Jacobia (Jake) Tiptree and her best friend, Ellie, are new real estate owners in their town of Eastport, Maine. They're thrilled when tenants decide to move into the fixer- upper on Long Cove Road, even if they are a coven of witches and a barely verbal teenage girl. The only problems, at first, are a few calls from the renters about electrical problems and a leaky faucet.
When the body of Eugene Dibble is found in the shed behind Jake and Ellie's house, the local cops suspect he was murdered for a batch of oxycontin pills in a spat between two partners. But why would the murderer have come back for the mute girl, Wanda Cathart?
As Jake investigates, she's drawn into an increasingly miasmic situation -- was Mac Rickert, the local mountain man, Dibble's partner? If so, why did he kidnap Wanda? What do the current tenants have to hide, and why is Greg Brand so jumpy when questioned?
This is an easy read and a really fun cozy mystery. I could relate to the fact that Jake has a nickname, has been previously married and has a son by that marriage, is into guns and home repair, and continuously gets into scary situations. The story line is solid, while not oversimplified. NAIL BITER is a good, well-written book.
Jacobia βJakeβ Tiptree took the dangerous plunge from Wall
Street power brokerβto homeowner! Now the do-it-yourself
enthusiast is about to discover that her own dream house is
built on a foundation of murder.Buying a beachfront
fixer-upper to lease out to Eastport, Maineβs, burgeoning
tourist crowd seems like a good idea to Jake Tiptree and her
best friend, Ellie White. But working double-time as
landladies to a coven of wannabe witches isnβt what they had
in mind. And it only gets worse when Jake is called out one
stormy night to make a repairβand stumbles on a dead body in
the utility shed.A small-time thief and street
preacher with a particularly violent message, the deceased
was no favorite of Jakeβsβnor of anyone else in Eastport.
But whatβs he doing shot to death on Jakeβs property?
Jakeβs bewitching tenantsβincluding an ex-cop, a con man,
and a mute teenage girlβclaim to have been too busy
conjuring spells to have heard or seen a thing. Then a
member of the coven disappears without a trace and Jake
doesnβt think itβs a case of witchcraftβbut a
kidnapping...or worse.Scandal, secrets, and a
mysterious box buried deep in the foundation of her own home
are just the beginning of a mystery that threatens to bring
Jakeβs houseβand lifeβcrashing down. Now she and Ellie are
racing to find a missing girl who may be the key to it
all...or lead them to a killer holding the final nails to
their coffins.
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