Methuselah's Children

Methuselah's Children is a science fiction novel by the author Robert A Heinlein.

Another golden oldie from Heinlein. Through a selective breeding program, the Howard Foundation has managed to breed a much longer living human. Today there are about a hundred thousand people (The Howard Families) who can expect to live to be at least two hundred. So what happens when the public finds out that there are people that have a much longer life than they can ever expect? Well, they will want the secret of long life, of course! The problem in Methuselah's Children is that there's no secret to uncloak (you get born in to the program). No special treatment. Moreover, the (short-lived) people won't believe it! They want a longer life. They want the secret, even if it means that they'll have to kill the Howard Families to extract the secret from them. In steps Lazarus Long, Howard Family member and jack of all trades…

Superbly written and fast paced action from an old master. The musings over how it must be to have a long life and how to be very old are there, but they are well incorporated and don't ruin the flow of the story. I'm not quite sure but I think that this is the first Heinlein story featuring Lazarus Long.