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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This book just didn't ring true., May 24, 2001
This review is from: Triple Witch: A Home Repair is Homicide Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)
Seeing that other reviewers of this book enjoyed it so much more than I did gave me pause (although it hasn't effected my rating). I will add this caveat to my review: I read this book over several weeks and was unable, due to my work schedule, to read more than a chapter at a time. This is not how I prefer to read. That having been said, I did not care for this book, and I had greatly enjoyed the first one, "Dead Cat Bounce." (The next in this series is "Wicked Fix.") Everything that was charming in the first book seemed trite and overdone in this one. Retired Wall Street finance wizard Jacobia Tiptree and her son, Sam, are outsiders in the seacoast village of Eastport, Maine, but they have made their home there and settled into the community. When a local ne'er-do-well is found murdered, Jacobia and her best friend Ellie investigate. I found very little to be believable in this book; nothing rang true. The "ghost" in Jacobia's house keeps moving a spoon around--Jacobia finds this profoundly meaningful, and I found it distracting. Jacobia's ex-husband has apparently engaged in borderline psychotic behavior in the past (faking heart attacks, mailing dead things to people, etc.), but this is described as typical ex-husband behavior, and Jacobia has no fears for her own safety or her son's. Although Ellie is Jacobia's closest friend, we never get any insight into her personality or actions. She is simply a typical (stereotypical) reserved native of Maine--this is supposed to be sufficient to explain all her actions. The descriptions of life in Eastport eventually overshadow the plot of the book, and the reader is treated to long passages describing shops and houses and people that have nothing to do with the plot. Evoking a nice sense of setting is one thing; writing a travelogue is another. But most of all, I found the resolution to the mystery to be convoluted and poorly depicted. Despite an action-packed chase scene involving boats, the majority of the denoument occurs verbally, as everything "suddenly falls into place" and Jacobia and Ellie blurt out the solution to every little inconsistency that has occurred in the town over the past several weeks. "And then this happened...and then this happened...and then this happened..." The reader is inundated with sudden resolutions. There is no sense of "fair play" whereby the reader might have solved the crime for him- or herself beforehand. Still, I enjoy this character (although I wish her ex-husband would disappear from the series), her son, and the setting, and I hope to enjoy the next book in this series as much as I enjoyed the previous.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Triple Witch, June 30, 2001
This review is from: Triple Witch: A Home Repair is Homicide Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)
I could relate to the main charater for several reasons. Being a transplant to Maine and living in a house 109 years old, I can relate to the main charater. I have also visited Eastport and the author's description is perfect of the region and people. Small towns like Eastport are the perfect settings for outsiders to get lost in and commit crimes. Mrs. Graves does not use native Maine pronouncement of words that confuses the reader and mocks residents. The book moves at a pace fast enough to keep the reader interested, yet slow enough to not overlook too many details. True, I was able to solve the mystery before the story was completed; however, you cannot anticipate the ending. It is not one of those books that gives you too many suspects and too little information. It also doesn't sidetrack the reader with long passionate love scenes. I have read all three of Mrs. Graves novels and am awaiting the release of her next book in August, 2001.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blue-chip all the way . . ., October 20, 2000
This review is from: Triple Witch: A Home Repair is Homicide Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)
When I read this author's first book, DEAD CAT BOUNCE, not only was I blown away by the lyricism of the writing--simply gorgeous--but also by the marvelous way the author blended so many disparate items together into one extremely satisfying book. It can't be easy to mix together--much less make sense of--a small town on the very east coast of Maine; a mathematical genius who's a female (Jacobia Tiptree--wonderful name!) for goodness' sake, newly divorced; a teen-aged son who, while not rebellious as most teens are, has his own problems to fight--dyslexia, among others; a former husband with whom Jake somehow manages to be on fairly good terms, even though he is a first-class jerk; a new man in her life, who sounds positively dishy; and--an 1823 house, complete with ghost, and in need of renovations. Somehow the author makes it all work splendidly. I was somewhat hesitant, therefore, to open TRIPLE WITCH, because the first book had been so wonderful. First books frequently are especially wonderful, just because they're first books. They can gestate for years, if necessary, whereas second books usually have to make their appearance after just a few months. But, Jake and all the above-mentioned components are still all present, including the former husband who's now decided he'll move to Eastport, too. Triple Witch features an eclectic list of ingredients: a former financial high-flyer who's been barred from the industry, but with an entire room in HIS newly-renovated old house devoted to the very latest computer equipment connected to international financial sources, and with a pasture housing a flock of llamas; a young man, murdered, who's father was also murdered a day later, but leaving behind a barn full of dog-food bags, now containing US money--to the tune of some two million dollars!; an encroaching possible crime-wave in the usually sleepy little village, which has the residents acting as vigilantes, out prowling through the night-darkened streets, but armed only with flashlights. Ellie White and Jacobia Tiptree are one fabulous and formidable pair of females. Together, along with some help from Jake's friend Wade and her son, Sam, plus Ellie's husband George, and the town's low-key chief of police, Bob Arnold, and even a smidgen of assistance from the former husband, Victor, the bad guys are routed, resulting in a mostly happy ending. Sarah Graves is indeed marvelous--I'll never hesitate to read another of her books, and neither should you. (I do have just one teensy-tiny complaint, however. When I was a kid, buckwheat pancakes were fairly easy to come by, and always ranked high on my list of favorite foods. Not so any more, though. Oh, one can find the special flour needed, by why oh, why? wasn't Ellie's recipe included? Bummer. Truly an excellent book otherwise, though!)
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