“At Autumn Springs, death is hunkered in every shadow of every room. It hovers in the high corners like a giant spider, stands at your bedside and watches you sleep, or sits congenially across the table while you sip your morning coffee, or your evening brandy.”

Autumn Springs offers senior citizens a place that will care for them, give them independence and also a community to grow friendships with. It is a place where Rose Dubois, a woman in her late seventies, loves. She has friends—Miller, Micky, Tatum and Gopi—to spend her days with, she has a beautiful apartment, and there are an abundance of activities to participate in. Life at Autumn Springs is good. That is until residents begin being killed. Sure deaths happen in retirement homes, so why jump to conclusions? Why suspect foul play? Rose is having none of it, she knows something is very wrong. There is a killer amongst them, but can she uncover who it is before she becomes their next victim?

Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi is a chilling classic slasher, blood, gore and all, but it is also a tale of growing old, of being lonely, of being forgotten.

I know some readers are going to glance over the blurb and make comparisons to The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman and whilst the two do share similarities—a cosy retirement home setting, senior citizens solving crime—believe me Autumn Springs is a far darker read. Within the first few chapters we’re given a glimpse into what life is like at the retirement home, the layout of the buildings, the places for different levels of care and even some of the social activities available. It paints a picture of a community where senior citizens find comfort and companionship, a place of leisure and relaxation, a safe place. Then Fracassi hits us with the first murder and within its violent brutality the illusion of safety is shattered. The effect was so jarring, it clearly lets the reader know that this is a slasher, this is horror and we’re not holding back. I’m not normally someone who reads slashers, it’s just not my preferred genre, so this took me right out of my comfort zone, however at this point I was hooked, I was on edge and I felt so compelled to read on and find out what the hell was happening to these characters that I had already become attached to.

Rose Dubois, is our lead, our final girl if you will. She’s a woman approaching her eighties and instead of slowing down she is full of life, making her so much fun to follow. From the very first murder Rose illustrates just how perceptive she is, from noticing details the others had missed to having her suspicions immediately raised, others saw death in a retirement home as a given, whereas Rose doesn’t. Fracassi gives us enough of her backstory to show that this is a woman who hasn’t led an easy life, she is always a woman of two halves, but she is loved and she is wanted. Which is not the case for many of the residents in the home and this is where Fracassi injects a surprising emotional depth to this novel that for me sets it apart from other slashers. Through including backstories for many of the characters we learn that there are residents who experience alienation from their family, many are left forgotten with no one to visit them, many have hardly spoken to their children or grandchildren in years, many are unloved, hidden away as if they are a burden and become reliant on strangers for all their needs. This was truly a heartbreaking theme of the novel for me—I’ve always been brought up to respect our elderly, in Indian culture we take care of those in need—to read about all these lonely vulnerable people made me quite teary. Yet on the other hand this also shows us the beauty of this home, the residents become a found family, supporting and caring for each other. Especially when murderers are afoot. 

“Night falls.

A full moon ripens in the black expanse amid a dusting of cold stars.

Autumn Springs is quiet as a graveyard.”

Approaching the halfway point of the novel, I did find myself becoming a touch frustrated and wanting to finally have some revelations, some stronger leads, or stronger suspicions. It felt that we had reached this point, and although the murderers were progressing, the investigation part of the plot wasn’t. However, I didn’t feel that way for long because Fracassi then included some other fantastic POV’s. When I came to reading from the perspective of the killer, I was taken aback, it was chilling and really brought home that this could easily be the mind of a human psychopath or even a malevolent otherworldly being. There are hints of demons, creatures or even an alien throughout but the killer or entity remains ambiguous, which becomes great to try to puzzle out. Then we have detective Hastings, and though he is reluctant at first, once he actually starts investigating why there is a rising death toll even in a retirement home, my suspect list began to narrow down. In the end the killer was someone I had previously dismissed from my list, so at the end I was pretty mad at myself! 

The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is what I can only describe as a heartbreaking slasher. Brutal, frightening and yet deeply emotional Fracassi crafts a cathartic tale full of sorrow and courage.

ARC provided by Nazia at Orbit Books and their imprint Run For It in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the copy!

The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is out now – you can order your copy on Booskhop.org