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Helen Bradley, a retired police officer and unofficial private investigator, receives a phone call from a distraught woman who identifies herself as Irene and pleads with Helen for help in solving her husband's murder. Helen meets her at midnight at Waterfront Park to discuss the case. Just as Irene starts to hand Helen a disk with supporting evidence, a masked man shoots both women and takes the disk. Helen sustains an injury to her right shoulder, but Irene fares much worse. Later she calls Helen from her hospital room saying that she is being poisoned. Her family dismisses her pleas as delusions caused by Alzheimer's Disease. Helen is shocked because Irene seemed quite sane.
Irene's late husband, Dr. Andrew Kincaid, was a prominent gerontologist, founder of Edgewood Estates, a multimillion-dollar complex for the elderly, and Kincaid Laboratories, a research laboratory specializing in anti-aging medications and Alzheimer's research. The Kincaid family, which includes several doctors, checks Irene out of the hospital when she gets an infection and takes her to Edgewood for "better care." Irene worsens rapidly, making one more plea to Helen for help before dying.
When Helen checks into Edgewood to take part in the rehabilitation program for her shoulder and to do some inside investigation, she receives assistance from her son, Jason McGrady, homicide officer, and her granddaughter, Jenny, a new employee at Edgewood. After more deaths and more attempts on her own life, Helen is convinced that she is on to something.
There are many questions raised by her investigation and there is a wide range of suspects. Can Helen, Jenny, and Jason uncover the truth before it's too late? The killer has become very adept at covering his or her tracks. Why isn't the police force more cooperative, and why is the medical examiner so evasive? What about Dr. Paul Kincaid's being an advocate for assisted suicide and the fact that residents have named Edgewood Estates as the beneficiary on their life insurance policies? Is there anything unethical in the research laboratory?
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is both thought-provoking and frightening when one considers the helplessness of the elderly and how easily their complaints are dismissed as unfounded. Although the events in this book may seem a little farfetched from reality, it does remind us to be alert to the care our own loved ones receive.
Stephanie C. Strunk is a reviewer in Eubank, KY.
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