Book Review: Death of a Garage Sale Newbie

I was really hoping for great things from Death of a Garage Sale Newbie, by Sharon Dunn. I had noticed the title somewhere on the Internet. My library didn't have it. I ended up purchasing it on Amazon.

I have to admit, I always feel reluctant to write a bad review of a book. I imagine my own written offering being shot down by someone else. It would be hard to read the criticism. And yet, if I really hope to improve my writing, criticism is a genuine path to follow.

This book held a great deal of promise. It suggested the story of four unlikely women, drawn together by their love of a bargain and their enjoyment of garage sales, who find themselves swept into a mystery when one of them makes a casual purchase and discovers something sinister. Sounds like a book right up my alley!

The story itself was good. I wanted to know what had happened to the woman, which purchase had triggered events leading to her death, and who was responsible for the heinous, senseless crime. There were red herrings, side plot lines, suspense and sympathetic characters.

I think I was mostly put off by the forced references to Christianity. Perhaps the author felt compelled to mention her Christian beliefs so that it could be marketed for a Christian audience. However, I prefer to read books where the story comes first. If Christian perspectives and attitudes shine through, then that is a plus (a natural flavoring of a novel written by an author who happens to be a Christian, rather than a "Christian" novel written by a Christian who happens to write books).

At times, the characters' actions threw me for a loop. After Ginger has returned home in a panic from being chased by a suspicious automobile, the husband chooses to insert his dissatisfaction with their marriage, accusing Ginger of failing to support him. I wasn't sure how that could come up in discussion in the midst of that chaos. This characterisation would have been far more logical if the dialogue had followed a phone conversation where the wife verbally belittled her husband's "tinkering" in the garage.

The characters could have been more rounded as well. The college age character is an intelligent cheerleader from a driven family who supposedly bounces continuously and only wants to "marry a cool Christian guy and stay home with her kids." There is a foreign "trophy" girlfriend who speaks broken English and a lawyer who practices environmental law while pining for his down-home Montana roots of dirt-bike riding with his father.

Still, I read clear to the end. It was a mystery that held my attention enough for that. I even embraced the author's theme that bargain hunting is a noble calling, but can, like anything, be taken to extremes that become unhealthy. My greatest wish was that the valuable messages/spiritual truths had been cloaked so much in well-written story that there was no need to tell the reader what those messages were.

Disclaimer: As a new member of Amazon Associates, I will receive a small fee for any traffic driven to Amazon which results in a sale. My primary goal is ALWAYS to turn others on to reading (not to make a profit).