Trap Door (Bantam Books Mystery) [Mass Market Paperback]

Sarah Graves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 2007 | Series: Bantam Books Mystery

When Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree left behind her high-powered, high-risk career on Wall Street for the charming town of Eastport, Maine, she expected a quiet life spent fixing up her 1823 Federal-style house. But there are skeletons in her closet that may prove beyond repair...Suddenly the perils of the stock market pale in comparison to the murder, mayhem, and mystery of remodeling.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

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. Sue O'Brien
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553588028
• ISBN-13: 978-0553588026
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Self-Indulgence, Anyone?, September 27, 2007

By 

J. RANDALL (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trap Door (Home Repair Is Homicide Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I've enjoyed the earlier books in this series, but this one sounds as if the author was plum out of fresh ideas and dug up Victor, Jemmy et. al. as well as reprising undigested lumps of Jake Tiptree's past history. The book rambles on and on, trying to write cute but not succeeding, and getting nowhere. Some tired plot elements (mob hit man, mystery book etc.) and old Maine caricatures only make things worse.

It's annoying because the author can do much better. Maybe she just needs a sabbatical.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Darker than the rest -- new direction ?, May 18, 2009

By 

Holly Kincaid "Book addict" (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trap Door (Bantam Books Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked up this mystery series early on and am slowly making my way through all of them. This particular book felt like a shift in direction to me.

In this book, Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree is continuing to work on her Eastport, Maine home as it manages to deconstruct as quickly as she can fix it. Her buddy Ellie (with baby in tow) is right there with her in the home repair adventures as well as the mystery that arrives in the form of Cory Trow's dead body. Cory is a young man who is seeing the daughter of a professional hit man. Trouble ensues when the hit man decides Cory isn't good enough for his "princess" and wants the boy to go away. Many of the usually Eastport folks are around and the east coast setting continues to play a big part.

The mystery seemed to be more graphic and gory this time with more mob undertones that made it less "cozy" than previous ones. In addition, the substance abuse problems of Sam are featured more heavily and more realistically than before with a raw edge that I am not use to seeing in this genre -- not bad, just different. There are two subplots that are thrown in and left unresolved which are a red flag that there are more books to come.

As a fan of this series, I enjoyed the book but noticed the differences. If you have not read these before, I would suggest starting at the beginning and moving through them since the characters develop over time and it would be a more enjoyable read with the additional background.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trap Door by Sarah Graves, June 27, 2008

By 

Jennifer Perry Espey "Jennifer" (Corona, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trap Door (Bantam Books Mystery) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is another episode in the lives of Ms. Graves characters in Eastport, Maine. I found myself giggling over some of Jacobia Triptree's actions and reactions in this book. The mystery in this story had me not wanting to stop reading and when I did, wondering what would happen next. It is a very good read. I would recommend reading the series of books in order because the characters develop and progress in their lives through each book.