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Gladdy Gold is a retired woman living in the Lanai Gardens apartment complex in Fort Lauderdale Florida, otherwise known as God's waiting room. But she and her friends are not waiting for their end, no, not at all. They are filled with energy and a huge appetite for what life can bring them. Gladdy has her own apartment in the complex, living alongside her sister and the other elderly ladies who have become her family. Gladdy has gathered her friends into an investigative agency, taking on only the cases they all feel are interesting. Lately, their area has been hit by a bank robber who calls himself the Grandpa Bandit. When he sends a letter to the girls challenging them to catch him, they all are raring to go. Everyone except Gladdy's now serious boyfriend Jack Langford, a retired cop who doesn't want Gladdy to put herself in danger. When a deadly hurricane strikes Fort Lauderdale, part of the Lanai Gardens is upended and in the huge hole, a skeleton is found. When it is discovered that it is connected to a murder that occurred fifty years ago when the apartment complex was built, Gladdy and the girls all are interested, ready, willing and able to investigate the who, what and why of the old crime. But, along with the crazy weather, the personal lives of the denizens of the complex are also going a bit nutty. Gladdy realizes that she doesn't want to put Jack off anymore, she wants their relationship to get as serious as it can be. Her sister Evvie has the reappearance of her abusive ex-husband to contend with, and all the girls are upset by the hurricane and thrilled that Gladdy's romance seems to be heating up, and Enya, who is a survivor of Auschwitz is having more and more nightmares about the Hell she lived though during the war. As their investigations continue, they find that more deaths are involved and that being investigators at their age just might be disastrous! This is the fifth in the Gladdy Gold Series, written by TV writer Rita Lakin, and it is as intelligent and well done as the others in the series. Many times the Holocaust is used by writers as an easy trick to involve reader emotions, but writer Lakin uses this topic with intelligence and respect and it adds a lot to the overall quality of the book. And the quality of this book is high indeed. There is nothing at all stereotypical about her characters, but they are all written with genuine care. Old age might be their biggest problem, and they meet that challenge in a variety of ways, from courage to fear to silliness, but they all feel a real and deep love for each other, caring deeply about the people who make up their chosen family for the last part of their lives. Though the mystery might been harder for he reader to solve if the opening section had been left out, Lakin does a good solid job of building the tension and of showing how Gladdy and her friends manage to solve the crimes. Nicely paced, well written with a good mystery, GETTING OLD IS A DISASTER is a first rate read. Don't miss this, or any of the others in this series. You'll get chuckles and tears and a shiver from this book. I find that I truly hope that the next in the series will be published very soon.
Reviewed by A.L. Katz, December 2008
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