{"id":6904,"date":"2026-02-12T08:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6904"},"modified":"2026-02-12T08:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:31:23","slug":"fergus-craig-im-not-the-only-murderer-in-my-retirement-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/fergus-craig-im-not-the-only-murderer-in-my-retirement-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Fergus Craig: I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Serial killer Carol, just released from prison, has found a cozy apartment at a fancy retirement home, and is looking forward to enjoying freedom and perhaps making new friends.\u00a0 She takes a baking class and is beginning to feel comfortable, when someone discovers her past and the other residents begin to avoid her.\u00a0 It\u2019s heartbreaking.\u00a0 As she\u2019s sitting alone on her balcony with her morning coffee one day, a body falls past her to his death, and she hears a scuffling sound on the roof.\u00a0 She\u2019s sure it\u2019s murder, the police are sure it\u2019s suicide.\u00a0 When she puts herself forward, the police arrest her, simply because of her past.<\/p>\n

She reaches out to one of her new almost friends, Margaret, a fluffy old lady with crumbs on her cardigan, who also happened to have been the home secretary before she retired.\u00a0 She gets Carol out of jail pronto and the two decide to investigate the murder themselves and clear Carol\u2019s name.\u00a0 They are somewhat reluctantly joined by Geoffrey (a retired policeman) and Catherine, all from the baking class.<\/p>\n

As Carol investigates, she discovers another killer she\u2019d encountered once burying a body (business like nod for them) as well as a welter of clues, helped a great deal by Margaret\u2019s connections and insider access.\u00a0 The two police detectives in charge of the case are halfway efficient \u2013 one is an older guy blowhard who goes for the obvious solution, the other a younger woman who is trying to investigate in a coherent manner. Carol is still a tempting suspect, so it takes lots of work for the four sleuths to get to the truth.<\/p>\n

There are some pretty funny red herrings and, as in Richard Osmond\u2019s books, a pretty clear-eyed look at the mechanics of aging and its limitations.\u00a0 The new owner of their swanky retirement home has cluelessly installed a climbing wall \u2013 for 70+ and 80- year olds \u2013 but the most popular activities are croquet, baking, and karaoke. The bittersweet with the actually sweet makes this a lovely read as the four sleuths begin to trust each other as friends.<\/p>\n

When Carol does solve the case (as of course she does) she insists on a denouement, Poirot style, with everyone assembled at karaoke.\u00a0 This involves the discovery of another body or two.\u00a0 The resolution is as bittersweet as the entire story, but what will remain with me is the humor (author Craig does stand up) and the budding friendship between the four main characters.\u00a0 Finding friendship at any age is a miracle, and Craig seems fully cognizant of that fact.\u00a0 This was a completely enjoyable, well plotted read. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Serial killer Carol, just released from prison, has found a cozy apartment at a fancy retirement home, and is looking forward to enjoying freedom and perhaps making new friends.\u00a0 She takes a baking class and is beginning to feel comfortable, when someone discovers her past and the other residents begin to avoid her.\u00a0 It\u2019s heartbreaking.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1057,189,2405,2406,2407,1276],"class_list":["post-6904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-amateur-sleuth","tag-berkley","tag-fergus-craig","tag-im-not-the-only-murderer-in-my-retirement-home","tag-older-sleuths","tag-robin-agnew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6906,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions\/6906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}