Do Not Go Gentle: A Posthumous Mystery by C.A. Larmer

Do Not Go Gentle: A Posthumous Mystery Reviews

• 
  Phrynne

  I seem to be having a good run on Australian authors at the moment!
  C.A. Larmer is the second good writer of mysteries who also hails from Aussie that I have discovered just this week.
  
  
  Do Not Go Gentle is original and very enjoyable. Lulu, the main character, is actually dead, stabbed in the back by persons unknown, and she asks the reader to help her find out the identity of the killer before she has to go off 'into the light.' She is a highly unreliable narrator but she is lots of fun and her outlook on the police investigation of the crime is very entertaining.
  
  I missed a few clues along the way and totally failed to identify the killer. That was okay because Lulu worked it out herself before going on to join her granny in the hereafter.
  
  Light reading. lots of fun and definitely recommended.
• 
  Carolyn

  This is a light, fun murder mystery written in an an engaging way. The main character Lulu has just been stabbed in the back by an unknown person and her spirit wants to hang around long enough to find out who killed her before heading off into the forever world.
  
  Lulu is worried that it is her 13 year old son Bob who stabbed her in a fit of rage after they argued over a chocolate cake. Now that she is dead she can eavesdrop on the police investigation as her life and loves are all laid bare as the police delve deeper into who hated her enough to kill her, all making for an entertaining cosy mystery. 3.5★
• 
  Brenda

  Lulu was dead – she recalled the slight feeling of pain in her back, then the darkness. But she wasn’t ready to join her grandma, who was beckoning toward the brightly lit tunnel. She wanted to know who murdered her; she wanted to prove her son Bob didn’t kill her. So Lulu enlisted the readers to help as they read along!
  
  Lulu watched as the police arrived; the neighbours gawked; a few cried (she was impressed) – but mostly the shock on Bob’s face, the grief she saw. Lulu knew she’d been harsh with Bob when he’d played up before his thirteenth birthday. She couldn’t believe she’d cancelled his party. Was it that? Or was it the chocolate cake she’d baked him then wouldn’t let him eat?
  
  Well that was a strange read! Do Not Go Gentle by Aussie author C.A. Larmer was nothing like her other novels, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. A light mystery; a quick read – it’s still a whodunnit with the usual twists and reveals – definitely different! But worth recommending 😊
  
• 
  Valentina

  A very straightforward and fun read. I bought this book after seeing it on the BookBub newsletter for $0,99, its blurb hooked me immediately. Something completely different and just perfect for a lazy weekend.
• 
  Julie

  This is the second book I have read by C. A. Larmer. It is a different series than the first one I read and I wasn't sure what I was expecting when the book started out. I thought the premise was interesting and it was. It starts out with a murder and it gets interesting from there. I don't want to give the story away but I have to say I liked this book and the unusual way it was written. It gave me a few chuckles, kept me guessing I could resonate with the character. C. A. Larmer is an excellent mystery writer.
• 
  Sandy Todd

  I first read C.A. Larmer's debut of The Agatha Christie Book Club and found it to be a good read. That lead me to see what else she had written. The synopsis of Do Not Go Gentle intrigued me enough to read it and I thoroughly enjoyed this whodunnit with a different writing style. My usual reading genre is mystery, particularly cozy mysteries and was very surprised that I have named this book "the best I've read so far in 2018". C.A. is a brilliant author! I cannot wait to read more of her!
• 
  Valerie

  I read this book for my book club and for the ATY 2018 Challenge Week 29: Clue weapon on the cover.
  
  It is a unique concept to write a book that involves the reader in the solution, but it cannot happen. She could never hear my voice, nor would the plot change from reader to reader. Good thing it is a relatively short book because each chapter is pretty much the same. That is until the end. It is supposed to be funny, but I did not find it so. But then again, I rarely laugh at books that are supposed to be funny. Could be a book to read on a rainy afternoon. Or, when all of your other books have been read and you haven't anything else to read.
• 
  Lynn

  “What if you died thinking your child was the killer? Would you hand around to find out the truth?”
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed this book --- wasn’t sure what I was expecting but it was a fun murder mystery as us readers helped the deceased figure out who murdered her! And is now hopefully having a ball at the end of the light!
  
• 
  Renny

  A different...
  
  .... chatty sort of a murder mystery that defies usual patterns. It’s a light easy read that one feels the need to speed through in order to find out what happens. However, the fact is that one is inspired to keep going to figure it out despite episodic pontificating.
• 
  The Cozy Review

  This is a heart-wrenching story of one woman's quest to uncover the truth. The reader is invited to help solve a murder and maybe save a boy along the way. Lulu is murdered in her own kitchen. The last thing she sees is a pair of black Converse sneakers. Do they belong to her son? Did he really kill her over a birthday cake?
  
  --
  Author: C. A. Larmer
  Genre: Murder Mystery
  
  If you thought your child had just killed you, would you want to know? In this gut-wrenching posthumous murder mystery, single mother Lulu implores the reader to help solve her murder before the granny-beckoning tunnel swallows her whole. With her dead Grandma beckoning furiously from the tunnel, Lulu is desperate to solve the mystery of her own murder before she heads off into eternity.
  
  Christina Larmer is a talented storyteller and a gifted author. Do Not Go Gentle is as original as it gets with a plot that is easy to follow with a plethora of clues that are not easily figured out. Her writing flows with colorful details and realistic dialogue. Told from the view of the deceased this story is intriguing and entertaining.
  
  The cast of characters ranges from Lulu, the victim who may not be all that likable at times, to kiss stealing grumpy teenagers, cheating ex’s, neighbors and so-called friends. Most don’t seem to care too much about the victim or who killed her. They are a diverse group interspersed with realistic traits that either make you love them or hate them. There is no real hero, and the killer turns out to be someone the reader is unlikely to point at. There persists a sensation within the pages that everyone has a secret they fear will come out through the investigation into Lulu’s death. Their fears may well be justified as the investigation unfolds and the entire neighborhood is scrutinized.
  
  The neighborhood setting is a small area that limits the victim’s movements and what the audience can see through her eyes but feels as if it spreads across the entire country. The homes are average, the kind you would see anywhere in the world. It is an archetypal neighborhood, with vast quirks and peculiarities.
  
  Do Not Go Gentle is a wonderfully written highly entertaining book that will leave readers happy and sad at the same time. The story ends just a bit too abruptly, but this does not distract from the overall fun and enjoyment of the story. This book is highly recommended to lovers of the not so normal whodunit.
  
  
  
• 
  moxieBK

  Do Not Go Gently: A posthumous Mystery — C. A. Lamar (Prologue + 50 chapters + Epilogue) December 21-23, 2020
  
  This was a funny cozy in which the recently deceased enlists the help of the reader to solve the mystery. Only, basically, it was more of a thinking out loud process then anything else.
  
  This book was written by an Australian, so the terms and spellings are regional to that area. This has been on my To-Read list for awhile and I chose to knock it off before the end of the 2020 year.
  
  This book had great humor, and also great sadness, as the reader grapples with the victims awareness of things unknown to her (Lulu.)
  
  It’s the least expected criminal, but also the victim calls attention to some sad realities of the crime as well. I was crying a little at the end.
  
  Good, unique story.
  
  Three stars.
• 
  Joyce Brown

  I looked up the Australian word cheeky and learned that it means: impudent or irreverent in an endearing or amusing way. It's cheeky of the author to give us valuable insights about love, family, friendship, and self- understanding from a murdered woman's point of view.
  The images are familiar--floating above ones own dead body, bright light in a tunnel, grandma holding out a welcoming hand. But the way the mystery unfolds while we learn gradually more about the dead woman, even as she learns more and more about herself, makes for an imaginative story.
  I chuckled over the dry humor and the Australian slang used by the characters. But I came away with solid ideas and lessons to mull over.
• 
  Teresa

  Loved this book. I enjoyed being part of the investigative team so to speak. A mother is killed and the whole neighborhood is a potential suspect. This book makes one think about how we are treating our children and provides a look from the outside in on how we may need to find changes in ourselves.
• 
  Kathleen

  Super fun read!
• 
  Ruth McFarlane

  LOVED it - cool concept to be written in the first person by someone just murdered. Great read !
• 
  Janine

  I didn’t love the writing style.
• 
  Anita

  I liked the premise of the story -- a murdered woman who hangs around to try to solve the mystery of her own demise, instead of heading into the great beyond, where the spirit of her grandmother beckons and waits. The story is told in a first-person narrative from the view point of the deceased woman, Lulu, who recruits the reader to help solve her murder. My only gripe with this book is that the plot was not complicated enough for my liking and everything unfolded in a rather predictable linear pattern, hence the OK, 2.5-star rating.
  
  The investigative portion of this mystery mostly involves the backstory of the other characters (aka potential suspects) and of their relationship to the victim. Being somewhat circumscribed to a locus near and around the crime location, Lulu's spirit is able to 'eavesdrop' on almost every part of the investigation, which is narrated in a show-and-tell manner. For me, this lacks intrigue and suspense. In any case, the chocolate cake in the story might have helped in making this read more palatable.
  
  
  * Read for the '2018 Around the World in 52 Books' Challenge task: A book featuring a murder
• 
  Irene Sauman

  Considering this is the murder of a mother who leaves behind a fifteen-year-old son, a story that could be maudlin, the author handles it with a light touch by writing it from the point of view of the murdered mother, looking down from some intermediate place while her grandmother beckons her on into the light. The mother, Ludovica Gold, is a suffocating single parent who many might feel like murdering but only one actually carries it through. Her ex-husband lives across the street with his second wife and family. They provide the support network for the son that keeps us from feeling too sorry for him. The story centres on the son’s teenage friends, and the information they withhold, as teenagers do. The clues are there but carefully understated. Not bad. I think teenagers would enjoy it particularly.