Review of Arsenic and Old Men

[Joy Swanepoel]

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

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Dave Jerome is a young married man whose wealthy uncle died of a heart attack, or so he was told. He needed to go to Martha's Vineyard, a popular island vacation destination in Massachusetts, to sort out his uncle's affairs, arrange the funeral and take possession of his property. Dave asks his two friends, Al a press photographer and Mitch who is an investigative reporter, to go with him for the weekend. The three men and their wives were happy to have an unexpected vacation at such an exclusive place even though under such sad circumstances, but soon after their arrival the autopsy results told a different story. Dave's uncle had been poisoned with arsenic. Mitch immediately went into investigative mode to find out who the murderer was and Al photographed everything which may be a lead. The weekend break turned out to be much longer than any of them expected. We meet a number of colourful characters in this investigation and the twists and turns are rather surprising.

I found Arsenic and Old Men to be an interesting, light-hearted and humorous story. It is written in the first person and the reader is inclined to feel like he is also involved in the mystery. The suspense builds up as more characters are introduced and keeps the reader eager to find out what happens next. Glenn Ickler describes his characters in a very graphic way and the scenery beautifully. He has an engaging way of writing which takes one to the scene being described in such a way that you get cold or hot with the characters and when there is a storm you feel just as wet and miserable as they do. There is humour throughout the book and the author uses puns and quips to lighten the mood. Although the suspense keeps you glued to the book, it is a light-hearted murder mystery with a lot of humour in it.

The little bit of nudity was distasteful to me as were the few cases of profanity, but otherwise I found nothing I disliked about this book.

ArsenIc and Old Men has been extremely well edited. I found only one error which could have been a typo. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars.

I would recommend this book to those who like a mystery but want a quick read. It is probably a bit too light-hearted for the serious armchair investigator who would doubtless prefer more intrigue.

******
Arsenic and Old Men
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon