Knockdown

February 21, 2011
In chapter one of Graves's unsettling 14th Home Repair Is Homicide mystery (after 2009's Crawlspace), Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree is scraping paint off the front steps of her 1823 Federal house in Eastport, Maine, when a guy in his 20s on a bicycle rides by yet again and gives her a dirty look. Soon after, the man returns and this time gets off his bike and accuses Jake of some unspecified crime. "Murder will out," he declares, quoting "that famous guy's play." After recovering from this unpleasant encounter, Jake begins to plan for the upcoming Fourth of July celebration with her family, but an e-mail message from "Nemesis"—"Beware the Fourth"—sets her back on edge. Memorable characters and helpful household tips enhance a dark cozy that will keep the reader turning the pages until the surprising and dramatic conclusion.

February 15, 2011

It's hard to enjoy the Fourth of July celebrations in your lovely Maine community when you're the target of a psychopath bent on making you pay for your past misdeeds.

Happily remarried, Jacobia Tiptree spends her time working on her huge old house. The house isn't haunted, but her past is. Back when Jake was married to a wealthy, unfaithful New York brain surgeon, she managed money for some unsavory people. After she refused a loan to an addicted gambler on the fringes of the mob and he was unable to pay, he vanished. Now his son wants revenge. Jake takes the threatening notes in stride; it's not until people start dying that she and her family and friends really take notice. Her son, who's cleaned up his act and moved back in with her, becomes part of the team searching for the putative killer. The town is so densely packed with holiday visitors that it's hard to find a young man who wants to stay hidden and whose only noticeable feature is protruding ears. Jake is forced to play cat and mouse with a killer whose mental state continues to deteriorate.

Although the cozy, down-home Maine feeling is there, the breathless ending can't make up for the lack of suspense fans expect from the best of Graves' Home Repair series (Crawlspace, 2009, etc.).

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 1, 2011

Jake's (Crawlspace) New York past comes back to haunt her in Maine.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2011
Jacobia Jake Tiptrees past comes back to haunt her in this cat-and-mouse tale of revenge. Now living in Eastport, Maine, shes hard at work painting her porch when a young man on a bicycle rides back and forth in front of her house, staring at her. Soon she begins to receive threatening emails and then discovers that Steven Garner is in town to avenge his fathers murder. Garner thinks Jake, in her former life as a financial advisor to questionable clients, could have saved his fathers life by loaning him money to pay his gambling debts. Although Garners actions become more threatening, he doesnt commit a crime, leading Jake and her family and friends to take matters into their own hands. They attempt to trap him, but the plan goes horribly awry, leaving Jake deep in harms way (though the reader never doubts she will survive, lessening the suspense). As always in Graves appealing series, chapters begin with household tips.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)