The Front Wing

by Mike Befeler

In this sequel to The Back Wing, Harold McCaffrey realizes this is his three month anniversary at Mountain Splendor Retirement Home. Harold helps at an open house by taking names for a waiting list of people wanting to move into the Front Wing of the facility. Afterwards, there is commotion and a dead body is found dead in the lobby. With the help of his witchy girl friend, Bella Alred, and other unusual residents, Harold must solve the mystery of why people on the waiting list are dying.

236 pages, Paperback

Published November 8, 2019

About the author

Mike Befeler writes the humorous Paul Jacobson "Geezer Lit" mystery series featuring an ocotgenarian protagonist with short-term memory loss. The series includes: Retirement Homes Are Murder, Living With Your Kids Is Murder, Senior Moments Are Murder, Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder, Care Homes Are Murder and Nursing Homes Are Murder. His other books include Unstuff Your Stuff, Death of a Scam Artist, The Tesla Legacy, The Best Chicken Thief in All of Europe, Court Trouble, Murder on the Switzerland Trail, Mystery of the Dinner Playhouse, The V V Agency, The Back Wing, The Front Wing, Paradise Cort, Coronavirus Daze, and Old Detectives Home. Mike retired from the computer data storage industry to write full time. He's past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Reviews

[Heatherinblack · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many plot holes

Bella won’t let Harold stay at her place because she needs beauty sleep? How convenient since he found a major clue as a result. And many more convenient “You wouldn’t actually do it that way but it advances the story forward” events. Argh. The book is best when Jason visits.

[Donnell Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Front Wing, *I* want a slot on the Waiting List. Front Wing is made up of stodgy old folks, while the Back Wing is made up of all kinds of creatures of the night--retired vampires, witches, shapeshifters, werewolves--you name it if you've got a special power, Back Wing is your kind of hangout. That is, with the exception of amateur sleuth Harold McCaffrey who is the only normal human among their ranks and doesn't particularly fit in with the "normal" folks in the Front Wing.

Mr. Befeler brings a wide cast of suspects into the mix when a resident unexpectedly dies, another is bludgeoned to death and then other folks on the Waiting List end up injured and put out of commission. Someone wants into the Mountain Splendor Retirement home--and bad. But who is it? Harold and his love interest Bella, a witch who pops in from next door on occasion, are on the case.

So much fun, I had to keep reading. Hope to see these characters again soon.

[DONNA L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder in the Home

I'm definitely in the right age group to enjoy this whimsical novel though I can't help feeling this retirement facility is not in my price range. And too far from my territory -- SW Ohio -- to be considered. It would be hard, as well, to place me in one of the only two groups of residents since I have no special skills that could put me in the Back nor an "uppity" personality appropriate for the Front bunch. Which puts me in the "enjoy" reading- puzzler- novels -such -as -this -one group. A tough job (tee-hee) but SOME body has to be neutral !
A quick read, interesting plot and characters, with only a slightly challenging figure-it-out job for the reader to take on.

[BRT · Rating 2 out of 5]

As cozy mysteries go, this is in the lightest of the genre. It has a double hook, set in a retirement home and with a cast of aging vampires, shapeshifters, witches, and werewolves alongside more conventional humans. This is the second in the series that I've read and while there's not anything overtly objectionable, it reads as rather amateurish. The plot is fairly predictable, the characters not quite fully rounded, and there is a great deal of repetition of facts, as though the readers might have early onset dementia and need constant reminders. As a quick, undemanding read, however, it suffices.