You never know what lurks among the treasures hidden in an old trunk that has been locked for thirty years. The Trunk Doctor, aka Jix Haynes, discovers a decades-old diary in a customer’s heirloom trunk. The ever curious Jix finds more excitement than she bargained for as time-worn secrets turn to real and present danger in her own life. As she sifts through the dreams, wishes, and fears of a teenage girl, mystery and danger pave a path leading to a face-to-face confrontation with a cold-blooded killer.
This book was so much fun to read. I love that all ages can read this and have fun as well.
The author, Sara McFerrin, being an antique trunk refurbisher herself, decided to create, The Trunk Doctor Mysteries series with this book called ‘What She Saw’.
The main character, Jix Haynes and her husband are the trunk refurbishers in the story. Jix’s best friend is Abby Gale who is an antique collector and sales person.
The story starts off with Jix, receiving a trunk to refurbish from a client who wants to hand it down to his daughter as a graduation present. The only problem, there is no key and it hasn’t been opened in 30+ years. After some prying without damage, the trunk is finally opened by a locksmith.
Jix loads the trunk in her truck to go home but stops off by her best friend to check out this antique trunk and it’s belongings together. As the both of them are exploring the many areas and drawers of this trunk, Abby Gale decides to make a list of everything inside so it’s organized for the owner. Inside they find some antique shoes, gloves with a key inside, a locket of hair tied with a ribbon, a diary which they realize the key in the gloves belongs to, among other treasures. All the items are stored in a box but Jix decides to read the diary because it seems mysterious with a few sentences she skimmed over.
Once home, Jix reads the diary which is dated daily from the 1950s. However, the pages suddenly becomes blank and there’s no more writing. She finds this odd and decides to ask the client for information of who this trunk originally belonged to.
The client, Richard related to Jix how this trunk belonged to a woman named Bethany who suddenly went missing. The last anyone seen her was at her school picnic. Apparently there was a boating accident, one girl drowned and Bethany’s body was never found. They searched the lake for quite some time with no luck of finding her. Her mother, so distraught gave the trunk to Bethany’s best friend, Amelia and moved away. Jix finds this odd as she learns that Bethany could not swim and had no life jacket on. Why would a non swimmer put herself in such a risqué situation?
Jix’s mind kicks into sleuth mode. She explains this to her husband who wants nothing to do with her curiosity shenanigans. (The conversations between Jix and her husband are hilarious😂). Her husband had to bail her out once for her Sherlock behavior. He wants nothing to do with anything she’s curious about and wants her to stay out of trouble.
Jix with the help of her best friend’s husband, finds out there is more to this diary than meets the eye. There is a secret compartment that no one even knew about and when he opens it, out falls a paper with many codes listed. (He knew how to operate this diary because as a kid, he’d steal his sister’s diary and read her secrets). As Jix studies this list of numbers she is puzzled. This could be codes to anything. As everyone (Jix, her husband and Abby Gale and her husband) is thinking about these numbers, Abby Gale’s husband realizes the there’s one common two numbers that appear in every code, he suggest that maybe it’s the year since it matches the year the diary was written in and maybe the other numbers are the month and date. They decide to test his theory. Low and behold, as they begin looking up these numbers as dates, they discover one word on each page in a different color ink. They begin writing down each word any suddenly they read, “I saw Roselyn held under water by”.
By who?! They find out through research and talking to people that during that boating accident, the one person who died was Roselyn and she drowned. Is this diary saying Roselyn was possibly murdered? Did Bethany witness this? Is this why Bethany has been missing? Was she murdered too? Bethany’s best friend, Amelia, died shortly after Bethany went missing. Could Amelia have been murdered too?
Sherlock Jix and her partner in crime, Abby Gale, decide to report this to the police and still do some poking around the neighborhood and questioning some residents on their own. The adventures begin! Now you MUST read this book and find out what really happened in the 1950s on that day the school seniors were on a picnic???
You will laugh at these two crusaders and their investigative ways. You will find out how it all sorts itself out nicely AND you will even get a shocker that I sure didn’t see coming!!! Well done Sara McFerrin!! Very enjoyable, a very fast read and I sure can’t wait to read more of The Trunk Doctor series.
Jix and Abby Gayle are two new cozy mystery characters I love! In What She Saw, the ladies are involved in solving a decades old mystery...all brought about when Jix finds a diary and note in an antique trunk she is restoring.
Sara McFerrin's characters are always well-written and the mystery is one you can't stop reading! Humor is always found in the author's books and I had to grin over the "catnip scones"episode. The supporting characters add to the story and are just as interesting as the main characters. I love them all!
This was a fun read. I enjoyed the tenacity of the main character Jix in wanting to solve a cold case mystery & unravel the truth. It was an adventure & was also a quick read. I enjoyed the story and the ending was quite the surprise.
This book was a good quick read. I enjoyed it however I wish there was more mystery to it and i also wish it took on a more darker tone then it had. However that being said I did enjoy the book quite a bit. And I would recomended it to anyone who likes this kind of genre.
What She Saw is a wonderfully written Trunk Doctor Mystery. Jix Haynes is the Trunk Doctor. She restores old trunks to like new condition. A particular trunk, one where the customer paid extra to have moved to the front of the line is filled with old family heirlooms, but the most intriguing thing in the trunk is a diary. Jix starts reading the diary and realizes she has come upon an old long held secret, and a wrong that needs to be corrected. As a Jix and her friend Abby Gayle start to delve into the mystery and story within the diary the more twists and turns the story takes.
Sara McFerrin has written a great mystery with twists and turns you don’t see coming. It’s beautifully written and an easy read. Enjoyable and entertaining all the way through. You can’t help but love the characters Sara has created.
I truly enjoyed this book. I recommend this book and series!
First, let me say I'm not a big fan of cozy mysteries, but Sara McFerrin does them well. This one is far superior to her Curiosity Club series, which I read three of.
Let's just say that I find it hard to suspend disbelief on a woman (or two of them in this case) being sleuths while cops mainly take a back seat.
Still, it is a very enjoyable and entertaining read and Ms. McFerrin is a very good writer!
If you like a light light mystery, you will enjoy this one.
Contrary to what I thought, a Trunk Doctor repairs and restores old trunks. Innocuous you'd think, right? You'd be wrong.
Enter Jixson Haynes. Jix and her good friend Abby just can't resist a mystery. Watching them as they discover a diary in Jix' latest commission, and are compelled to investigate what seems to point to the diarist's tragic demise, makes for an entertaining read. A bit of mayhem, a surprise or two, a madcap Keystone Cop-like chase, and a cast of characters as inviting and endearing as is Jix herself.
I read this first "episode" of the Trunk Doctor series in one afternoon. It's THAT good! Well written, witty, unconventional - before reading McFerrin's book I didn't even know being a trunk doctor was a "thing"! Bet you didn't either!
I understand Book Two comes out shortly. Do yourself a favour and read this one first. While it can stand alone quite nicely, you won't want to miss one minute of the adventures with this dynamic duo. I heartily recommend this great read!
This is my first book by Sara McFerrin and most definitely will not be my last. Her writing style is wonderful. The characters in this book are so well formed and so likable, most of them, that you will feel like you know them all.
A family with so many secrets and hidden agendas. The more prominent family taking advantage of the younger girls. One man holds all the cards it seems. But for how long? Will he get away with what he’s done forever or is he really the guilty party in this mystery? Could there be a vengeful wife involved?
Jix restores things, mostly old trunks and has one that holds so many secrets. She goes on an adventure with her best friend Abby Gayle to find out what exactly the hidden message is in a diary she finds in an old trunk that has been given to her to restore. This particular trunk is very important and she gets paid more to move it ahead of the rest. It holds many secrets as does the family who brought it to Jix to be restored.
There are many twists and turns in this book to keep you guessing and turning the pages until the end. Things you won’t see coming and dangers in so many places. You won’t know exactly who to trust but you will certainly be trying to guess. You will love the characters in this book and will love to hate a couple. Most are good decent people and some are out for what they can get no matter who they hurt.
I throughly enjoyed this book and look forward to more by this author.
I give this book a big 5 stars. For originality, mystery, characters, settings, keeping me on edge and how it all came together. I honestly loved this book and recommend it to all my book loving friends. It’s a quick read that you will truly enjoy. I sure did.
This is the first book I've read by this author. It was enjoyable, although I did take exception to the term "girls" being used throughout the book. Also, there were abrupt changes in subject and references to characters who had yet to be introduced. Overall, I would give it 3 1/2 stars.