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Armed And Outrageous, #1 (2012)

by Madison Johns(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1475271093 (ISBN13: 9781475271096)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Outrageous Books

series

Agnes Barton Senior Sleuths Mystery

review 1: I felt that the mystery itself was well-thought out. I had few issues with grammar, punctuation, or spelling (although there were a few issues there). What I objected to was the characteristics attributed to the elderly. The author claims in her foreword that she has worked with the elderly for years and assures the reader that the elderly truly can behave this way (adding the caveat that the exaggerated some behavior because she wanted her characters to be "over the top').I can accept that. She wants her characters to be modern and sexually active (something that many younger readers may have difficulty accepting). She wants her characters to be wild and "cool" (like pot smoking and drinking). She wants them to be badasses (with the fighting and gunplay).I'm OK with all o... moref that.What bothered me was the stereotyping. The SERIOUSLY INACCURATE stereotyping. The main character keeps her teeth in a class of efferdent. She has dentures at 72, which isn't uncommon, but it isn't the norm nowadays, either. With my grandmother's generation (the generation that would have been Agnes Barton's PARENTS' generation, this was the norm. But Agnes's generation is that of the Baby Boomers. I have several people in my life of this age group. I have 9 people in my life who I know closely enough to know their medical and social history (I will call them my "sample" for the purposes of this review). My sample consists of 5 women and 4 men. Their ages range from 65-75. Four members of this sample are couples (2 of the men married to 2 of the women). Two of the remaining women are not currently married (either widowed or divorced). The remaining woman and remaining two men are married to people outside of the sample (for whom I don't know these statistics)ALL of the members of the sample still have their own natural teeth. Only one of them has any dentures, and that's a partial plate from when she was in an accident as a teenager.She talks about how MOST of the seniors in this retirement community want to be in bed by 9 pm every night. Of the nine people in my sample group, only 2 of them like to be in bed by this time. Those two are a married couple. The other 7 in this group go to bed at various times AFTER 9 pm.The author portrays sex at this age as somewhat of a rarity. The main character acts like no one would ever want to have sex with her again at the age of 72. Her best friend is 80, and will basically take whatever she can get in the sex department, because it's so rare to find. Of my sample, 7 of the members are currently sexually active. The other two are abstinent by choice, as neither is currently interested in joining the dating pool.The author portrays seniors as being bad drivers. This is spoken of specifically about one character. I can live with that part, because maybe Eleanor is just a bad driver. And Aggie blames it on her age. OK, I can handle that. But later, Agnes pulls into a parking lot, and proceeds to tell the reader that every car in the parking lot was dinged and dented because most of the drivers in this retirement are senior citizens. THIS was the part to which I took the most offence. Evidently, other readers had similar qualms. Additionally, our main character actually drunk drives home from a party.Firstly, a study just came out this last week that showed that seniors have a much LOWER incidence of accidents than younger drivers (including the age 26-45s). Of my representative sample, two members are aggressive drivers, two are frequent dent and dingers, and THE OTHER FIVE are excellent drivers. One of them has never had a ticket, in over 50 years of driving, and has only had one accident (when a deer hit her car - I specifically say that the deer hit her car, because the damage was all to the windshield and roof, because the deer jumped on top of the car, it never contacted the bumper). 2 of these drivers had issues with driving under the influence, but it was when they were younger, and none of them has driven under the influence in over 20 years. 7 of these group members have not had an accident in over a decade. The other two are (of course) our frequent dent and dingers.The author also portrays gatherings with these characters (like their monthly card night) as a time for comparing battle scars. Everyone is talking about their aches and pains. Bowel movements and their frequency are considered normal discussion for characters of this age (the main character actually says that they talk about this EVERY month when the get together). In my sample, the only real discussion of aches an pains that I've seen occurs when someone has recently had some sort of major illness or procedure (example: chemotherapy heart bypass). I've never heard any of them sitting around talking about bowel movements. And their discussion of medical issues seems no more or less intense than people of my age (30s & 40s). I, myself, had a major surgery about 3 years ago, and afterwards everyone constantly asked me for medical updates. After a while, it subsided. I see the seniors in my life discuss their health issues NO MORE AND NO LESS than other adults.There were some minor writing issues in the book, a few were distracting for the reader, but most were easily overlooked. It was the ridiculous stereotyping that I had an issue with.I was also bothered by how disrespectful anyone under the age of 30 was. It seemed like if you were under 30, you were a rude, disrespectful jerk. I have not found this to be the case in the real world either.
review 2: The amateur detective in this Senior Sleuths Mystery #1, Agnes Barton, is, as we say in East Texas, a pistol, even if she's 72 years old. She lives in Tadium, Mich., on the shores of Lake Huron, and she's very curious about a young woman, Jennifer Martin, a tourist who has disappeared. Turns out Barton's granddaughter disappeared the previous summer and has never been found. Barton and her sidekick, senior Eleanor Mason, start investigating the disappearance of numerous young women in the area. The plot involves uncaged raccoons, human trafficking, and lots of humor. The mystery, when solved, is rather far-fetched, but the action is fast and Barton and Mason are well-drawn, believable characters. An old flame of Barton shows up and figures into the plot, too. The author cared for senior citizens at one point in her life (the author is in her mid-40s) and she puts her knowledge to good use. A funny, cozy mystery, though there's a fair amount of violence. less

Download links for: Armed and Outrageous, #1

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