Customer Reviews

Digging Up Otis (A May List Mystery)

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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

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!

[...]

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.

May List mysteries are hilarious! Must also get "Death by Dessert".
Not only was the price good, but I couldn't find this book anywhere else!

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.