Don't Ever Look Back: A Mystery (Buck Schatz)
Friedman’s geezer hero, retired Memphis cop Buck Schatz, tottered onto the noir stage with last year’s Don’t Ever Get Old and took command. He’s a senior in the Harry Truman rage-don’t-whine mode. Even in the retirement home where he and his wife have been dumped, he keeps a .357 close by. As with the earlier book, someone from the past has come for him: a clever villain who checkmated him then and is likely up to something now. Enjoy the plot, which even has a locked-room mystery packed into it. Savor the resonant prose as a reminder of how flabby much best-seller writing has become. Delight in Buck’s deadpan humor, but don’t fall for it. No codger cuteness here; his nastiness can shock. “I’m a feral dog,” he says, and means it. He heads to the final confrontation pushing a walker and packing a Magnum. He has his own sense of justice. Twice he quotes Sherlock Holmes, and like the Master, he would rather play tricks with the law than with his own conscience. --Don Crinklaw