Four ex-cops in a retirement paradise. Sure they’ll rest…when the killer is caught.
After a long career as a police officer, Moira hopes a move to a luxury retirement community will mean she can finally leave the detective work to the youngsters and focus on a quieter life. But it turns out The Homestead is far from paradise. When she discovers the body of a young woman floating in one of the pools, surrounded by thousands of dollar bills, her crime-fighting instinct kicks back in and she joins up with fellow ex-cops—and new neighbours—Philip, Lizzie and Rick to investigate the murder.
With the case officers dropping ball after ball, Moira and the gang take matters into their own hands, turning into undercover homicide investigators. But the killer is desperate to destroy all the evidence and Moira, Philip, Lizzie and Rick soon find themselves getting in the way—of the murderer and the police.
Just when they think they can finally relax, they discover that someone has infiltrated their ‘safe’ community. Can they hunt down the murderer and get back to retiring in peace? And after all the excitement, will they want to?
My Review:
I thought I might enjoy a cozy mystery where the main characters were all retired police officers.I’m not a spring chicken myself so I like to read books with older heroines and heroes. However, to me the book is just okay. It’s nothing I might pick up later to reread.
First problem, the tense. The book is written in third person present tense, and I totally loathe that. I usually won’t read a book written in that tense, but somehow I missed that this one was until after I already had the book. I think it made the writing seem choppy and impeded the flow of the action.
Second problem, the characters. I had a hard time bonding with them. From the beginning we knew that two of them had secrets in their past, which might account for the reason that three retired British officers ended up in the US. Still, I had a hard time caring too much about them. In fact, I disliked Phillip very much, and he’s one of the good guys. Just a note, the characters acted as if they didn’t like or trust each other.
On the other hand, it’s a nice plot for a cozy mystery, and I did enjoy the way the detectives collected evidence and ran down clues.
At the end of the book, the author sets up book two by sharing a tantalizing bit of info about Moira. Some people don’t like that, but it doesn’t matter to me.
I doubt that I’ll read Book 2, but you never know. I’d be more inclined to do it if the author will change that terrible tense.
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