Murder on the Bucket List By Elizabeth Perona

by Cynthia Chow

Details on how to win a copy of this book at the end of the review.

In one fell swoop, the ladies of the Summer Ridge Bridge Club manage to cross off three items from their respective bucket lists. What started with Joy McQueen’s #10 (“go skinny dipping”), led to her #6 (“be on the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper”), and would bring them to Charlotte Reinhardt’s #1 (“solve a murder mystery”). Joy, Charlotte, Alice Jeffords, and Mary Ruth McNamara strategically planned their late-night pool dip to avoid exposing their senior bodies to the public, but they hadn’t counted on literally sniffing out the body of Friedrich Guttmann decomposing in Alice’s pool shed.

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The famous–for the Brownsburg suburb of Indianapolis, anyway—car mechanic’s murder puts the spotlight on the ladies as it makes Alice’s home a local tourist attraction booking them all a stint on Good Morning America and making them an internet sensation. Unfortunately, Alice’s husband Larry may have a connection to the dead man, and he’s become as appealing a suspect to the police as they are all becoming undesirables to their homeowner’s association.

The charming hook of this début series is the “Sixty List” of sixty bucket-list items the ladies created when Alice first turned sixty. In the twelve years since, they’ve made slow progress on the list of goals to be achieved before they die, but it looks as though this murder may succeed in ticking off a good number of them!

Image source: Midnight Ink

Mary Alice uses the investigation to promote her catering business, Joy attempts to make the most of the media attention to become either famous or a television journalist, and mystery-fanatic Charlotte finally has the chance to complete a murder investigation. While the antics of the women occasionally verge on the absurd, their friendships realistically reflect their twenty-five-years’ bond.

The unexpected, but completely fascinating, world of Indianapolis midget car racing is explored and highlighted with entertaining results. Without ever becoming too over the top or overly saccharine, this intriguing mystery celebrates fun and realistic characters with loads of humor, wit, and compassion.

To enter to win a copy of Murder on the Bucket List, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Bucket,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen July 18, 2015. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address.

Use this link to purchase the book & a portion goes to help support KRL & to indie bookstore Mysterious Galaxy:

Murder on the Bucket List

Cynthia Chow is the branch manager of Kaneohe Public Library on the island of Oahu. She balances a librarian lifestyle of cardigans and hair buns with a passion for motorcycle riding and regrettable tattoos (sorry, Mom).