By J.C. Patterson. Special to the Clarion-Ledger Sunday print edition (September 22)

Over the years, Nevada Barr fans have grown to love the author’s sleuthing park ranger Anna Pigeon. However, in Barr’s new novel, What Rose Forgot, the protagonist is a sixty-eight year-old woman with memory loss who wakes up next to a tree in the middle of the night. Wearing only a hospital gown, cold, disoriented and very thirsty, Rose Dennis is not her usual self. But what was her usual self?

Rose is discovered by two teens who call Longwood Nursing Home’s Memory Care Unit. She’s greeted by very stern staff members, two big orderlies and her 13 year-old step-granddaughter Mel. Seems like Mel is the only one who really cares for her “Gigi.”

Back inside Longwood, before her medication is administered, Rose realizes one thing: she doesn’t belong here…and she must escape for good this time.

In a daring and slightly crazy plan, Rose breaks out of Longwood. But this time, she knows where to go. Her stepson Daniel lives nearby. Rose hides out in Mel’s old playhouse, only to be discovered by her very clever step-granddaughter. Let’s hide out from the adults, Rose begs. They may be part of the conspiracy.

With the aid of an Uber driver, Rose revisits and breaks into her home. Boxes from the move still lie about. Fragments of Rose’s memories start to resurface. She and husband Harley recently changed addresses from New Orleans to Charlotte, North Carolina to be near Harley’s granddaughter, Mel. Something bad happened to Harley, but Rose can’t quite remember what.

Mel Reminds “Gigi” that she was a lucrative painter and a published poet. Rose dressed in artsy, wild fashions, the kind that would seem normal in New Orleans. What contributed to the decline and fall of Rose Dennis’s sanity? Why was she in a memory care unit, her mind fogged with drugs?

More questions come grippingly fast as Rose battles for her life inside her home and on the rooftop. Someone wants Rose permanently erased from memory.

With the aid of Mel, Mel’s best friend Royal and Rose’s sister Marion, a reclusive computer hacker, Rose plots her revenge. Adding in questionable ex-con Eddie Martinez only makes matters weirder.

Is her family plotting against Rose? With two unscrupulous stepsons, a fiery ex-daughter-in-law and a sneaky ex-wife, the bets are wide open. And then there’s the staff at the memory care unit. Several seniors have died there after very short stays. Could Rose’s new friend Chuck be next on the hit list?

Get ready for a reading romp that only Nevada Barr could deliver. Told in her campy tone with wisecracks and barbs, What Rose Forgot reads like Nancy Drew meets The Keystone Cops with digital access. Barr shines a light on nursing home abuse, family greed and the bonds that bring young and old together.

The author, formerly a Clinton, Mississippi resident, divides her time between Oregon and New Orleans. Rose shares so many of Nevada Barr’s traits, it’s easy to channel character and creator. I missed a National Park visit with Anna Pigeon, but a romp with Rose Dennis is fresh and exciting, even for an old lady with memory loss.

J.C. Patterson is recently retired from WLBT and the author of the Big Easy Dreamin’ series.

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