Cycles of Death

by Lee Shearer

A group of semi-retired executives become bored with their country club life and decide to partcipate in an annual nationally known 450 mile bike ride across Iowa (RAGBRAI). In the process they uncover a serial killer who selects victims from the middle-age wealthy woman on this ride. They utilize their varied skills and legal and illegal methods attempt to identify and confront the killer. They also learn to confront the deep emotions of the aging process with humor not fear.

244 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 2010

Reviews

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

What can I say. I almost dnf'd this book because it was so poorly written. Not totally bad. There were some things that were actually good. I liked the author's voice, dialogue, and the development of some of his characters. I picked it up to read because of the premise. It involved a mystery while on Ragbrai and I live in Iowa so of course I was interested. Some of the jokes are funny. Some are sleazy. It is about a group of retired golfers, well off golfers who get bored with golf and decide to train for Ragbrai because they have heard about how everyone sleeps around at night on this week long bike ride journey. It is humorous in spots and it does have a few raunchy jokes. The unbelievable scenes are where these sixty something aged men brag about their sexual prowess while on Ragbrai. I did enjoy the different bike clubs formed to participate like The Black Widows in a van decorated with spiders on the sides, Team Nude in a pink van with cute butt painted on the rear, and Team Cougar whose tan RV had a plastic female cougar head on the hood with ear-rings and lipstick. Their motto was "We will eat your young." I found this book at a library book sale. If you live in Iowa, you might enjoy it.

[Brent Soderstrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee Shearer gives us a glimpse into three things-growing older, RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) and the state of Iowa in a murder mystery.

Lee Scott and his five 60 year old buddies are semi-retired and tired of golf so they decide to get into shape and participate in RAGBRAI. During RAGBRAI they notice that attractive upper middle age women are starting to be killed. They set out to find the killer(s) using any means to do so.

I really enjoyed the one-liner quotes at the top of each paragraph. Also I could see how growing older yet still feeling young can be a struggle. The book also gives you a great glimpse at the traveling party which is RAGBRAI from the biking to the booze, food and casual sex.

Enjoyed it.

[Mjean · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of the worst books I have ever read. Aside from the numerous typos, which were distracting (to say the least), the plot was poorly developed, the characters were stereotypical and the time frame was confusing. Don't waste your money buying this book. For sure, don't waste your time reading it!

[Kathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story. It is by someone who lives in Des Moines and it pretty much centers around RAGBRAI. There is some history of Iowa cities in the book also.