Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

November 13, 2017
Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree, the star of Graves’s Home Repair Is Homicide series (A Bat in the Belfrey, etc.), is back in this charming series launch. Jake and her friend Ellie White have opened a chocolate-themed bake shop, Chocolate Moose, in Eastport, Maine. Business is off to a promising start when the Eastport Coast Guard Station orders a dozen chocolate cherry cheesecakes for a fundraiser. But three days before the cheesecakes are due to be delivered, Jake finds the body of health inspector Matt Muldoon in the kitchen, his head plunged into a pot of chocolate. Matt was on a crusade to shut down Chocolate Moose, and the pastry needle that killed him is covered with Ellie’s fingerprints. Since she has no alibi and her dislike for the man is well known, the friends must uncover the real killer before Ellie is arrested. Red herrings abound, and while some plot developments strain credulity, the characters are appealing, and down east Maine is a delightful place to visit. Graves fans will enjoy catching up with old friends. Agent: Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Literary Agency.

November 15, 2017
Jacobia Tiptree (Knockdown, 2011, etc.) is back with a new job in a new location but the same old nose for murder.Trading in her hammer for a spatula, Jake and her best friend, Ellie White, have opened a spanking new shop on the main drag of Eastport, Maine. Just next door to Second Hand Rose, a resale shop run by always-trendy Miss Halligan, the Chocolate Moose has been a success since the day Jake and Ellie hung their big wooden sign out front. Even the discovery of cranky Matt Muldoon face down in a vat of melted chocolate does little to stem the tide of customers. Jake and Ellie move temporarily to the kitchen of her massive old Victorian while police chief Bob Arnold checks the Moose for clues, much to the annoyance of Jake's stepmom, Bella Diamond, who's afraid all that baking will mess up her sparkling clean counters. So as soon as the crime scene tape comes off, they plunge back in. After all, they've promised to create a dozen of their signature chocolate cherry cheesecakes to donate to the town's Fourth of July auction, held each year to pay for the fireworks. And even though it's not certain that there will be fireworks, since a hurricane sits poised for a direct hit on Eastport, Jake and Ellie want to keep busy, because Bob's made it clear that as soon as the fundraiser is over, he's ready to arrest Ellie for Muldoon's murder. As her handywoman heroine reinvents herself in chocolate, Graves adds enough physical danger to her comfy tale of small-town mayhem to move it into the somewhat oxymoronic range of the cozy thriller.Gives new currency to the phrase "baking up a storm."

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February 1, 2018

Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree and her best friend, Ellie, have opened a bake shop, The Chocolate Moose, in Eastport, ME. While they're in the midst of baking a dozen cheesecakes to raise money for the town's Fourth of July fireworks, Jake stumbles upon the body of the health inspector. Ellie, who hated the man, tops the suspect list. With a hurricane heading their way, and all that baking to finish, the duo turn into amateur sleuths. It's an investigation that will find Jake shot at, chased by a car, stalked, and nearly drowned. Then, it gets worse. VERDICT After an absence of five years, Jake Tiptree from the "Home Repair Is Homicide" series (A Bat in the Belfry) returns to kick off a new series that revolves around the bakery. Fans of Graves's earlier series or Lea Wait's Maine mysteries will appreciate this cozy with a strong sense of place.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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