This month’s review is on local author E. Howard Jones new novel “Elder
Affairs—Silenced,” an engaging novel about the perils of aging and how a person can
lose everything in a short court hearing to determine competency.

Arthur McCullen was looking forward to enjoying his retirement years,
unfortunately his wife had recently passed away, and he was starting to have strange,
unexplainable accidents. Arthur lived alone, but his daughter Shelly was only a short
drive away, and his neighbors looked out for him. Whenever they noticed that Arthur was
in danger of hurting himself, a neighbor would call both 911 and shelly. Arthur himself
could not understand these accidents—they weren’t situations he would normally have
problems with, but ended up with the emergency response crew’s prompt arrival. He was
getting to be on a first name basis with them!

The final straw came when the emergency crew had to respond to 911 calls about
Arthur on two separate incidents on the same day—in the morning Arthur had somehow
caused a gas explosion in his kitchen, and that same afternoon cut down a tree with a
chainsaw, felling it directly on top of his daughter Shelly’s car while she was still in it!
Shelly knew she would have to place her father in a facility where he would be kept from
danger, no matter how much it broke her heart.

As the story progresses, Arthur is sucked into a nightmare world where he loses
all of his rights and possessions. I found this story and its unique topic very entertaining,
as well as a warning to all of us as we age, or have to deal with aging relatives. This story
reminds us why we must take care in making choices concerning living arrangements and
legal guardianship of person and property before it becomes necessary. These choices
should be made individually and not affected by the whim of relatives or an impersonal
court hearing.

Howard Jones has created a great story full of unexpected twists and turns, funny
at times, and terrifying at others. The book exposes the pitfalls of aging, and how events
can be manipulated and misinterpreted with disastrous results. I think you will enjoy
following Arthur’s experiences, and thrilled with the ending!

“Elder Affairs—Silenced” is self-published and not available through the bigger
bookstores, but is available here in Crawfordville at Tattered Pages Books & Espresso
Bar, or directly from E. Howard Jones, P. O. Box 277, St. Marks, FL 32355. You can
also get the book by going to http://elliotfiction.com, or email at sales@elliotifiction.com The book sells at the very
affordable price of $9.95.
Come in soon for a great coffee!