Jeanne Reviews: Gertrude, Gumshoe: Slam is Murder by Robin Merrill

Gertrude is an elderly lady who lives in a trailer packed with all sorts of things she has pack-ratted away and well as her clowder of cats.  She’s decided that she is a detective and uses “Gertrude Gumshoe” as her alias.  Now that Gertrude has a few solved mysteries under her belt, she is ready for more.  Unfortunately, her small town just hasn’t produced any juicy murders lately so she’s taken to scouring the papers for something she can stick her walker into. She thinks she’s spotted something suspicious in the deaths of two young people: although the deaths happened several days apart and have been ruled accidents, Gertrude notices that they both attended the same poetry slam.  Now all she has to do is to convince her understandably irascible friend Calvin to drive her to Portland and let her snoop her way around. 

This is the fourth in the Gertrude Gumshoe series. While I’ll admit this isn’t the most polished book I’ve read and there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief, it’s also very funny.  Gertrude is headstrong, determined, and a bit of a bully.  She’s not above a little blackmail to get what she wants.  She also sails along in serene assurance that she can rise to any occasion, be it compete in a poetry slam or learning to drive. If she doesn’t quite make it, well, Gertrude sees that as a minor setback at worst, and is probably due to someone else’s incompetence.  She should be the sort of character who annoys me, but instead I find myself giggling—and very grateful that I don’t live anywhere near her.

This is the second book I’ve read in the series. I don’t think they need to be read in order, though the first one does give a bit more background on Gertrude. I like that the books are available in large print paperback.  They’re short, breezy, and funny—perfect for a treadmill walk.

Books in the series are:

Introducing Gertrude Gumshoe

Gertrude Gumshoe: Murder at Goodwill

Gertrude Gumshoe and the Vardsale Villain

Gertrude Gumshoe: Slam is Murder

Gertrude Gumshoe:  Murder at the Thrift Store

There are also two novella and a spin-off series when Gertrude decides to relocate to South Dakota.  With the cats, of course.