Wicked Fix A Home Repair is Homicide Mystery

Do-it-yourself killer fixes small-town thug... For ex-Wall Streeter Jacobia Tiptree and her teenaged son, Sam, September promises tranquil days winter-proofing their rambling handyman's special of a home in Eastport, Maine. But there's nothing idyllic about this Down East autumn. For starters, the return of truly vicious native son Reuben Tate stirs up the town. And when somebody slits Reuben's throat and hangs his corpse on the cemetery gate, the police trace a bloodied scalpel to surgeon Victor TiptreeJacobia's former husband. Yet Jake knows her troublesome, trouble-prone ex is capable of just about anything except murder. Proving that, though, is another matter. Eastport is packed with tourists and former residents for the annual Salmon Festivaland Jake soon realizes any Eastporter, past or present, has motive for Tate's murder. To nail the real killer, Jake and her best friend, Ellie White, must probe a past as rotten as crumbling clapboard, while a secret hatred builds toward a series of murders even more brutal than Reuben Tate himself....

Sarah Graves lives with her husband in Eastport, Maine, in the 1823 Federal-style house that helped inspire her books. She is currently at work on the eighth Home Repair is Homicide mystery, which Bantam will publish in Spring 2005.