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The books of May are here—fresh, fierce, and full of feels.

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Wedding season includes searching for a missing bride�and a killer . . .


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A vanished manuscript. A murdered expert. A castle full of secrets�and one sharp-witted sleuth.


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Two warrior angels. First friends, now lovers. Their future? A WILD UNKNOWN.


Tool & Die

Tool & Die, January 2005
A Home Repair Is Homicide #8
by Sarah Graves

Bantam
Featuring: Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree; Ellie White
288 pages
ISBN: 0553803093
EAN: 9780553803099
Hardcover
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"Latest book in Home Repair is Homicide series is a well-crafted whodunit."

Fresh Fiction Review

Tool & Die
Sarah Graves

Reviewed by Paula Myers
Posted February 12, 2005

Mystery | Mystery Cozy

Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree knows she's going to be sorry for intervening on behalf of her new housekeeper, but the woman is driving everyone nuts with her excessive cleaning. Hoping to put an end to the messages that have the woman on a cleaning binge, Jake and her best friend, Ellie, go to see the woman's ex-husband. If he is the one leaving the threatening messages in Bella Diamond's home, Jake is determined to make him stop. When the ex turns up dead, Bella is suddenly a suspect in his murder and Jake shifts the focus of her informal investigation to prove the woman innocent. In the course of her investigation, Jake uncovers evidence of money laundering and blackmail and no shortage of suspects. Bella's daughter, currently dating Jake's son, had reason to hate her mother's ex, as did the banker who inadvertently assisted with the money laundering scheme, and the woman whose husband was robbed. Even Jake's son's ex-girlfriend was seen at the scene of the crime and is unwilling to talk about what she was doing there. TOOL & DIE is a well-crafted whodunit, the latest in the Home Repair is Homicide series of mysteries. The charming Maine setting and collection of quirky characters provide a fun reading experience. I was entertained from the first chapter and was surprised when all was revealed. Ms. Graves keeps her readers guessing until the end.

Learn more about Tool & Die

SUMMARY

Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree traded her power-broker life for a run-down dream house in peaceful Eastport, Maine. But the do-it-yourself enthusiast is learning that no matter how carefully you build your home, murder has a way of slipping in through the cracks… It’s a bright June afternoon and old-house-fixer-upper Jake Tiptree is driving through downeast Maine on an unusual errand. She’s getting ready to interview a large, angry man with a criminal history. Jim Diamond may or may not be harassing his ex-wife with life-threatening letters, but Jake promised her new housekeeper, Bella Diamond, she’d look into the matter. An ex-con and a deadbeat, Jim Diamond doesn’t have a history of violence…that is, not until Jake arrives at his apartment and discovers that a killer has been there first. Suddenly Jake and her best friend, Ellie White, find themselves at the center of a murder with too many suspects and too few clues. And as if that’s not enough, Jake is now saddled with the manic Bella, whose certainty that she’ll be the next victim is fueling a supercompulsive neatness– one that threatens to clean Jake and her long-suffering husband, Wade, out of house and home. Add to that a moose in her kitchen, a rebellious son with a habit of dumping Miss Right for Miss Wrong, and a troublesome ex of her own, and Jake is already at wit’s end. Then she gets word that a horde of her dad’s long-lost relatives mean to descend on Eastport, intending to be put up at her far-from-fixed-up fixer-upper. When the killer does strike again, it’s not where Jake expects…and the victim couldn’t be more of a surprise. For this is a case bigger than the usual angry—ex-spouse variety, and now that Jake and Ellie have gotten themselves involved, they’ve each won a special place in a ruthless murderer’s master plan of greed, deception, and death. And the prize? A pair of eternally private rooms–six feet under!


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