Genre: Mystery
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When I noticed Denise Grove Swank, an author I never read before, had just come out with the ninth and final book in her Rose Gardner Mystery series, I decided to hunt down the first in the series, Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes, and give it a try. I found it to be a light mystery, enjoyable and exciting, with characters we can root for while realizing that some of it is a little over the top.
Rose works for the DMV during the day and cares for her nasty mother at night. We find out early on that she has "visions" that are rather innocuous until she has a vision of herself dead. She quickly makes a list of twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her death. Imagine her surprise when it is her mean mother who winds up murdered instead. Of course Rose is a prime suspect.
As the story progresses, her house is broken into and someone else she knows is murdered. She has to solve this mystery, AND fulfill her twenty-eight wishes. Her new next door neighbor, Joe, is helpful, and the story has some funny parts. Rose gets into several predicaments and sometimes envies the life her married sister lives, but on the whole she seems to handle herself pretty well. Her search for romance adds the touch these kind of mysteries call for, and the conclusion is somewhat satisfying.
I might try to read the last book in the series to see if Rose and the writing itself have matured, but I am not sure I want to read those books in between.
- Beverly
Publisher - DGS Publishing
Date of Publication - December 19, 2013
Rose works for the DMV during the day and cares for her nasty mother at night. We find out early on that she has "visions" that are rather innocuous until she has a vision of herself dead. She quickly makes a list of twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her death. Imagine her surprise when it is her mean mother who winds up murdered instead. Of course Rose is a prime suspect.
As the story progresses, her house is broken into and someone else she knows is murdered. She has to solve this mystery, AND fulfill her twenty-eight wishes. Her new next door neighbor, Joe, is helpful, and the story has some funny parts. Rose gets into several predicaments and sometimes envies the life her married sister lives, but on the whole she seems to handle herself pretty well. Her search for romance adds the touch these kind of mysteries call for, and the conclusion is somewhat satisfying.
I might try to read the last book in the series to see if Rose and the writing itself have matured, but I am not sure I want to read those books in between.
- Beverly
Publisher - DGS Publishing
Date of Publication - December 19, 2013
