Customer Reviews

Trap Door (Home Repair Is Homicide Mysteries)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

In Eastport, Maine, former mob money manager Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree renovates her early nineteenth century fixer upper even as her late ex-husband Victor haunts her home and her. However, the ghost, the house, and her son Sam are the least of Jake's problems. Instead her concern deals with her friend Jemmy Wechsler. Apparently, professional hit men, including local killer Walter Henderson, want him dead.

The lad dating Walter's teenage daughter Jen has vanished without a trace. Jake and her friend Ellie White visit the home of the hired gun's home where they find a gruesome corpse in Walter's barn. Though the clues target Walter, Jake knows the guy is a pro and would never leave evidence lying around; she plans to obtain the truth while pleading with the paid assassin not to kill Jemmy.

This is a terrific "A Home Repair Is Homicide Mystery" that will elate long time fans of Jake and bring in new rooters seeking her backlist. Jake is in top form getting into trouble while unable to mind her business because is some ways Ellie discourages her to stay out of things, which encourages her to get involved and bring her friend with her. Victor is simply Victor, as long time fans will understand. Readers will enjoy this fun paranormal New England cozy.

Harriet Klausner

This is the first Sarah Graves book I've read, and the last. It is full of adverbs which should have been my first clue of a poor writer. Secondly, the "plot" jumps back and forth between try to solve a mystery and applying Spackle to a wall. The plot was week, the delivery was worse yet and I kept thinking something is going to develop here, but never does.

Maybe she should take up home repairs.

This looks to be a popular author, and this is the first one of her books I've read. When I like an author's work, I read everything they've written. This will be the first and last Sarah Graves book for me. I found the style of writing very choppy and disjointed, jumping from subject to subject within a paragraph. That might be okay if the story was interesting enough to keep me going, but it wasn't. Perhaps it was because I wasn't familiar enough with the characters to be intrigued by the tidbits of information about them (this was no character study), but the basics of the mystery wasn't terribly deep either. It reminded me of an old "Perry Mason" episode where key elements of the story are withheld from the viewer until the last 5 minutes where Perry solves the mystery with his mighty brain. I don't want to be impressed by the main characters ability to solve the unsolvable, I want to be able to have a good guess at the solution as well.

I would recommend Susan Wittig Albert's books instead to the reader.

This is the first that I have read of the Sarah Graves "Home Repair is Homicide" series and I found it humorous and fun. The series is about Jacobia Tiptree, once a financial money manager in NYC, turned home repair addict in Eastport, Maine

Jacobia and her best friend, Ellie, do repair work on Jacobia's very old house in Maine and also repair other things throughout the story. The story evolves around a dead body that is found on the premises of a once hired assassin, who is now retired, in Jacobia's small Maine town. Jacobia sets out to solve the mystery of the dead man. She also runs into an old friend from her past, a con-man, named Jemmy who turns up in Eastport. Jemmy needs help and Jacobia sets out to help him as well as solve the mystery. Along the way Jacobia works on her house and also does other home repairs along the way.

I loved reading about Maine and the author really brings Maine to life for me, since I have had the pleasure of visting there myself.

The conclusion to Trap Door (Bantam Books Mystery) was somewhat unbelievable but I thought very clever. There was a mystery about a book discovered in Jacobia's house that was mentioned throughout the story that I did not really follow and that did not really lend itself to the story; however, I give this book a 4 star rating since I enjoyed the characters, the humor and the Maine setting. A good read and I will read others in the series.

As the Home Repair is Homicide mystery series continues, Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree sees an old buddy: Jemmy Wechsler, who has been running from the mob for forever. Only one killer is still after Jemmy these days, though: Walter Henderson, who has retired to Eastport. Jemmy knows that Henderson will hunt him until he's dead and has decided that he can't live his life waiting to die. He wants to confront his enemy and fix the situation --- as if Jake doesn't have enough on her hands with her money pit old house, her irascible housekeeper and being haunted by her dead ex-husband, Victor. She's not thinking too much about the mysterious old book listing the house's tenants (inexplicably including Jake's own name) since she shipped it off to an expert.

Jake literally owes everything to Jemmy since he rescued her as a runaway teen. She offers to let Jemmy live in her cabin, even as her friend Ellie warns her that she is making a huge mistake. While Jake and Ellie (try to) build a dock, Ellie assures Jake that she will be Henderson's target, too. For one thing, it appears there's a missing 18-year-old boy, Cory Trow, who was in the process of being convicted of stalking Henderson's gorgeous daughter. Ellie suspects that the boy has taken off but also fears that Henderson might find and kill him.

Jake is determined to speak with Henderson about Jemmy. She and Ellie sneak onto his property, eventually finding themselves face to face with a hanged man who turns out to be Cory Trow. Although there's a note, Jake is sure that the death isn't the suicide it appears to be, partly because of a scrap of fabric caught in the dead boy's fingernail.

Jake soon learns that Cory had a secret wife and child, plus a life insurance policy that is now worthless since he supposedly killed himself. As Jake is drawn further into the web of mystery, her own life is endangered.

The subplots in TRAP DOOR are irresistible, particularly one regarding the strange book found in Jake's house. While the momentum is sometimes disrupted by conversational interludes mulling over the case, Sarah Graves more than makes up for the occasional lull with an atmosphere saturated with downeast Maine charm and the vagaries of endless home repair that anyone who has lived in an old house can relate to. In addition, the book is filled with Jake's laugh-out-loud asides.

The characters are quirky enough to be real without being over the top; Jake's maternal heartbreak over her son's substance abuse issues adds a poignant note. TRAP DOOR is very enjoyable reading and highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

Books by Sarah Graves are always satisfying. The characters are full-bodied and the mystery interesting.