"Fun addition to this cozy mystery series."

By: Sarah Graves

Genres: Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Mystery Hobbies

Posted: December 7, 2005

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.

Book Summary

Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree took the dangerous plunge from Wall Street power broker–to 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, Maine’s, 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 isn’t what they had in mind. And it only gets worse when Jake is called out one stormy night to make a repair–and 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 Jake’s–nor of anyone else in Eastport. But what’s he doing shot to death on Jake’s property? Jake’s bewitching tenants–including an ex-cop, a con man, and a mute teenage girl–claim 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 doesn’t think it’s a case of witchcraft–but 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 Jake’s house–and life–crashing 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.

Nail Biter by Sarah Graves

Nail Biter

by: Sarah Graves

Home Repair is Homicide #9

Bantam
December 1, 2005
Featuring: Jacobia (Jake) Tiptree
272 pages
ISBN: 0553803107
EAN: 9780553803105
Hardcover

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