Book Review: "The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre," by Philip Fracassi

 

    Another month, another delightful bit of genre fiction from Philip Fracassi. This is the second 2025 novel of Fracassi's that I've reviewed, and I enjoyed this one just as much as the last. This time, instead of The Third Rule of Time Travel's inventive sci-fi, we have a delightfully violent entry in the "old folks solving mysteries" genre that has become so prevalent as of late. 

    I'm not one for cozy mysteries, so I've mostly avoided the huge influx of retirement home or similar set novels about elder citizens with a love of true crime getting to tackle a case of their own. I had a feeling that Philip would have something interesting to mix into the formula, though, and that was certainly true. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is a full-on slasher. It's got a massive body count, inventive kills, a deranged killer... what else could you want? When you tell me that an old woman who just wants to spend time with her daughter and grandson is instead going to be hunted by a masked psycho, you have gained my attention. 

    This book focuses on Rose DuBois, a woman with a difficult past who is just trying to enjoy her later years in peace with her friends at Autumn Springs. The old folks who make up the central cast are a hoot. Fracassi has created a variety of unique, easy-to-root-for senior citizens each with their own challenges, fears, and theories. The vast majority of the story is from Rose's point of view, as we are introduced to the retirement community, its denizens, caretakers, administrators, and even a detective who is starting to think all of these violent deaths at Autumn Springs are maybe a little fishy.  

    My only real complaints with book are that it teases going supernatural a few times and doesn't quite satisfactorily handle that -- it needed to go all-in or leave it alone -- and there are a few chapters from the killer's perspective that are never interesting enough to feel worthy of inclusion. There's no motive or insight that would make it a more interesting reveal... like many good slasher villains, this one just is what they are and that's good enough. When you're stabbing, poisoning, burning, and tossing old folks from great heights, the point of view worth following is that of the elderly victim. 

    Ultimately, it's a quick, fun read that injects some over-the-top carnage into the senior citizen mystery world. Fracassi doesn't reinvent the wheel, here, but he gives it a hell of a shove down a steep, bloody hill. 

 

4.5/5