T. Dawn Richard

This is my first to read of the May List Mystery series. I must say I was laughing out loud at the opening lines. However, the laughs and gags started to get old as the book went on. It wasn’t a bad read, but it won’t be in my favorites for the year, either. Most of the comedy was centered around the foibles of the elderly retirement community friends/detectives of May List. She and her physician husband recently moved to Spokane, but were called back to Waning Years Estates in California. Seems a resident of the condos went missing. May flies to California. Her old friends give her a tour of the senior citizen community, as it has vastly changed since May moved up north. After touring the new athletic facility they retired to the bar ( no liquor license as of yet) which has a glass wall for pool viewing. When the night swim lights go on in the pool, a dead body floats to and bumps into the glass near May’s table. It looked to be the missing resident named Otis Culpepper. Fanny, one of May’s cohorts, runs out of the bar and to the pool. She dives in to help the local rescue team retrieve Otis. The body looked like Otis, but something was wrong. The widow identified the body as Otis, but May’s friend’s realized that the body didn’t have a tattoo. They were bound and determined to prove who was the dead man, even if it meant a trip to the cemetary to “dig up Otis.” It was a cute read with a few twists and turns. However, the quirky characters got on my nerves after a while. They weren’t unlivable, they just irritated me. I doubt that I’ll read another of this series; I won’t go out of my way at any rate.… (meer)