I'm not the only murderer in my retirement home by Fergus Craig

Carol is not your average ‘little old lady’, she is in fact a serial killer. After doing her long stretch in prison she manages to buy a new residence in a rather posh retirement home (utilising funds skimmed from a previous victim). In her new surroundings she attempts to ‘stay under the radar’ amongst the other intriguing residents - for example, an ex-policeman, a former pathologist, a retired British Home Secretary, a crime writer and a former police commissioner. Friendship might even be a possibility amidst the strange goings-on of the elderly and those who work in Sheldon Oaks retirement home. But it is murder that puts Carol back into the spotlight and creates problems for her return to freedom. Can the police actually put the evidence together and find the real murderer, or does Carol have to do the work for them to escape suspicion? 

Written with a ‘wink and nod’ to Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books, this has a tongue-in-cheek feel of eccentricity. The characters are British and aged (but don’t assume they were born in war time), and they have left behind careers, histories and secrets and have settled into the maddeningly eccentric (and sometimes ‘slow’) life of the retirement home. But a central character that has a past as a convicted serial killer is almost comedic in flavour. In true Agatha Christie-style, there is a murder, investigation, and denouement, but with a side-serve of busybody investigators and one serial killer!  This has an even lighter silliness compared to Osman’s successful Thursday Murder Club series, and the ‘oldies’ engage in some unseemly activities along the way, but there are the standard red herrings and twists that make this murderous mystery an intriguing, quirky and entertaining story. It is not highbrow literature, but adults will enjoy its subtle jests towards the murder mystery genre (sometimes not-so-subtle) and anyone who likes a light-hearted murder investigation will chuckle at Carol’s journey from jail release to Retirement Home - alongside other murderers!

Themes: Murder mystery, Serial killers, retirement homes, drugs, police corruption, friendship.

Carolyn Hull