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 

Book Review: "The Third Rule of Time Travel," by Philip Fracassi

 

    The first Philip Fracassi book I read, The Boys in the Valley, was a terrifying and relentlessly-paced novel of horror set at the turn of the century in a rural Catholic orphanage for boys. It was equal parts Salem's Lot and Lord of the Flies and I tore through it in a single day. 

    Fracassi's newest book, The Third Rule of Time Travel, really couldn't be much more different from that one than it is. It's a sci-fi story, a gripping family drama about motherhood, and a tale of a shady capitalist trying to crush everyone in his path. But, you know what? I tore through this one in a single day, too. Fracassi is just that good. 

    The Third Rule of Time Travel follows Beth, a scientist who, with her late husband, has designed a time machine. Don't think H.G. Wells, though. What this machine actually does is send one's consciousness back to a point in that same person's life to witness it through their own eyes again, and then transmits a recording of that for analysis and review. Oh, and they only get 90 seconds. There are strict rules to follow, rigid guidelines in place to avoid (hopefully) theoretical consequences, and all of the other fun elements of any good time travel story. Things slowly, and inevitably, go wrong. That's why such stories exist, so don't take that as a spoiler of any sort. 

    The key to any good time travel story, I think, is that it sticks to its own rules and makes at least a passing attempt at an acceptable level of scientific "realism" (for what is, of course, a fictional concept). Fracassi absolutely lives up to the challenge here. One of the most exciting elements of this novel is when the reader starts to notice little changes that the book's characters maybe haven't caught yet. An example would be Beth sitting down and taking a drink out of a mug that we know shouldn't be available for her to do so. It's fascinating stuff that kept me turning page after page. 

    If the key to a good time travel story is adherence to its rules, the key to a good work of fiction is something simpler: Interesting characters. Beth is a fantastic protagonist. She's smart, angry when driven to it, laments missing the little moments she could be spending with her daughter as she toils on her science project, and is unfaltering in her devotion to her life's work that was created with her late husband Colson. There's also her coworker in the lab, Tariq, who isn't always as easy to get a read on but reveals himself to be more than just some lab assistant over time. The head honcho funding the project is Jim Langan, and you'll recognize him for what he is with quickly. He might be an archetype, but it's the kind that a story like this needs. Throw in other board members, a journalist pushing people's buttons, and a psychiatrist with motives that aren't always clear and there's precisely enough here to keep the story moving at as rapid a pace as it demands. Fracassi never takes his foot off the gas with this one. 

    There aren't many authors who can effortlessly drift from genre to genre. For every Stephen King there are unfortunately a handful of folks who fail to put the scares in their horror book or the laughs in their satire or the high stakes in their thriller. Luckily for us, Fracassi is proving himself to be one of those rare few walking a similar path as King. Considering the way the time machine in The Third Rule of Time Travel functions, maybe we could call that The Path of the Beam. Just a thought. 

4.5/5

 

 

My thanks to Orbit Books, Philip Fracassi, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book. THE THIRD RULE OF TIME TRAVEL will be available on March 18.