ways.
The mysteries are okay, pretty interesting. And the comic set pieces get increasingly good as the books go on. But the characters are what really shine, the central 4 retirees get increasing depth book by book. It’s a happy series, everyone gets paired off one by one into lovely romantic couples, and generally it’s a happy place where nothing TOO bad happens. But it also has a strong tone of melancholy and aging.
The Appeal (Janice Hallett)
The worst part about this book is the title. It’s really hard to find because there are A MILLION books with the title “The Appeal”. But once you find it, super fun. It’s a mystery written in emails and text messages between a local community theater group. The biggest problem is that it makes you SUPER aware of what your own emails and texts are like. And that it is shockingly familiar to anyone who has ever been part of a community group (older couple everyone loves, slightly bossy organized younger woman who actually does all the work, very drippy needy person everyone avoids, and so on).
Pineapple Port Mysteries
I’ve suggested this series before, it is one of my old familiar soothing serieses. Young woman who lives in a retirement community in Florida (she grew up there living with her grandmother), she has her elderly best friends, her nice boyfriend, her boyfriend’s elderly uncle, and just generally murder mixed with Florida sun and retirees who believe in sweet cakes, water aerobics, and lots of breakfast meats.
