Review by roatanmama -- Arsenic and Old Men by Glenn Ickler

[roatanmama]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Arsenic and Old Men" by Glenn Ickler.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Arsenic and Old Men by Glenn Ickler is a fun mystery about three friends and their wives taking a vacation to Martha’s Vineyard. Mitch Mitchell, an investigative reporter, and Allan Jeffrey, a photographer for the same paper, accompany Dave Jerome, a staff editorial cartoonist, to find out what Dave’s uncle, who died of a heart attack, had bequeathed to him as his sole heir. Their initial meeting with Dave’s uncle’s lawyer is held at a nude beach where they meet a totally unclothed attorney. Happily, they had sent their wives in the opposite direction before the meeting. This lawyer is the first of many quirky characters on the island.

State law requires an autopsy in cases of unattended death. Much to everyone’s surprise, the toxicology results show Dave's uncle didn’t die of a heart attack, but was poisoned with arsenic. Everyone wonders who would kill a sweet old guy like Walt Jerome. According to the townspeople, he had no enemies.

Being an investigative journalist, Mitch decides to do some digging on his own in addition to lending moral support to Dave. Al stays behind for moral support and to take pictures for the story Mitch would be writing for their paper. Then Walt’s hippy friend is murdered, also with arsenic. The three friends send their wives home while they try and figure out who killed these people and why.

The author has an entertaining sense of humor. Not only do the three friends continually try to outdo each other with puns, but the way they handle situations borders on hilarious. Adding humor to this murder mystery made it a joy to read. The plot flows seamlessly, and the writing is impeccable.

I rate this 4 out of 4 stars. I found only two punctuation errors; “Consequently I was still stuffing...” and “Well I’m willing to bet...,” and one which seemed to be a consistent choice of not putting a comma after beginning a sentence with “So.” So many books I’ve read have hundreds of errors, which made this a joy to read because it has so few.

Arsenic and Old Men is both funny and serious as the same time. The subject matter of murder is handled with a generous sprinkling of humor and hilarious characters and situations. The story is well-developed, the characters are all fleshed-out nicely, including all the minor players, the story flows seamlessly, the editing is fairly close to flawless. There are very few swear words, and the scenes that contain any hint of sexuality are either hilarious or sweet. I would highly recommend this book to everyone, young and old.

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Arsenic and Old Men
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