Elizabeth Perona

The Summer Ridge Bridge Club is back in action in Murder at the Male Revue, the third book in the Bucket List Mystery series. The gals are all in their 70's and working on fulfilling all the things on their Sixty List -- a list of 60 things they all wrote out when in their 60's that they wanted to do before they die. As they work their way through their lists, they also manage to get embroiled in a murder mystery or two. :)

This time, the group is helping their friend Joy work through her fear of naked men. Ever since her husband left her for another man, Joy has had an extreme aversion to men in the buff. Now that she's dating again, she wants to get over her fear. So, the ladies volunteer to help with a local fundraiser. The entertainment is a troupe of male strippers.

Unfortunately, the night does not go as planned. Not only does most of the catered food end up spilled on the floor (accidents happen when a grandma shockingly sees her grandson gyrating on the stage half-naked being auctioned off as a date to the highest bidder), but a local town councilwoman is murdered backstage.

Who killed Camille Ledfelter? Can the girls discover the naked truth before the killer streaks away?

This book is cute and funny. I loved how the girls deal with life and their age, and how they all band together to sleuth their way through a mystery. The group is a mix of Golden Girls and Murder She Wrote with a little extra murder and mayhem added in for flavor. :)

This is the first book in the series that I have read. I had so much fun with this book that I'm definitely going to read the first two books! This group of feisty, fun-loving, kind-hearted ladies makes for a creatively different cozy series, a lot of laughs, and a darn good mystery!

I hope that I have half this much fun and adventure when I'm in my 70s! :)

**I voluntarily read an advanced reader copy of this book from Midnight Ink via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.**
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This is the first book in "A Bucket List Mystery". I read the second book first, so went back and read this one. I am glad I did. The group of ladies from the bridge club all have bucket lists with 60 things. The one they are fulfilling in this book is "skinny dipping". Unfortunately, they all seem to have excuses and stall about dropping their robes and jumping in Alice's pool. When Mary Ruth, a caterer, smells something rotten, they open the shed door and out topples a body. Charlotte, another of the group, thinks that this will give her opportunity to cross off her number one, which is to solve a mystery. Joy, who wants to be on the front page of the newspaper, also sees this as an opportunity and actually hires a PR person. Francine, the last member of the group, seems to be the only one who does not have something on her list associated with the crime and is the most level headed of the group. As the story progresses and the ladies end up on Good Morning America, the crime unfolds and the humour continues. Car racing, hidden rooms, hidden camera and off shore bank accounts all add to the mystery.

I really like the relationships between these ladies. They support each other, tease one another, help when help is needed and keep each other on their toes. They are true friends that respect one another. A good read for cozy mystery lovers.… (más)

The Summer Ridge Bridge Club ladies are working their way through their "Sixty Lists," each woman's list of sixty things she wants to do before she dies. Getting caught doing one of the early items earned them the sobriquet "The Skinny-Dipping Grandmas." They're now working on another item, a sexy pin-up calendar, and they, or at least most of them, do not want to get caught doing this one.

The last picture that needs to be taken is Francine's, in a horse-drawn carriage, at the Roseville Covered Bridge, recreating her great-grandmother's scandalous escapade with the family's carriage driver. Joy is living out her dream, as an on-air feature reporter for the local tv station and is doing a piece on the Roseville Bridge and its history. Along with filming her segment, she's going to take the pictures of Francine and her husband Jonathan.

And despite Francine's paranoia about getting caught taking the sexy pictures, everything is going just fine. At least, it is until her cousin William ambles by, walking onto the neighboring land owned by a touchy local hermit, and gets shot at from two directions.

Neither of the shooters hit him, but in his rush to escape, William slips and falls into the creek, and hits his head. Soon Francine, Jonathan, Joy, and two other ladies of the bridge club, Charlotte and Alice, are answering questions for Detective Roy Stockton, and worrying about getting back into town in order to help the remaining club member, Mary Ruth, with her festival week bake shop.

Are these ladies a little busy? Yes. Yes, they are.

William turns out to be carrying Francine's grandmother's diary, with fascinating information about Great-Grandmother and her Scandalous Escapade. He was also carrying a tiny vial of what might or might not be water.

But why were two different people shooting at him? Why was he trespassing on the notoriously touchy Zed Matthew's land? And why the heck is William's wife Dolly acting so strangely?

Mary Ruth chases a chance to be on the Food Network; Francine tries to keep their pin-up calendar from becoming public; another member of the group is working to ensure it goes public.

And Francine is also trying to figure out who shot at William, what her family's connection to pre-FDA herbal remedy merchant "Doc Wheat" is, and why William and Dolly seem to have an inordinate interest in Zed Matthew's land.

I'll confess I had trouble warming up to these ladies, though in the end I became quite fond of Francine, and I never wholly resolved in my own my why they are friends. They seem to find each other enormously frustrating, as much as anything. Yet it's an interesting mystery with a fun resolution.

Recommended with reservations.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.… (más)