Murder by Death

I've known a lot of grandma's in my life and I've never met a one that I didn't like.

I don't like grandma Ruth.

About a third of the way through this book it occurred to me that you could make a drinking game out of reading it:  take one shot of your preferred liquor every time someone mentioned how brilliant grandma Ruth is; two shots if her lifetime membership to Mensa was mentioned*.  If you hadn't passed out slobbering drunk by chapter 10, you'd be soused enough that grandma wouldn't seem so stupid, juvenile, selfish or arrogant.

I'm all for senior characters written as smart, active, independent and lively; but a 90-year-old and a 60-something year-old running around town committing multiple instances of B&E?  It's farcical.  It's topped only by 90 year old grandma climbing a 10 foot tall statue, falling off and breaking her leg and arm - but the fall put her out of commission for the rest of the book, so I was willing to go with it.  (This 90 year old, btw, needs a motorised scooter or a walker to get around, so I don't know what the author was trying to sell here - but as I said, it took grandma out of the story, so I was willing to buy it.)

Toni, the MC and the grand-daughter condemned to put up with Ruth, finds herself unwillingly dragged into all of grandma's messes.  She does have a spine and occasionally tries to corral the juvenile nonagenarian, but consistently gives in like a twit.  She's likeable in all other ways; smart, independent and strong.  It would be so refreshing for an author to create a character that didn't let her family push her around.

Now that I'm done kvetching, let me say that once you remove my above grievances, this is a well written, well plotted book.  We have an old un-solved murder and a new murder connected to old families, war heroes, and town politics.  The suspects are limited, but even so, I never saw that ending coming.  If grandma got run over by a reindeer, you'd have a great cast of characters, a small-town Kansas setting, and interesting dialogue without a lot of introspection, lets-review-the-clues, or info-dumps.

But gah!  I don't like grandma Ruth.

* The word "treats" could also be used.  While also really over-used, it's over-use is sprinkled rather consistently throughout the narrative, allowing for a more sustained state of inebriation throughout the book.   ;-)