Part of Rose Gardner Mystery
First published 2013
Rose Gardner lives in Henryetta, Arkansas, and trouble has a way of finding her. A televangelist rolls into town and stirs things up, but what really snags Rose's attention is the old woman who turns up dead just down her street. The Henryetta police call it natural causes and close the case. Rose doesn't buy it. Neither does Mildred, her eighty-two-year-old neighbor and president of the Busy Body Club, who becomes an unlikely partner in poking around where authorities won't. Rose is already stretched thin. She and her sister Violet are in the middle of launching a nursery together, even as Violet's marriage to Mike falls apart around them. On top of that, Rose is dodging Joe's wealthy, well-connected family, who are pushing hard for a meeting she isn't ready for. Then there's Mason Deveraux III, Fenton County's new assistant DA, who keeps turning up in her path. Rose juggles a suspicious death, a crumbling business partnership, romantic pressure, and a pushy socialite family all at once. The chaos is ordinary for her. The stakes this time feel anything but.
Genres: romance, american-fiction, mystery, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction
Vibes: charming, fast-paced, humorous, quirky, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family, love-triangle, unlikely-partnership
Setting: Henryetta, Arkansas, Fenton County
Period: contemporary
360 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace
Content warnings: death, murder