I've read and loved most of the stories written by Caroline B. Cooney so I had high expectations for this one, but this book didn't quite meet my expectations, unfortunately. While I liked some of the book, there was some that seemed to move a bit slow and I had to push through to finish reading it, but that's just me.
This had some interesting parts, plot and ideas with the main character, Freddy and his challenges with his lifestyle choices and trying to figure his life out and see if he wanted to or could change for the better for his family and grandmother who he tries to take care of and visit while she's in a home. Freddy is the one who ends up with the brunt of responsibility for his grandmother simply because he lives the closest and his siblings live in other states and always want him to grow up instead of playing/creating with beads. Freddy has some risky lifestyle choices and behavior and finds himself trying to hide from a person he got involved with and when someone is murdered in the nursing home his grandmother is in, he worries about if his poor choices could have lead to the death of this person in the home and if his grandmother is in danger. There are other interesting characters throughout the story and another main playing character that has their role concerning finding out who the killer is in the end.
If you like murder mysteries, Caroline B. Cooney, and such, then keep this on your radar. You might enjoy it more than I did.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for letting me read and review this story. All opinions and thoughts are my own. ( )

The Grandmother Plot interested me because The Girl on the Milk Carton, also written by Caroline Cooney, was one of my favorite books as a young girl. Unfortunately, Caroline and I did not age well together. The Grandmother Plot was a well written book, with a slow but interesting plot, it just wasn't for me.

The main character is Freddy. Freddy has made a lot of poor life choices. He smokes a lot of weed, makes bongs, and hangs out with his grandma a few times a week. He is involved in a lot of unsavory activities, and most of the plot was spent on Freddy's issues. Freddy felt rather one dimensional to me. I went into The Grandmother Plot looking more for a murder mystery, and less for a drama about someone's poor life choices. If you enjoy light mysteries mixed with drama, then check The Grandmother Plot out, you may end up enjoying it more than I. Thank you to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen Press for my ARC copy to read and review. ( )

The Grandmother Plot by Caroline B. Cooney is a book that I was prepared to really like and enjoy. I had read Before She Was Helen a few months back and got such a kick out of the writing and the characters. This one is the story of Freddy, a young man lacking in ambition in most things but he is totally devoted to his grandmother. He has been living in her house since she was admitted to a memory nursing home because of her advancing dementia. Most days she does not recognize Freddy but he persists in spending quality time with her. When a patient in the room next to his grandmother’s is murdered , Freddy’s life becomes more complicated. This book has the potential to be a great one but it stalls halfway through, leaving me not caring for the characters or what happens next. There are too many details that interfere with the smooth flow of the outcome and several characters add nothing to the plot. This is strictly my own opinion and I am sure that The Grandmother Plot will appeal to many. Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press, NetGalley and the author for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Although I loved the quirky characters, I felt Cooney’s writing to be stilted. Freddy, a glassblower now specializing in bong pipes draws the short straw and is living in his grandmother’s house while visiting her every day in her memory care facility. The death of a patient is ruled homicide and Freddy is a suspect in the murder. I found the story to be slow-going as well as tedious. It is not Cooney’s best writing. ( )

The Grandmother Plot is a warm and delightful mystery featuring Freddy, a rather hapless glass artist who does lampwork, not glassblowing, and he surely wants you to know the difference. He is an artisan, but like many of his kind, he makes ends meet making bongs for pot-smokers. The story opens with Freddy heading off to visit his grandmother in the memory care home. He sees an enforcer for a man who has asked him to launder money through his sales at craft fairs. He really does not want to do this.

Freddy is a sweet guy even if he doesn’t look like a success on paper. He’s living in his grandmother’s house without a steady job, supporting himself by selling glass beads and paraphernalia. No girlfriend, no job, no prospects. But Freddy is all heart and he visits his grandmother several times a week even though he often thinks he is someone else. He is full of empathy and compassion for the other patients, as well, though watching people lose themselves to Alzheimer’s seems horrific to him.

But one of the residents was murdered and the police seem willing to suspect everyone, even Freddy’s grandmother and then, even Freddy. Luckily, Freddy has a partner in crime-solving, Mrs. Maples, whom he calls Mapes. She is as intrepid as Miss Marple, but not quite so quick, though she can run circles around the amiable, but thick, Freddy.

Caroline B. Cooney excels at creating characters you cannot help but love in cozy mysteries that are rich with humanity. It would be easy to miss that The Grandmother Plot breaks the first rule of The Detection Club’s Ten Commandments. (Don’t click if you hate spoilers.) Aside from that, though, the book is full of possible suspects with so many motives you will struggle to guess what is going on.

Cooney is creating a niche market in senior cozies with The Grandmother Plot and Before She Was Helen. Her compassion and writing about the people living, working, and visiting at a memory care home is manifest. I think many people will find themselves reflected in these pages.

The Grandmother Plot at Poisoned Pen Press | Sourcebooks
Caroline B. Cooney author site
My review of Before She Was Helen

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