Tuesday 20 December 2016

Book ~ "Don't Ever Get Old" (2012) Daniel Friedman

From Goodreads ~ When Buck Schatz, senior citizen and retired Memphis cop, learns that an old adversary may have escaped Germany with a fortune in stolen gold, Buck decides to hunt down the fugitive and claim the loot. But a lot of people want a piece of the stolen treasure and Buck's investigation quickly attracts unfriendly attention from a very motley (and murderous) crew.

Buck Schatz is an ex-cop and now a cranky 87-year-old.  Jim, a former friend, calls him to his hospital bed and makes a deathbed confession.  The German SS officer in charge of the POW camp Buck had been in in 1944 may not be dead as everyone had believed.  In 1946, Jim had been working as an MP at a roadblock and the SS officer, with fake papers, bribed Jim with a gold bar to let him through.  Jim said the SS officer had a trunkful of gold bars ... gold that had been wrongly taken from the imprisoned and murdered Jews.

This leads Buck and his grandson, Tequila, who is a university student, on the hunt for the gold.  But they aren't the only ones looking for it and people who are getting in the way are getting murdered.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it.  I enjoyed the writing style ... it was darkly amusing at times.  It is written in first person perspective in Buck's voice.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.

I thought Buck was a hoot.  He is elderly and not hip to the times.  Things have changed since he was a cop.  He has no idea what "Google" is and refers to GPS (he vaguely knows what it is) as "GBH" and "GED".  His grandson's frat/nickname is "Tequila" but Buck callls him "Moonshine" and "Jagermeister", etc.  He doesn't like or tolerate many people these days but he has a deep love and respect for his wife, Rose.  His doctor suspects he has early stages of dementia and he physically can't get around as well as he used to.

This is the first of a series (of two of far) and I look forward to reading the next one.

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