Review: A Penny for Your Thoughts
Book: A Penny for Your Thoughts
Author: Mindy Starns Clark
It was an unusual assignment for Callie Webber, an investigator who checks out the charities that applied for grants from her wealthy boss. No need to investigate this time—just hand over the check. The charity, Feed the Need, belongs to a friend of the owner of J.O.S.H.U.A Foundation, owned and financed by her mysterious boss, Tom. She’s a bit uneasy, but it’s his money, after all. Unfortunately, while she’s putting together the paperwork, the founder of Feed the Need is murdered, which naturally puts a halt to the process while Callie tries to find out if the murder is related to the charity.
A Penny for Your Thoughts is the first book in a five-book series about Callie, a young widow still struggling to overcome her grief at the death of her husband, who was killed by a drunk driver manning a boat. This job is the perfect medicine, allowing her to combine her skill as a licensed private investigator, and her Christian love of helping others. However, when she is ordered by the police to stay in the area because she found the body, she is invited to stay with the wife of the murdered man. Living in a home filled with new grief forces her to confront her own unresolved sorrow. At Tom’s request, she pours her energy into figuring out who killed Wendell Smythe. Is Feed the Need really what it is supposed to be? She has to find out, at any cost. After all, it’s her job to make sure the grant money goes to a worthy cause.
There’s a common belief that faith and a good novel can’t coexist. Too often, the message becomes more important than the story, and religious fiction sometimes gets bogged down by pious paper dolls and preachy sermons. Mindy Starns Clark proves that it is absolutely possible to tell a heart-stopping story with a spiritual heroine. The book has morals, prayer, faith and missionary work, but the story is the star of the show. This is a powerful mystery that just happens to feature a religious detective. And really, what genre is better suited to religious fiction than mysteries, where good is always supposed to triumph over evil?
This novel has every element good mysteries demand—complicated characters who get inside your skin, tense plotting, a hint of forthcoming romance, and a plot that keeps you reading too late into the night. My own disappointment with the Million Dollar Mystery series is that it only had five books in it! Callie was hard to let go when the series ended.
If at all possible, read these books in order. Although each of the first three books stand alone, there is a continuing storyline that is best explored without knowing in advance what is coming up.
Latter-day Saint Evaluation: There was nothing in the entire book that needs mention. Callie is not LDS, but her values are very high. There is no swearing, no sex, nothing at all that would make you uncomfortable. Callie’s religion is not named, and the spiritual discussions are very comfortable. It was a joy to read this book without having to worry about what might unexpectedly occur. You could give this book to your teenagers without qualm. It is easily one of the best mystery series I have read and I intend to keep up with all of the author’s future writings.