"An engaging look at small-town USA"

In Cedar Cove, Dan and Grace Sherman seemed like the perfect married couple having shared thirty-six years together. However, Dan vanished leaving behind Grace and their two daughters with one of them pregnant, all wondering and worrying about him. Grace hired a private detective and the evidence he provided her led her to believe he ran off with another woman.

Five months later, over the objection of her youngest daughter Kelly, who still believes her daddy will come home to see his recently born grandson, Grace files for divorce. Her other adult child Maryellen supports her mother though her father's sudden departure adds credence to her belief that men leave. Still romance, marriage, divorce, and babies fill the community with sadness and joy as life goes on.

204 ROSEWOOD LANE, the second Cedar Cove tale (see 16 LIGHTHOUSE ROAD) is an engaging look at small-town USA by one of the top authors of the genre. The story line provides insight into several townsfolk and not just the Sherman females. Dan's mysterious disappearance, which is mentioned in the first novel, is solved. Though that added some suspense, but not as much as the audience anticipated, as the novel is a relationship cozy not an action mystery. Genre readers will want to visit Debbie Macomber's second trip to Cedar Cove.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 15, 2002

Summary

The second book in Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove series, 204 ROSEWOOD LANE, answers the question that's been puzzling her fans for months: What happened to Dan?

Grace Sherman's husband, Dan, suddenly disappeared with no explanation in the first novel in the series, 16 LIGHTHOUSE ROAD.

Rumors suggested that he'd taken off with a new woman, but even the private investigator Grace hired hasn't been able to find a single clue. ..so far. While Grace and her daughters try to come to terms with Dan's disappearance, her friends in Cedar Cove are her support system and her solace. But life isn't standing still for them these days, either.

Justine, daughter of family court judge Olivia Lockhart, has made a hasty marriage to childhood friend Seth Gunderson. Though they seem to be truly in love, a former suitor is hoping she'll reconsider. He shows up to press his suit just as Justine is feeling discouraged by her husband's long absences as captain of an Alaskan fishing vessel.

Olivia herself is finding the road to romance a bit rocky as the man in her life, Jack Griffin, deals with his son's dismay over his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy. Jack's preoccupation with his son's problems coincides with the reappearance of Olivia's former husband, throwing their future into turmoil, as well.

Everyone in town knows about the marital problems that are worsening between Zach and Rosie Cox, and they wonder if he' s consoling himself with his new assistant - which is what his wife suspects. As they get ready to appear before Judge Lockhart, they need to prepare themselves for a dose of her special kind of justice. ...

Grace's daughters are showing the strain of dealing with their dad's disappearance, too. Kelly, pregnant with her first - and long-awaited - child, is convinced that her father will return in time for the birth. Now she's outraged that her mother is filing for divorce without knowing Dan's fate. For Maryellen, the loss of her father has reconfirmed her lack of faith in the male of the species -just when a new man, a photographer whose work she sells at the gallery she manages, is catching her eye.

Then, just as the reasons behind Dan's disappearance are revealed, a stranger comes to town, books into the local bed and breakfast - and turns up dead the next morning! No one knows who he was or why he came to Cedar Cove.

Everyone in Cedar Cove is talking about babies, marriages, a mysterious death, breakups and reunions - and life goes on in the little town.