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.
Jacobia βJakeβ 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 cracksβ¦
Itβs a bright June afternoon and old-house-fixer-upper Jake
Tiptree is driving through downeast Maine on an unusual
errand. Sheβs 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, sheβd
look into the matter. An ex-con and a deadbeat, Jim Diamond
doesnβt have a history of violenceβ¦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 thatβs not enough, Jake is now
saddled with the manic Bella, whose certainty that sheβll
be the next victim is fueling a supercompulsive neatnessβ
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 witβs
end. Then she gets word that a horde of her dadβs 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, itβs not where Jake
expectsβ¦and the victim couldnβt be more of a surprise. For
this is a case bigger than the usual angryβex-spouse
variety, and now that Jake and Ellie have gotten themselves
involved, theyβve each won a special place in a ruthless
murdererβs master plan of greed, deception, and death. And
the prize? A pair of eternally private roomsβsix feet under!
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