Monday, November 9, 2020

Book Review - Nursing Homes are Murder; Mike Befeler

 

Nursing Homes Are Murder; Mike Befeler

                                                                      Five Star Pub - 2014 

Eighty-year-old Paul Jacobson has been on vacation with his new wife and family in Honolulu when he is asked to go undercover.  The job is to pose as a nursing home resident to help crack a case in a home where a few female residents have been robbed or sexually assaulted during the night.  Paul agrees and his wife Marion is housed in a condo next door to the facility for the interim.

Paul has a great memory by day but, come sundown confusion sets in and he must resort to writing things that happen in a journal.  Paul and his blind, war veteran roommate get along great. As Paul snoops around meeting residents and asking questions, it seems like there are several potential suspects to keep tabs on.

I was in need of a quick read, something totally different pre-election and, this cozy mystery that sat on my shelves for years fit the bill.  I liked the humor, lots of funny things happened even though it was sometimes over done, I liked it. The quirky seniors made me smile. 

I learned afterward that this was a series book (book 6 of a 6 book series with Paul Jacobson as amateur - sleuth). Since I hadn't read anything else by this author,  I wondered what  Paul's job was pre-retirement? I'm guessing he might have been a detective as why would he have been asked to go under cover?  Despite stepping in mid-stream, I still had fun with this one.

Rating - 3.5/5 stars

18 comments:

  1. Any book that can make you smile this year is a good one! :)

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  2. Oh, wow...I don't know if I could read this one. I spent so much time in assisted living and nursing homes with my father before his recent death, that I now understand why older people fear them so much. They are soul-killing, if nothing else, and even the best of them must be difficult for a person to accept as the end of the road. Sorry for being such a downer.

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    1. I hear you Sam, when I would visit my dad every other day for a year in a NH I could only stay about an hour each time, difficult all around. "Soul-killing" is accurate IMO.

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  3. Diane, I'm glad you enjoyed this book!

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  4. Now that I am a senior citizen I enjoy books with older characters, this one might be fun. I am a volunteer visitor at a retirement home; of course they are not allowing visitors since March, here in California.

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    1. Terra, I worked in the nursing home industry for over 6 years. I love older characters in fiction.

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  5. Like Terra, as an elder, I find older characters more interesting. If it makes you smile, even better. Like Sam, I have also found most nursing homes dispiriting.

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  6. My mystery writing friend Alice Zogg, wrote one set in a nursing home where her PI went undercover. Evil at Shore Haven. https://keepthewisdom.blogspot.com/2017/04/evil-at-shore-haven.html

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  7. The cover and your mention of humor seem so light-hearted, but the description of the story seems so dark (sexual assault in a retirement home!).

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    1. I thought so as well, I could see theft but sexual-assault? However, I did work in administration in the nursing home industry for over 6 years and SA does happen on occasion sadly.

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