Trap Door

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.

December 1, 2006
Former Wall Street broker-turned-do-it-herself fixer-upper Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree ("Nail Biter") is one fascinating woman, and in each new entry in Graves's series, readers learn more about her past life and see how she is maturing and becoming someone they would like as a friend. This time, Jake's old mentor, Jemmy Wecksler, needs her help in avoiding a master hit man, Walter Henderson, who has been paid to rub Jemmy out. Unfortunately, Henderson lives in the same Maine town where Jake is still renovating her 175-year-old house. Nothing is quite as it seems here, and Jake is caught in the middle while trying to keep her friend alive and steer her alcoholic son from self-destruction. This series belongs in all library collections. Graves lives in Eastport, ME, naturally.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2006
Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree, of Eastport, Maine, has all kinds of troubles. Her roof is about to fall in, and she is short on cash. Jemmy Wechsler, who helped her when she was a runaway teenager, is back in her life, but a hit man is looking for him. Her young-adult son is an alcoholic, and the son of a friend of her housekeeper has committed suicide. Or not. Jake doesn't buy the suicide angle, and she and her friend Ellie White investigate while trying to hide Jemmy from the hit man and keep her son on the wagon. The plotlines come together in classic mystery fashion when Jake gathers all the suspects together for the finale. An interesting subplot involving an old book found in Jake's cellar is not resolved but may be explained in the next installment. Backstory on Jake's unsavory past, more context concerning her friendship with Ellie, the usual assortment of home-improvement tips, and a touch of the supernatural all add interest to this tenth entry in Graves' engaging series, which continues to be spiced by plenty of humor. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)