Tool and Die (Home Repair Is Homicide Series #8) » (~)

Sarah Graves lives with her husband in Eastport, Maine, where her mystery novels are set. She is currently working on her twelfth Home Repair Is Homicide novel.

Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree's leisurely summer dreams involve rebuilding the front porch of her Maine fixer-upper and shingling the leaky tool shed out back. That's why she's hired the avenging angel of household hygiene, Bella Diamond, to keep her house - and her teenage son Sam - in tip-top shape. But when Bella confides in Jake that she's been receiving death threats, Jake has two choices: find out who is frightening the hapless housekeeper - or risk losing her. With a marauding moose loose in town, a troublesome love triangle occupying Sam, and her estranged relatives about to descend for the Fourth of July - and the upstairs bedroom still unpainted - Jake's summer is sure to be anything but peaceful. No matter how carefully you remodel your life, murder can take up residence anywhere.

Publishers Weekly

The endless task of restoring her 1823 Federal home in Eastport, Maine, is the least of amateur sleuth Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree's problems in Graves's eighth entertaining "Home Repair Is Homicide" mystery (after 2004's Mallets Aforethought). Sullen son Sam has dumped supportive girlfriend Maggie in favor of crass, materialistic and calculating troublemaker Kris. Bella, the housekeeper whose services Jake won as a prize, is driving every member of the household batty with her cleaning zeal. Jake's ex-husband, Victor, is ever ready to offer unhelpful advice, while a moose on the loose is creating a nuisance. In an effort to solve most of her problems by bringing Bella under control, Jake confronts her housekeeper and learns that Bella has been receiving death threats. Putting an end to these threats, apparently from Bella's ex-con ex-husband, turns out to be more difficult than expected, and Jake and best friend Ellie White wade into another murderous and treacherous entanglement with a clever, determined killer. A nicely drawn cast of characters, both human and animal, plus humor built around domestic bliss and angst, personal foibles and outrageous situations, all make for plenty of cozy fun. Agent, Al Zuckerman. (Jan. 4) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.