In Granny’s Got a Gun by Harper Lin, Barbara Gold is bored. After a lifetime career as an agent in the CIA, living in the small town of Cheerville, where she moved to be near her son and 13-year-old grandson, Barbara feels that life has become just plain dull. Then she attends her book club, which keeps reading books that Barbara thinks unexciting. But after they finish their book, lemonade, and lemon cake, the host, Lucien, goes to the kitchen and collapses, dead. Though not happy to see the nicest man in town die, Barbara gets excited at the prospect of getting to put her skills back to work, realizing that Lucien has died of poison and not a heart attack as everyone else seems to think.
Granny’s Got a Gun is a really fun novella. I enjoyed seeing the adventures of Barbara as she tries to solve the crime, as well as her time trying to connect to her grandson by reading a book he especially enjoys. However, the book also features details about the challenges of life as a senior citizen, something Barbara finds difficulty in adjusting to. Not many mystery books feature senior women besides Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher. So this is a refreshing addition, especially since she has to accommodate her age in ways like putting on reading glasses to do her shooting practice.
Sara Morsey performs the audio edition of this novella. I enjoy her inflections and emotional content. Most of the time, she performs the first- person narration with a voice of a senior citizen, although sometimes I felt that she dropped that. However, Barbara is only 65, which is the bare minimum to be classified as a senior citizen, so other times I thought the tremor a bit too extensive. But in general I appreciated the performance of Morsey.
I was drawn to Granny’s Got a Gun> when I saw its listing on Audible as a new recording and found myself intrigued by the cover and title of the novella. I hope that Lin writes some full-length novels in this series and puts them on audio. If this only had more detail, I’d give it five stars, but with the lack of detail due to the shortness of the novella, I give it four stars.
To purchase this book for yourself, click here on Amazon.
