Monday, June 7, 2010

Getting Old Is Tres Dangereux-Rita Lakin

Getting Old Is Tres Dangereux
Rita Lakin
Dell, Jun 22 2010,$7.99
ISBN: 9780440245421

In France, four men worry that bestselling whistle-blowing author Michelle DuBois will write an exposé concerning their winery. One of the concerned males has a nonagenarian uncle who was an assassin before he retired to his yacht on the Riviera. He is willing to come out of retirement to kill Michelle as a favor to his nephew.

Across the ocean in the Lanai Gardens in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, septuagenarians Jack Langford and Gladdy Gold live together with plans to marry. Gladdy, Jack, her Gladiators, and a few yentas attend a local book conference. Jack meets Michelle; they had an affair eight years ago in Paris. To Gladdy’s jaundiced vision, the writer is making a grab for her fiancé, who also believes her Jack is too gentle and kind to Michelle. When they learn a French assassin has arrived to kill Michelle and obtain her latest manuscript, she persuades Jack to protect her. The Snake has no compunctions about killing anyone who interferes with his hit and injures Michelle’s niece. However, whether it is his age and soft lifestyle intruding on his comeback, he has never had a tougher assignment.

With a tongue in cheek (literally spin), anyone who thinks septuagenarians cannot heat up the sheet obviously has not met Gladdy and Jack, or her sister Evie and Joe. Gladdy plays an active role in Jack’s investigation as the “cop’s pop” cannot keep his fiancée out of the case. With advice from a dear departed friend (and some bad tasting jokes from octogenarian Hy), readers will enjoy Gladdy’s latest case filled with jealousy, the paranormal, and angst as the battling geriatrics take on a killing geriatric.

Harriet Klausner

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