Jake and Ellie have been through a lot together, from home repair to homicide investigation. So when they decide to open a chocolate-themed bakery, they figure it'll be a piece of cake. With Ellie's old family recipes luring in customers, they expect to make plenty of dough this Fourth of July weekend. Having family home for the holiday only sweetens the deal for Jake-that is, until the ill wind of an early-season hurricane blows up her family's plans. But as bitter as the storm is, something even more sinister is brewing in the kitchen of The Chocolate Moose-where health inspector Matt Muldoon is found murdered. Ellie never made a secret of her distaste for Matt, who'd been raining on their parade with bogus talk of health-code violations. But now, with no alibi for the night of the murder, she's in a sticky situation with the police-so it's up to Jake to catch the real killer and keep Ellie living in the land of the free.
As an epic nor'easter bears down on the idyllic island town of Eastport, Maine, Jacobia Tiptree hurries to prepare her antique house for the big blow, while the town battles to evacuate tourists and save the beloved 200-year-old Seaman's Church steeple, threatened by the storm. But when a local teen beauty-pageant winner from a troubled family is found murdered in the steeple's bell tower and Jake's son Sam's visiting childhood friend comes under scrutiny as a suspect, the resulting storm of gossip and suspicion rivals anything the Atlantic could brew up.
Driving deep into the woods to her husband's cottage with her best friend in tow, Jake knows she has a challenging week ahead of her. Aside from saying goodbye to paved roads and indoor plumbing, Jake bet her husband that she could finish building the cottage porch in only a few days. But as they set to work, they soon realize that they're not alone. Recently escaped from prison and having fled into the woods, Dewey Hooper recognizes Jake the instant he sees her. Her testimony got him sent away for murder years ago and here he can finally exact his revenge. Determined to make payback look like an accident, Dewey hatches a lethal scheme to ensure neither woman returns to Eastport alive.
When DIY enthusiast Jacobia Jake Tiptree and her friend Ellie White agree to refurbish Eastport's most disreputable old dwelling, Harlequin House, pulling up the floorboards reveals something far more sinister than dry rot. A hidden trapdoor unearths the skeleton of a notorious 1920s flapper with a fresh corpse sitting neatly beside her. With a good old-fashioned Maine murder on their hands Jake and Ellie are hot on the trail of the murderer but this time more than their reputations may be on the line.
Jacobia Tiptree and her teenage son are used to their Eastport, Maine, home attracting more than its share of house guests. This year Jake is hoping the plaster dust will keep them away while she finally gets her gem of a fixer-upper into shape-from doorknobs and chandeliers to ghostly phenomena. But when the charming and mysterious Jonathan Raines appears on her doorstep and then just as suddenly disappears, remodeling the house becomes the least of Jake's problems. Could Jonathan's disappearance have something to do with his quest for a cursed violin that local legend says was hidden by a long-ago owner of Jake's house, before he too vanished without a trace? Jake needs to strip Eastport's past of its idyllic veneer before a killer paints her very dead indeed!
"The town of Eastport and its warmly wondrous citizens continue to enchant."--Booknews
Jacobia 'Jake' Tiptree is deep in her latest home improvement project when she notices the man repeatedly biking past her house. His face is unsettlingly familiar, but his chilling message seems inexplicable: Blood shows up again. Murder will out. Back in her days as a hotshot financial manager she did business with plenty of shady characters, but she's still baffled as to the identity of her nemesis - until she receives a photo of a murdered man. Now Jake knows what she's up against. But knowing her enemy is no guarantee that she can escape the grim payoff he has in store for her.
A teenage girl with a history of running away has dropped out of sight again. The locals and the law both think Tara Wylie is up to her old tricks-until her mother receives a terrifying text message. Equally disturbing: Henry Gemerle-a kidnapper and rapist who once held three girls prisoner for fifteen years-has escaped, and may be lurking in Bearkill. Lizzie Snow teams up with her boss Sheriff Cody Chevrier to search for the missing girl and the wily fugitive. Following a trail of grisly clues-a bloodstained motel room, a makeshift coffin in a shallow grave-Lizzie is drawn ever closer to the flames in her race to save an innocent and corner a monster.
Part 1 of the Lizzie Snow Mysteries series.
Moving from Boston to remote Bearkill, Maine, isn't homicide cop Lizzie Snow's idea of a step up. But breaking away from tragedy and personal betrayal is at least a step in the right direction. Her dead sister's fate still torments her, as does her long-missing niece's disappearance. The town is full of people who see everything, say little, and know more than they'll share with an outsider. The only exceptions are the handsome state cop who once badly broke Lizzie's heart and desperately wants another chance - sheriff Cody Chevrier. A rash of freak accidents and suicides has left a string of dead men - all former local cops. Now the same cruel eyes that watched them die are on Lizzie...
The infamous Dodd murders are hardly among Eastport’s proudest legacies. So when bestselling true-crime author Carolyn Rathbone arrives to research the case for a new book, the locals in the seaside town let her know that she’s about as welcome as a spoiled clam. But surely no one would harm a crime writer out of a sense of civic pride—or would they? Jake has her own problems, from the mysteries of old house insulation to an anonymous caller plaguing her with death threats. But with Carolyn’s arrival, the slayings of the wealthy Dodd women suddenly go from cold case to hot topic—much to someone’s dismay, for Carolyn Rathbone’s untimely investigation has unearthed a string of deadly secrets that a cunning killer is grimly determined to rebury, right along with Carolyn herself.
“Just hearing [Graves] list the ways you can kill yourself fixing up an old house…is a hoot.”--New York Times, praise for the series
It began with the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Hollingsworth—Eastport, Maine’s snoopiest resident. Everyone is convinced the old busybody bolted out of town to escape her creditor—everyone except Jake and her best friend, Ellie, who suspect otherwise. But they’ll need to come up with proof more sinister than a pair of abandoned binoculars. Just as Jake starts poking around for clues, things take a troubling turn for the worse. A suspicious accident nearly kills her teenage son, Sam, and her husband, Wade, just misses getting his head blown off. Jake is prepared to attribute these incidents to a spate of bad luck—until another accident leaves a visitor to Eastport unmistakably dead.
Christmas is just weeks away, but what Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree discovers at Faye Anne Carmody’s house is far from festive: a dazed Faye Anne covered with blood. Her no-good husband, Merle—Eastport’s butcher and least-liked citizen—is nowhere in sight. Nowhere, that is, until Jake finds his body—wrapped in his own butcher paper. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but Jake isn’t convinced. Then another resident turns up dead, and Jake knows the trail doesn’t begin—or end—with Merle. Jake had planned to spend the winter rehabilitating her old house, but now she’ll have to work on nailing a killer before her beloved town gets even smaller.
“The mystery and its solution are satisfying, but what distinguishes the novel are its likable, no-nonsense protagonist-narrator, her references to home repair that the author cleverly fits tongue-and-groove into the story and, especially, the detailed descriptions of the town.”--Los Angeles Times
Jacobia Tiptree saved her sanity—and her son, Sam—the day she abandoned Wall Street for the seacoast village of Eastport, Maine. In her new home, a charmingly dilapidated fixer-upper, she looks forward to repairing old radiators and restoring antique shutters for years to come. But Jake’s hopes of serenity are dashed when tiny Eastport erupts in a crime wave. Hometown bad boy Kenny Mumford—old flame of Jake’s best friend and fellow sleuth, Ellie White—is the first victim. When his corpse washes up on the beach at Prince’s Cove, all evidence points to a drowning—except the bullet hole in his forehead. When bodies begin littering the Maine scenery, Jake and Ellie learn that the ante on Kenny’s small-town antics has been upped. Add a pair of unwelcome arrivals—Jake’s ex-husband, and an unscrupulous New York ex-money mogul—and you’ve got a blueprint for more deadly danger than one old house can hold.
“A smartly written story, with lots of interesting detail about the area and restoration projects. But it never gets in the way of the mystery, which turns out to be both complex and simple, an admirable combination.”--Contra Costa Times
