When you want a fun read, a cozy with a senior citizen as protagonist is always a good bet. I just read two such series back to back and they were both great fun: Deb Baker writes the Yooper Mystery Series whose main character Gertie Johnson, lives in the woods of the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. Gertie is a widow who is flirting with the idea of a relationship with her good friend George. She has two friends, Kitty and Cora Mae, who join in on her detecting; and a son, Blaze, who happens to be a sheriff and tries to stop her detecting. You’ll quickly become attached to all the slightly oddball characters in this series from the first book where Gertie is convinced a supposed hunting accident is murder, to the second where Gertie’s grandson goes missing and is suspected of killing a game warden, to the third where a bank robbery goes very wrong. There are some short stories as well but I’m not that into short stories. I will look forward to another novel with Gertie. ♥♥♥♥♥
Gertie Johnson may be a quick draw with the pepper spray, but she hasn’t lost her marbles. Her son, the sheriff in a backwoods community of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is petitioning to become her legal guardian. But Gertie, a sassy widow with a taste for detective work, has got bigger fish to fry: solving the murder of a neighbor shot dead in his deer blind.
This second book in the Yooper Mystery series features the unpredictable, unflappable, and unstoppable amateur sleuth Gertie Johnson.
On opening day of bear hunting season in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a game warden is murdered right under Little Donny’s tree stand. Little Donny disappears into the backwoods, forcing sixty-six year old gertie to use her “unique” investigative techniques to find her favorite grandson. Gertie’s search is hampered by her pin-curled bodyguard Kitty, her man-hungry friend Cora Mae who’s hot for the guy Gertie secretly admires, and Grandma Johnson-who should be mushing peas between her new false teeth in the Escanaba Nursing Home instead of setting up camp at Gertie’s place. What really gets Gertie’s goat is her son Blaze, the local sheriff, who’s more interested in arresting his mom for driving without a license than finding Little Donny or catching the killer.
It’s finally spring in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the locals have only one thing on their minds – the turkey-hunting opener. But for sheer adrenaline value, not even turkey season can compete with the local Credit Union getting held up at gunpoint. Committing a robbery in a town where everyone is armed for combat is not the smartest thing to do, and the gunman is shot dead right there in the Stonely Credit Union lobby. The only problem is, in a room full of witnesses, the stolen money has mysteriously vanished. Faster than you can say ‘Tom Turkey,’ Gertie, Cora Mae, and Kitty are on the case in this hoot of a whodunit.
Elizabeth Spann Craig writes the Myrtle Clover Mystery Series. Myrtle is an octogenarian, retired teacher who turns to solving crimes out of boredom. To the dismay of her Police Chief son, Red. Plenty of laughs. Oh, and garden gnomes. I’m a sucker for garden gnomes. Enjoyable reads. Bit of confusion about the order. I think I read out of order by looking at publication dates. Maybe there is a rerelease. But it didn’t make a big difference. ♥♥♥♥
When Beauty Box beautician Tammy Smith is discovered with a pair of hair shears in her back, there are suspects and secrets aplenty in her small Southern town.
Octogenarian Myrtle Clover, bored by bingo and bridge, is intrigued by the crime…and her neighbors’ secrets. But discovering, and blabbing, secrets got Tammy killed and Myrtle soon learns her sleuthing isn’t just dangerous…it’s deadly.
No one in Bradley, North Carolina, is exactly crying into their sweet tea over the murder of Parke Stockard. Certainly not retired schoolteacher Myrtle Clover. Upon discovering the corpse, Myrtle is struck – not with grief, but a brilliant idea! Solving the murder would prove to everyone – especially her son Red, the police chief – that this eighty-something-year-old is still as sharp as a tack. Heck, going from crosswords to crime investigations isn’t such a stretch. The old biddies of Bradley can waste away in blissful stagnation, but Myrtle’s not ready to be put out to pasture just yet. The victim, a pretty but pushy town developer, had deep pockets and few friends. Myrtle can’t throw one of her gaudy garden gnomes without hitting a potential suspect. Even when another murder takes place, proud Myrtle forges on – armed only with a heavy cane, a venomous tongue, and a widower sidekick.
Retired octogenarian schoolteacher Myrtle Clover is fit to be tied when her book club votes to change to a supper club. Who wants chips and dip when they can have Dickens and Twain?
The first supper club is a progressive dinner…where Myrtle loses interest during the hors d’oeuvres. But when a body is discovered during the main course, the evening quickly gets interesting. Myrtle pits her sleuthing skills against her police chief son’s to find the killer….if the killer doesn’t find her first.
It’s just an ordinary day for octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover—until her yardman discovers a dead body planted in her backyard. This death isn’t cut and dried—the victim was bashed in the head with one of Myrtle’s garden gnomes.
Myrtle’s friend Miles recognizes the body and identifies him as Charles Clayborne… reluctantly admitting he’s a cousin. Charles wasn’t the sort of relative you bragged about—he was a garden variety sleaze, which is very likely why he ended up murdered. As Myrtle starts digging up dirt to nip the killings in the bud, someone’s focused on scaring her off the case. Myrtle vows to find the murderer…before she’s pushing up daisies, herself.
Kate Eileen Shannon 