Digging Up Otis (May List Mysteries) [Paperback]

T. Dawn Richard (Author)

Book Description

Series: May List Mysteries | Publication Date: April 1, 2005

May and the gang are at it again!

What’s life without a little crime to solve? Boring, that’s what! At least for May List, whose days consist of waiting on her doctor husband, Ted, to retire, trying to put her underwear on the right way and figuring out how to avoid the wrath of her cat, Trixie. But evil never sleeps at the Waning Years Estates, and Fanny, Bob, Ida and Grady call May back into action when one of their own goes missing. May is soon on her way, and this time so is Ted, who, for better or worse, catches a detective bug even he can’t cure.

As soon as she arrives, the sleuthing senior and her quirky friends set out to discover why, how and if their friend Otis died. Nobody is quite sure until he shows up floating in the Estates’ swimming pool in front of several terrified residents. May and the gang know something is fish, but who would want to kill poor Otis? His beleaguered and cheated upon wife? His sexy girlfriend? Or maybe the guys he owed money to at the Sunken Balls Pool Hall? The real Otis may or may not be dead, but one thing is certain: May, Ted, and the wily seniors will do anything—scam scammers, crash a funeral, streak, and, yes, even dig up Otis (twice!)—to uncover the truth and solve the mystery before anyone, or everyone, else gets killed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

T. Dawn Richard and her husband, Glenn, a retired Air Force pilot who now flies commercial aircraft, currently reside in Washington state with their four kids. She is a full-time writer and mother. Raised in Hamilton, Montana, Dawn served as an Army medic in Bremerhaven, Germany, completed studies at the Defense Language Institute for Russian Language, and went on to work as a civilian instructor and curriculum developer for the U.S. Air Force. She graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a Masters degree in Adult Education.

Her first May List novel, DEATH FOR DESSERT, was released by Five Star in hardcover in September of 2003. The large print version soon followed, and the book did so well that it became one of the first books Five Star released in trade paperback this past September.

Her current novel, DIGGING UP OTIS, is now available from Martin Brown Publishers, LLC in trade paperback, and her third May List mystery, A WRINKLE IN CRIME, is scheduled for release in spring 2006.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Martin Brown Publishers, LLC (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976540908
• ISBN-13: 978-0976540908
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,846,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A plot that seems like something out of "I Love Lucy", November 3, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Digging Up Otis (May List Mysteries) (Paperback)

Author T. Dawn Richard graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a Masters in Adult Education. Originally hailing from Hamilton, Montana, Dawn also completed studies at the Defense Language Institute for Russian Language. She worked as a civilian instructor for the U.S. Air Force, developing curriculum. With that varied background, she now writes mysteries about retired senior citizens.

DIGGING UP OTIS is the second May List mystery. May is a doctor's wife, and her husband Ted is about as supportive as he can be. But May is really happy when she can solve mysteries with her friends. When they call to tell her that Otis is missing, May takes the first plane to the Waning Years Estates and the game is afoot. Of course Ted isn't very far behind, and the geriatric group find Otis tied to a pool ladder, apparently drowned. But is it really Otis, and who killed him? The senior snoops decide to dig up Otis to find out just what happened, with hilarious results:

"The guys in back had held up pretty well, but the two at the head of Otis' casket took some quick baby steps and then collapsed just short of the burial site. The head end of the coffin struck the ground, and its lid popped open. The guys in back were in a forward momentum. They were determined to push the rest of the way to the hole, but only hefted the back of the heavy box high into the air. The satiny lining was slippery, and Otis was on the move. 'Dead man walkin'!' Ted proclaimed."

T. Dawn Richard uses hilarious character development and a plot that seems like something out of "I Love Lucy" to entertain her reader. Her "crepe-skinned" seniors at times seem bewitched and befuddled, but their life experience and intelligence serve them when the local cops (who are of the Keystone variety) fail to take them seriously. Richard writes her own unique form of the cozy thriller, and the fuzzy slipper gang emerges victorious, even as they are almost outfoxed by the real killer. DIGGING UP OTIS is a laugh out loud mystery!

Shelley Glodowski
Senior Reviewer

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars May List and her geriatric friends are at it again!, April 25, 2006

By 

Dawn Dowdle "Mystery Lovers Corner reviewer" (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digging Up Otis (May List Mysteries) (Paperback)

May List is fabulous! I love this series. She and her geriatric friends are at it again.

May and her husband Ted had settled back into a comfortable life together when May gets a phone call from her friends at Waning Years Estate. There's been another murder. That gets May's juices going. Ted encourages her to fly down to help them out. He even agrees to join her as soon as he can get things settled in his doctor practice.

May enjoys seeing all her old friends again. She soon finds out Otis Cunningham is missing and presumed dead. The gang shows her all the improvements made to Waning Years Estate since she left. She is pleasantly surprised.

While relaxing in the lounge, they discover Otis floating in the pool at the center. The police call it an accident. The gang knows it was murder. But how do they prove it? They split up to check out some various leads. They begin to have even more suspicions about this murder.

Once Ted arrives, he joins in on the hilarious antics of this group. I laughed out loud many times. So many that my husband asked me what was so funny more than once!

I highly recommend this book and series. It is a fun read that you won't want to put down until May and her friends have solved the murder. Be prepared to laugh out loud and to keep reading until you finish! You won't get much else done while reading it!

[...]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digging Up Otis: A humorous mystery complete with a geriatric commando support unit, August 19, 2007

By 

D. Merrimon Crawford (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digging Up Otis (A May List Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

T. Dawn Richard's DIGGING UP OTIS is an unusual mystery with an unusual sleuth. Several twists, action scenes and a surprise twist at the end keep this mystery exciting. Humor and an unusual geriatric commando unit with walkers and Depends and other ailments will go above and beyond to discover and capture the culprit.

May List, the sleuth from T. Dawn Richard's previous mystery DEATH FOR DESSERT has settled into a comfortable life after solving her last mystery at the Waning Years Estate. She missed the residents after the recent changes in her life. Giving her cat a shower and getting clawed in the process is not substitute for solving crimes. When she receives a call from one of her friends from the nursing home, she is only too ready to return. A man named Otis has gone missing and the residents are certain he has been murdered. May and her geriatric commando force will do anything to unearth the culprit even if it means digging up a corpse in the grave to take his fingerprints.

Ever since she solved discovered her first corpse in DEATH FOR DESSERT and solved the crime, May List has been fantasizing about solving more crimes. The author breaks the expected mystery formula by including forbidden actions and topics to heighten the humor. Going to a cemetery and digging up a buried corpse is certainly not accepted practice. The author makes this mystery a humorous reading journey through her characters and their mention of items not too typical in a cozy mystery like Depends, flatulence and putting underwear on backwards.

Readers who loved DEATH FOR DESSERT will love this next installment. Many of the characters are familiar as well as the location. Although this book can be read as a stand alone, it is best enjoyed after reading DEATH FOR DESSERT since some of the details in May List's life happened due to her first case. Readers will find May List not the typical elderly sleuth for sure and nice variety in the my mystery reads: Irreverent in some ways, slightly hard-boiled in a geriatric not in the sexual side rather defines the hard-boiled genre, definitely some unexpected twists at the end, and lots of action scenes too.