Last Rights

B.J. Busch is Associate Librarian (Access and Information Services) at
the University of Alberta.

When the unlikely hero of this tale, Henry Thornton, resident of the
Shelburne Villa Retirement Home, begins to complain about the number of
deaths occurring there, those around him see little cause for alarm.
Curmudgeonly old Henry complains about everything, from his drug dosage
to the fact that he’s limited to two light beers at the villa’s
daily “happy hour” bar.

But the sleepy pace picks up dramatically when an attempt is made on
Henry’s life. Convincing Dixie Brown, a fellow resident, to flee with
him, Henry enjoys a short-lived re-entry into the “outside” world.
The real horror begins when a mugging puts Henry and Dixie back into the
villa, where the odds of survival become increasingly slim.

This story plays out everyone’s worst nightmare: being warehoused in
an institution where mind and body grow every feebler, helped along by
inappropriate medications—losing one’s “last rights” to dignity
and simple pleasures. This insider’s view of nursing-home life and the
foibles of old age is a well-crafted, fast-paced, highly readable
mystery story that keeps the reader on edge throughout: a welcome debut
from its author, psychiatrist David Laing Dawson.