DEADLY GOLD RUSH

Three retired friends return to sleuthing when a murder hits close to home in this mystery.

Following Wade’s previous outing in his Indie Retirement series, Deadly Declarations (2022), a trio of friends—Harriet Keaton, Yeager Alexander, and retired lawyer Craig Travail—at the Indie Retirement Community of Charlotte, North Carolina, have a new troubling mystery to solve. Harriet came home to find her kitchen destroyed, the body of the man who sent her brother to prison 20 years ago, who’s been both shot and stabbed, and her brother insisting he has no idea what happened or where the historic gold coins on the floor came from. Similar coins also make an appearance at the Indie when residents start investing in local historic gold. At the same time, the wealthy Standish family takes over the Indie board and implements new procedures to extract money from residents. Hoping to grow closer to Harriet and help his friends, Craig comes out of retirement as a lawyer and the trio starts investigating the different cases affecting their community. Meanwhile, Craig’s nemesis, Robert Elkin, has returned to town and may be tinkering with Indie’s finances, leaving Craig to wonder “how he could have been so wrong to believe retirement living would ever be boring or lonely.” Wade’s leads are each fun and charming. Craig has an endearingly youthful crush on Harriet, who’s a force to be reckoned with, and Yeager provides consistent comic relief. (His turn as a fake lawyer defending public nudity against new management is a particular standout.) The different threads come together with some satisfying surprises that smartly build on real-world concerns of elder fraud. Wade has a tendency for clunky exposition, however, and the sudden jump in time and tone midway through (shifting the story to a courtroom drama) dilutes the charm of watching our amateur detectives contend with Indie’s kooky residents. Still, mystery fans who love Richard Osman’s cozy Thursday Murder Club books will enjoy the similarly energetic take on mystery-loving retirees.

A flawed but undeniably fun mystery showing retirement is anything but dull.