Five Oh: Mid-Century Meltdown cover art

Five Oh: Mid-Century Meltdown

Val Fremden Midlife Mysteries, Book 5

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Five Oh: Mid-Century Meltdown

By: Margaret Lashley
Narrated by: Sarah Pesek
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About this listen

Killing Two Birds with One Rock

Val’s always been unlucky at love—and a whole bunch of other things.

But she’s never actually felt cursed. Until now.

When Tom gives Val an engagement ring for her 50th birthday, she wants to fly the coop. But it’s Tom who skips out on the romantic getaway he planned. When he can’t make the trip, one of Val’s pals goes instead. On the first day, her friend entangles Val in a prank that ticks off the wrong tourist. On the second day, she gets Val charged with murder.

(Did I mention Val was unlucky?)

To clear her name, Val must go fishing to lure in the real culprit. But what kind of bait do you use when you don’t want to get caught yourself?

With both marriage and jail feeling like impending life sentences, Val’s going to have to do some pretty fancy angling to get herself off the hook this time….

If you like deeply flawed characters and laugh-out-loud situations, you’ll love Five Oh. It’s the fifth book in Lashley’s hilarious Val Fremden Midlife Mystery series. She's a lovable, bungling mess who's a bit older, a tad more jaded, and a ton more experienced in big-time failure. Life’s been tough for Val. Still, she always manages to find her way with sardonic humor and an intrepid spirit. A gin and tonic now and then helps, too.

P.S. If you love humorous, engrossing mysteries like those by Deborah Brown, Julie Mulhern, Lucy Quinn, Tricia O'Malley, Gemma Halliday, Karen Cantwell, Tara Sivec, Liliana Hart, Libby Howard, Chelsea Field, Jana Deleon, Gina LaManna, Janet Evanovich, Denise Grover Swank, Amy Vansant, and Stephanie Bond, you just might love Glad One, too!

©2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 Margaret Lashley (P)2025 Margaret Lashley
Cosy Detective Fiction Literature & Fiction Mystery Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Comedy Witty Funny

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I would have said I enjoyed this book but with the ending it had me questioning what had I just listen too? Talk about a different ending. Did I like it? I am not sure, maybe if I had started with book one and had a better connection to the characters, I would have felt happy with the ending, instead it felt flat. I did like the mystery, well until the ending. There was a lot happening to just one character, some of it her own making, some mother nature and the rest just her crazy luck. The humour was thick and fast and I did like the characters, although some of the unusual nicknames and personalities took some getting use to.

Reaching 50 is hard for some people but for Val it's about to get a whole lot harder. When her fiance is unable to join her on her romantic getaway , Val takes her best friend. They are mistaken for a couple, get on the wrong side of a guest and get caught up in a storm. Then Val wakes up and her friend is missing and the police think she has something to do with it. Can she find out what happened to her friend before the police arrest her?
I Liked the narrator. She did a lot of different voices making it easy to follow the story.

Crazy

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