|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Buck Schatz is one of the most unusual protagonists I have run across. He's a smart alecky, cantankerous old cuss who does and says pretty much whatever, whenever he wants. A legendary retired homicide cop for the Memphis police department, his life has fallen into a predictable routine. At eighty-seven years old, Buck doesn't care much about making things easy for others, resents doctors who won't treat what ails him because "at his age something else will kill him first," and spends his days watching Fox News while chain smoking Lucky Strikes. But Buck's predictable life unexpectedly becomes anything but routine. Buck Shatz has little in common with Jim Wallace except that they both were held in the same prison camp during WWII. But just before dying, Wallace asks to see Buck. He confesses that after the war, he allowed Heinrich Ziegler, the Nazi guard who had brutalized Buck, to get through a check point and escape Germany in return for a bar of gold. For more than sixty years, Buck thought the guard was dead only now to find out Ziegler had survived after all. Buck has a tough decision to make - or rather he thinks he does. Buck wants him to be dead, but isn't sure he's up to the search. The problem is, Wallace told several people the gold bar story and they assume that Ziegler has a fortune in gold stashed somewhere. Wanting Buck to find Ziegler in order to find the gold, they will stop at nothing to get Buck moving. And so their adventure begins. Buck, with the help of his grandson, Tequila, sets out to track a man who has changed his name and vanished sixty years ago - apparently with a fortune in gold bars. Buck not only doesn't understand search engines, he doesn't use computers. Tequila on the other hand is tech savvy but disdainful of the "old school" cop methods. To complicate their search further, the rag-tag group of gold seekers is dogging their every move, getting in the way and turning up dead from time to time. The result is a journey filled with over-the-top characters and hilarious moments even with the rising body count. What makes this book a winner from the first page is Buck Schatz. Anyone who has spent time with older people who are still active will recognize many of the traits in Buck that make him real. He may need to write down in his memory notebook things that happen today that he needs to remember tomorrow, but his police instincts that served him well in years past are still as sharp as can be. He realizes that old folks can get away with a lot and uses his senior state to pull off one slick con in a bank scene that leaves his grandson speechless. Friedman was taken what on the surface would seem like a grim plot (former concentration camp survivor tracks down camp guard), and instead given readers a very funny treasure hunt with one unforgettable protagonist in Buck Schatz. Readers who enjoy strong characters and humor with their mysteries as well as fans of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen might want to give DON'T EVER GET OLD a try. § Caryn St.Clair resides in University City, Mo and is a former elementary school media specialist, President of the Parks Commission and a docent at the St.Louis Zoo.
Reviewed by Caryn St Clair, June 2012
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
