A Dime a Dozen
Warning: This review contains a spoiler for those who did not read book 2 in this series, so if you haven’t already read the first two books in the series, avoid the remainder of the reviews until you get caught up!
My search for clean cozy mysteries led me to Christian author Mindy Starns Clark, author of the Million Dollar Mystery series. The series features Callie Webber, a private investigator who works for a mysterious millionaire, founder and benefactor of the J.O.S.H.U.A Foundation, who enjoys giving away his money. Her job is to investigate the charities he chooses to be certain they are worthy of his grants.
This particular assignment is different from the others, though. One of the first grants she had ever given away was to the parents of her late husband, Bryan. To honor Bryan after his death, they founded an organization to assist migrant workers. Now she was returning to see how the program had progressed, and to decide if they were eligible for a much larger grant. This would be the first time she had seen them in several years and would also be her first visit back to the cabin she and Bryan had shared. How would she handle the memories?
The charity is located in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. M.O.R.E. coordinates the efforts of a variety of smaller charities, so there are many aspects of the program to evaluate. It soon becomes clear that, as special as the program and its founders are, there are some serious problems that must be investigated before Callie can approve the money. Working with her friend Harriet, she begins her investigation, but is sidetracked by the puzzling disappearance of a migrant worker, the vandalism targeting his wife, suspicions that the young mother has committed some crimes that might hurt the charity’s approval process, a dead body or two, and hundreds of memories. And in the background of it all is the growing relationship with her boss, Tom.
This was my favorite book in the five-book series. The Smoky Mountain location, coupled with a glimpse into the challenging world of migrant workers, create a fascinating background for an exciting and challenging mystery. Callie’s steps toward a new romance, mingled with her need to come to terms with her late husband’s death, give the mystery a depth seldom seen in either mysteries or romances.
LDS evaluation:
The only real challenge in this book is that Tom and Callie spend the night together—-but only talking. He arrives in the evening and they stay together, talking and learning about each other in Callie’s home, building an in-person relationship from the telephone and email relationship they had shared for such a long time. This is actually told in flashback, and is a follow-up to the end of the previous book.
This is, of course, a religious mystery, but is not written by an LDS author. However, the religion is not specific to any denomination and is generally compatible with our own. As with the other books, this is a story Latter-day Saints can feel very comfortable reading.
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