Home repair is homicide mysteries
Since she bought her rambling fixer-upper of a house, Jacobia Tiptree has gotten used to finding things broken. But her latest problem isn't so easily repaired. Along with the rotting floor joists and sagging support beams, there's the little matter of the dead man in Jake's storeroom, an ice pick planted firmly in his cranium. Not much happens in her tiny Maine town, but that's about to change. Jake's unknown guest turns out to be local boy turned
...2) Triple Witch
3) Wicked fix
For ex-Wall Streeter Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree and her teenage 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
...Jacobia Tiptree and her teenage son are used to their Eastport, Maine, home attracting more than its share of houseguests. This year Jake is hoping the plaster dust will keep them away while she finally gets her gem of a fixer-upper into shape — from doorknobs and chandeliers to ghostly phenomena.... But when the charming and mysterious Jonathan Raines appears on her doorstep and then just as suddenly disappears, remodeling the house becomes
...Christmas is just weeks away, but what Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree discovers at Faye Anne Carmody's house is far from festive: a dazed Faye Anne covered with blood. Her no-good husband, Merle — Eastport's butcher and least-liked citizen — is nowhere in sight. Nowhere, that is, until Jake finds his body — wrapped in his own butcher paper. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but Jake isn't convinced. Then another resident turns up dead, and Jake
...6) Unhinged
It began with the mysterious disappearance of Harriet Hollingsworth — Eastport, Maine's snoopiest resident. Everyone is convinced the old busybody bolted out of town to escape her creditor — everyone except Jake and her best friend, Ellie, who suspect otherwise. But they'll need to come up with proof more sinister than a pair of abandoned binoculars. Just as Jake starts poking around for clues, things take a troubling turn for the worse. A
...When DIY enthusiast Jacobia “Jake" Tiptree and her friend Ellie White agree to refurbish Eastport's most disreputable old dwelling, Harlequin House, pulling up the floorboards reveals something far more sinister than dry rot. A hidden trapdoor unearths the skeleton of a notorious 1920s flapper with a fresh corpse sitting neatly beside her. With a good old-fashioned Maine murder on their hands Jake and Ellie are hot on the trail of the murderer
...8) Tool & Die
Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree's leisurely summer dreams involve rebuilding the front porch of her Maine fixer-upper and shingling the leaky tool shed out back. That's why she's hired the avenging angel of household hygiene, Bella Diamond, to keep her house — and her teenage son Sam — in tip-top shape. But when Bella confides in Jake that she's been receiving death threats, Jake has two choices: find out who is frightening the hapless housekeeper —
...9) Nail Biter
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
...10) Trap Door
Spring has sprung in Eastport, Maine, and in Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree's 1823 Federal style fixer-upper, that means a housecleaning so thorough even the skeletons in the closet get polished! But nothing can prepare Jake for what she'll uncover: a trio of mysteries certain to make her usual home repair projects seem as simple as scraping paint. What do an old book hidden in Jake's cellar, the appearance of her ex-husband's ghost, and the murder of
...When a mysterious book is unearthed from the foundation of Jake's 1823 fixer-upper, she immediately sends it off to local book historian Horace Robotham. After all, there must be a logical explanation for why the long-buried volume has her name in it--written in what looks suspiciously like blood. But all logic goes out the window when the book disappears, and Horace turns up dead. When two more victims turn up in a town better known for its scenic
...As a toddler, in a room illuminated only by the flames of a fallen candle, Jacobia Tiptree watched a man kill her mother. Jake once believed that man to be her father. Now, thirty-five years after the murder, as the real killer's long-delayed trial is about to begin, the defendant has vanished. Jake tries to distract herself from murder with the constant attempts to keep her 1823 Federal-style fixer-upper from tumbling down on her head. But
...The infamous Dodd murders are hardly among Eastport's proudest legacies. So when bestselling true-crime author Carolyn Rathbone arrives to research the case for a new book, the locals in the seaside town let her know that she's about as welcome as a spoiled clam. But surely no one would harm a crime writer out of a sense of civic pride—or would they?
Jake has her own problems, from the mysteries of old house insulation to an anonymous
...