Time to Retire - Softcover

Striving for new heights on the literary landscape, following careers in radio, commercial banking, and real estate, Jon Foyt began writing novels with his late wife, Lois. He holds a degree in journalism and an MBA from Stanford and a second masters in historic preservation from the University of Georgia. A marathon runner (60 completed) and prostate cancer survivor, Jon was born when Herbert Hoover was in the White House and is active in an adult retirement community near San Francisco.

Clarion Review Time to Retire Jon Foyt This delightful look at the sinister side of retirement communities features an array of enticing characters. A sleuthing journalist discovers that things aren’t that sunny for the seniors at the Sunset Gardens retirement community. Jon Foyt shines a light on retirement issues and offers social commentary on the public attitude toward seniors in Time to Retire, a delightful mystery. Sunset Gardens is suddenly not as bucolic a setting as it seems. When Heinrich Gossard is found hanging from a tree, Sunrise Sentinel journalist Willy Herbst, almost a senior himself, is tasked with writing a piece that focuses on the suicide. As Herbst investigates, he discovers that beneath the glamorous advertising, the apparent joy of the community members, and the propriety and altruism of the board, lies malaise and mischief that is tarnishing the golden years of many seniors in the community. Foyt’s array of enticing characters that serve on the Sunset Gardens board are faced with unique situations that put them in need of a kickback from their position on the board. Foyt’s observations of social values are cleverly woven into the story and reveal society’s lack of interest in senior citizens, to the point of plotting their eradication by crop dusting the garden areas of the senior centers. Foyt offers some delicious descriptions, such as when he describes Herbst’s writing: “His writing peculiarities, Willy felt, made his personality opaque, cloaking his mien in an enigmatic shroud.” Overall, Foyt’s writing is smooth and enticing, making it easy to move past minor hiccups. When a resident asks Gossard’s companion, Dominique about his suspicions about board members: “Did he think you or he would be in danger?” Dominique replies: “Yes. Once he stated strongly that Board members were pursuing their own interests...” Time to Retire is a charming and alluring look at the not-so-sunny aspects of the “golden years” of retirement. Maya Fleischmann