Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman

I had recently read a few positive reviews of this book and so upon seeing it at the library picked it up. It has been quite some time since I have read a murder mystery, at this time in my reading path it is not really what I am interested in but this book had a very intriguing angle.

Buck Schatz is 87 years old. He is a retired Memphis police detective,a thirty year veteran of the force, but at 87 years old he is dealing with the same problems of old age as everyone else his age. Buck was a Jewish American solider in World War II and held in a POW camp run by a sadistic Nazi he has no fond memories of the war.

As the book begins Buck is called and asked to see a former comrade from the war who is dieing, who has confession to make that will change Buck's life.

Armed with this new information Buck decides to play detective one last time, at 87 he needs a little help and finds it from his grandson as they travel from Memphis to St Louis and back again, tangling with good guys, bad guys and guys in between along the way.

Perhaps it is a sign of my being well on my way to being a crusty old curmudgeon as my good friends call me that I find Buck's character so appealing. As you read the story you enjoy the whodunit but you also keep waiting to see " What will Buck say next?" The answer is that Buck will say about anything, usually in the most impolitic way possible and you will find yourself laughing as he does so.

A short book, less than 300 pages, this is a page turner. I finished it last night at 330 AM and as I completed it my LBJ book, I am on page 843, insisted that I get back to the business of reading it. And I will.

Still this was a welcome diversion and for what it is this is a great book. With one of the most interesting and unique protagonists I have read in a long time this is one of the best murder mysteries I have read.