The Geezer Factory Murders

What's amiss now at the snug, luxurious Southern California retirement community Camden-sur-Mer? Readers will figure out the answer halfway through the latest in this series (after Ho-Ho Homicide), but Sawyer's energetic pair of elderly Nosey Parkers, Angela Benbow and Caledonia Wingate, will charm their fans all the way to the end. Camden-sur-Mer's manager, Olaf Torgeson, is thrilled that tenants of a rival retirement home, The Golden Years, are transferring to his facility--until one of them is murdered. Angela and Caledonia gleefully start to investigate, extracting seemingly unrelated information from their fellow senior citizens: suspiciously frequent fast-food deliveries after dark; the antics of two pet cats; the nocturnal perambulations of some residents. Angela even examines her neighbors' garbage for clues. The fortuitous appearance of a policeman and his drug-sniffing dog leads the cops to the killer, one step behind the heroines. Sawyer's understanding of the problems faced by the elderly--boredom, fear of Alzheimer's disease, living on a fixed income, lack of privacy--adds some heft to this series, whose stories are loaded with broad plot twists, obvious clues and too cute, often two-dimensional characters. (July)