I remember reading "The Face on the Milk Carton" when I was young and really enjoyed it. So when I saw Caroline B. Cooney's new novel, my expectations were high; maybe too high.
"The Grandmother Plot" is a murder mystery that was told from the perspectives of two main characters: Freddy, the pothead who makes glass bead/bongs out of his grandma's basement and Laura, an older lady who is the organist of the church and likes to collect all sort of instruments. The common thread is that they both have loved ones with dementia living at the same care home. When one of the residents of the care home died and the police suspected foul play, they teamed up to try to solve this murder mystery. The storyline started off interesting enough, but the story was made up mostly of non-sense internal monologues that just ramble on and on and got nowhere. I was at the 40% mark and I felt like the storyline had not really advanced. So I skipped to the last few chapters to find out what happened and didn't feel like I missed anything in between. Maybe it's just me, It's a really slow burn and I couldn't related to any of the characters and their chaotic thought processes.

I was delighted to have the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Grandmother Plot because I had read and loved Before She Was Helen. Once again, I liked the unique premise of this book. I thought it might be reminiscent of The Thursday Murder Club, which I also liked. My mother is in a memory care unit, and I thought the author did a great job portraying life in memory care and its impact on the family, although this is less entertaining to read about than the retirement community in the previous book. The only issue for me was that I had trouble relating to the protagonist; I'm not interested in glass blowing and found his criminal associates unbelievable. Despite that, I enjoyed the suspense and I flew through the book to see how it was resolved. I will be happy to read Cooney's next novel for adults.