Harriet is a seventy plus widow who moves from her home in Pennsylvania to California to live with her son and his wife. She is always getting in one adventure or another and this time she has been convinced to invest in a gold mine lease. Harriet Beamer Strikes Gold Joyce Magnin Zondervan August 2013 Harriet Beamer Strikes Gold by Joyce Magnin is a most delightful story about a seventy plus widow and all the adventures she has and all the scrapes she gets into. Harriet is living in Pennsylvania but her son, Henry, convinces her to move to Grass Valley, California to live with him and his wife, Prudence. Harriet has reservations about moving but she and Humphrey, her basset hound that loves donuts, make the move across the country. Shortly after arriving in California, Harriet learns that she is to be a grandma and that a “Grammy suite” is going to be added to the house. Harriet is almost as excited about the suite as she is about the expected grandchild for now she will have a place to display her enormous collection of salt and pepper shakers. Harriet is always getting involved in one adventure or another and she gets drawn into the life of a young girl after listening to her explain that her dad has a gold mine to lease but he needs money right away. Harriet falls completely and gives money to the man but she decides to keep the venture from her son. When her best friend, Martha, comes to visit, she has doubts about the mine and convinces Harriet to go to the police. Both women are fond of the man's daughter and do everything they can to help her. All the characters were very well developed and they came to life as I read the book and I felt as if they were friends of mine. Descriptions of scenes were so realistic that I could see them clearly in my mind and even see myself in the middle of what was going on. There was even a good bit of suspense in the story. Prudence has had two miscarriages and at one point it seemed that she was going to have a third. There was a surprise when they learned there would be twins. The biggest suspense was if Harriet would ever see a speck of gold and would Martha decide to sell her home in Pennsylvania and move to California? I do not want to spoil the ending but I will say that it is a happy ending. I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoys a good Christian story and especially one that has an adventurous female senior citizen as the main character.