Trap Door

In Graves's popular series, the listener gets home repair tips along with murder. In the first chapter of this book, narrator Lindsay Ellison delivers a compelling look into the thoughts of a hit man. Her taut, cool narration builds tension and enthralls. In the second chapter there is a complete change of pace as we are introduced to a New Yorker transplanted to Eastport, Maine. As the focus shifts to personal issues and home repair projects, Ellison transitions expertly to the necessary folksy tone. Eventually, the two stories merge, and listeners are treated to a well-plotted and well-read mystery. D.L.G. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

October 16, 2006
Graves's humorous, well-constructed 10th home improvement cozy (after 2005's Nail Biter
) finds Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree, former money manager to the mob, still hard at work on her 1823 Federal-style house in Eastport, Maine. But she's got more to fix than a roof caving in: her dead ex-husband, Victor, is haunting the house and her friend Jemmy is on the run from hit men, including the ruthless Walter Henderson, who's also made his home in Eastport. A local young man who had been dating Walter's daughter has gone missing, and when Jake and her friend Ellie show up at the assassin's home, they make a grisly discovery in his barn. Graves weaves in plenty of home repair tips and a correspondence between two antiquarian experts concerning a mysterious book Jake has found in her cellar for an outing sure to please series fans.