Cozy mystery ‘Your Number’s Up’ is a winner

By LEAH CASNER
Posted 11/16/22

Masturbation.

Got your attention? Thought so. Which is probably why a newly self-published book set in our neighborhood starts the same way.

The book, “Your Number’s Up,” by …

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Cozy mystery ‘Your Number’s Up’ is a winner

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Masturbation.

Got your attention? Thought so. Which is probably why a newly self-published book set in our neighborhood starts the same way.

The book, “Your Number’s Up,” by Marylou Ambrose, is available for Kindle or as a paperback on Amazon.

Concerned about masturbation? Fear not: The only remaining thing we hear about it is that the main character’s Mom doesn’t do it.

Though we wonder just how the daughter knows.

That’s just one of the many mysteries in Ambrose’s first novel, by a local playwright, actor and producer.

Ambrose is from Hawley, PA. She has written several plays and nonfiction books, and has now transformed one of those plays into a fast-moving, fun novel. It’s realistic enough that I had to contact her to ask about a pizza place mentioned, that, sadly, turns out to be only a product of her imagination.

“Your Number’s Up” is a pleasant and affectionate journey through the trials of having a parent with dementia— and that parent has a touch of ESP.

Mom has dementia and lives in a lovely, well-kept assisted-living apartment building north of Honesdale, PA. Her daughters are concerned about odd events happening, and the strange things Mom has been saying—some rather out of place, but others a bit too well-informed about things that she couldn’t know.

Mom’s strange knowledge comes in handy—but we won’t discover that till later.

The assisted living home, its employees and Mom are drawn with compassion and understanding, and the daughters, their spouses and friends are equally recognizable. Sprinkled throughout are glimpses of our area, only slightly in disguise.

And, as in the real world, the home is not covered by Medicare; it’s expensive and the children worry about paying for it when mom’s gambling winnings run out.

“Your Number’s Up” calls itself a cozy, paranormal mystery.  The plot is not as well shaped as the characters.

There are questions left unanswered and rather silly solutions for others.

But even Agatha Christie, the queen of cozy mysteries, wrote plots with holes. I enjoyed “Your Number’s Up” mightily.  Not nearly as off-puttingly “wacky and zany ” as its blurbs suggest, the book is a lot of fun.

seniors, novel, Marylou Ambrose

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