The Buck Stops Here
This review is part of my continuing quest to find clean cozy mysteries when it’s Mom’s Free Time. The Buck Stops Here is the final book in the Million Dollar Mystery Series and is a Christian mystery suitable for LDS readers.
Warning: This review contains spoilers (letting secrets out) for previous books. Don’t read it if you haven’t read the rest of the series!
My only complaint about Mindy Starns Clark’s latest book is that it is the last one. It is the final volume in a heart-stopping, heartwarming mystery series. However, she is working on a new writing project, so we just have to exercise the virtue of patience.
In this five-volume series, we have followed Callie Weber through fascinating looks into the world of non-profits. Callie is a private investigator who works for a millionaire. Her boss enjoys giving his money to worthy charities, and Callie’s task is to investigate the programs to be certain they are worthy of the grant. Through the course of the book, her friendship grows for the mysterious boss she had known only through emails and telephone calls, until she realizes she is falling in love. In an earlier book, the two finally meet and begin building a special relationship leading to a proposal. However, at the close of the fourth book, Callie overhears a troubling discussion between her beloved Tom and her dear friend, Eli. Was Tom responsible for the death of her first husband? She knew Tom had a secret background that she had been asked to accept without question, and without knowing. But now his background may have brought about the greatest heartache of her life. Will she still want to marry him if she knows the truth?
Callie knows how to investigate people. It’s her job. Tom cannot answer her questions because he signed a contract of secrecy with the government, but he gives her a mysterious packet that sends her on the most important and frightening investigation of her career…because her happiness depends on the results. The investigation takes her into the darkest secrets of Tom’s family, his career and hidden departments of the federal government. Police records are altered or missing. The family’s charity, which she is investigating as part of her cover, has secrets they aren’t sharing.
And Callie is scared.
Don’t miss this powerful conclusion to one of my very favorite mystery series.
