"Fine who-done-it"

When she realized her teenage son was moving deeper into the NYC hardcore drug culture, financial planner Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree left her six-figure job and moved to Eastport, located on a barrier island off the coast of Maine. She moved into a fixer-upper that even years later still needs repair, had to make accommodations with her ex- husband who left a thriving medical practice to be near his son, and married a man who gave her the love and security her first spouse couldn't provide.

Now an integral part of the small seaport community, Jake and her best friend Ellie are just two of the volunteers fixing up Harlequin House for a fundraising gala. When the two women uncover a secret room, they open it and find two bodies inside. One is a woman who disappeared eighty years ago while the other corpse is the enemy of Ellie's husband. Jake knows that the police will have to arrest George since he told everyone in town he wanted to kill Hector and he will not give the cops an alibi. Jake starts investigating and her search leads to a suspect that plans to kill her so he can go on living in Eastport.

Sprinkled throughout the storyline are house repair tips that are very helpful and easy to follow, but also provide a sense of normalcy that augments the who-done-it. The heroine goes the extra mile for her friends in MALLETS AFORETHOUGHT, risking her own life to save the life of her spouse whom she knows is innocent. Sarah Graves is a very descriptive writer so the reader can visualize each scene in their head.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted February 10, 2004

Summary

Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree left her high-powered career for a dilapidated fixer-upper and the dream of a quiet existence in the quaint town of Eastport, Maine. But she found that no matter how carefully you remodel your life, murder can take up residence anywhere.It's Eastport's most notorious landmark: the old Harlequin House. Named for the disgraced physician Chester Harlequin, it was used as a hideout for gunshot gangsters and their molls during Prohibition's heyday. Now fixer-upper enthusiast Jake Tiptree and Harlequin's only living descendant, Ellie White, are refurbishing the mansard-roofed mansion to host the local Historical Society's upcoming gala. But when stripping down old wallpaper reveals a secret door to a room containing not one but two corpses, Jake and Ellie once again find home repair leading to homicide.One of the bodies is a skeleton dressed in 1920s flapper chic. But the other is that of real-estate mogul Hector Gosling, and in his pocket is a paper bearing the single word "Guilty." The less-than- scrupulous tycoon has been poisoned, and when it's learned that the offending substance is the poison that Ellie's husband George has been using to kill red ants, he is immediately taken into custody. Then it develops that George had recently accused Gosling of a scheme to scam George's vulnerable old aunt out of her life savings—and George out of his inheritance. With George held for murder, Jake and a pregnant Ellie swing into action. In between Ellie's Lamaze sessions, baby showers, and CPR classes taught by Jake's ex-husband Victor, the two amateur sleuths must sift their way through a trail of seemingly contradictory clues. Then another corpse surfaces and suddenly Jake and Ellie realize they must find this killer fast. A clever culprit is not only building an airtight case against Ellie's husband. He—or she—is planning to nail everyone who stands in the way.