Baruch, ​“Buck,” Schatz is 88 years old. His mem­o­ry some­times fails him and he can’t mow the lawn any more, but he is a retired Mem­phis cop and his police instincts are alive and well. He is also a sur­vivor of Buchen­wald and a vet­er­an of World War II. When an old army bud­dy makes a deathbed con­fes­sion that he let the Nazi guard who bru­tal­ized Buck escape with a stash of gold, Buck gets angry. His grand­son, a law stu­dent, con­vinces him that the man should not get away and the two of them set out to find him. Along the way, they encounter a col­lec­tion of col­or­ful char­acter includ­ing a loan shark, a schol­ar, and an attrac­tive female Israeli sol­dier. What do they want and why are they all dying?

Buck’s sto­ry is hard-boiled and humor­ous. The author has giv­en read­ers a senior cit­i­zen who tri­umphs over the obsta­cles of aging and enter­tains them with a fast-paced sto­ry. Book clubs will enjoy this because there is much to dis­cuss amidst the fun. The author won the McCav­i­ty Award for Best First Mystery.