What Rose Forgot

I'm trying out more mystery authors this year, and what reeled me in for this book was the premise and the senior character, something that we don't see enough of. And the cover is definitely dreamy!

The narrative grabbed me easily and I identified with Rose's troubles right away. However, as the clues and action came out, I really found they weren't adding up, and that pulled me out of the story. One month generally doesn't turn for individuals in their sixties into a wasted skeleton, and two days away doesn't restore their powers so entirely. Once she gets to her home, all attempt at reality seems to go out the window in a very literal sense and the roof chase becomes straight comedy. But really, really unlikely after the condition she was in only days before. There were other really unrealistic scenes, also laughably a “try not to breathe at all” followed by two pages of quick dialogue.

I felt like the emotions of the scenarios were really well-written and I absolutely loved the scenes with her and her granddaughter and young Royal. These were the best parts of the book. I also really appreciated that there were zero sex scenes and no innuendo.

Two other things really bugged me. I wasn't aware I was picking up Buddhist fiction. From the 30% point on, the mentions of Rose's Buddhist beliefs grow and grow until they are even applied as needful to the society around her, which takes it well beyond mere characterization. Second, having my entertainment become political is a huge pet peeve, and in this case it was all sorts of politics I dislike, which only made it worse. The politics did not change the plot in any way. They were jibes thrown in for free that only annoyed. Cheap shots at the President, never tasteful no matter who's in office; immigration; Planned Parenthood (I could not make sense, if I tried, of “values” that worry about karma, then donate 1/3 of a fortune to saving dogs and 2/3 to killing babies to get rid of global overpopulation....seriously....that's not a religion of peace). The final thing that irked me was how Rose broke the law repeatedly and had no consequences (even evidently getting away with perjury).

There is some profanity and a couple s* before the halfway mark, which at least was infrequent, but then the bad guys had to show how bad they were by cursing up a blue storm, and first I dislike the swearing and second, that's a lazy way to characterize bad guys.

While I did finish the book, I won't be picking up another Barr mystery.

Thanks to the publisher for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.