Nail Biter

Home Repair Is Homicide #9

by Sarah Graves

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.Praise for the Home Repair Is Homicide Mysteries of Sarah “Anyone who can mix slaughter and screwdrivers is a genius. Plus, anyone who has bought a home that needs even a new toilet seat is probably consumed with murderous thoughts.”—Boston Herald“Like the old Victorian homes she describes...Graves’ stories seem to grow better with the passing of time....Readers who enjoy solving mysteries and fixing up older homes will appreciate Jake’s do-it-yourself expertise in both areas.”—Booklist“A sleuth as tough as the nails she drives into the walls of her 1823 Federal home enhances a clever plot, which comes to an unexpected and explosive conclusion. Many will relish the vividly described Down East setting, but for anyone who’s ever enjoyed making a home repair it’s the accurate details of the restoration of Jake’s old house that will appeal.”—Publishers Weekly“Think Diane Mott Davidson with a tool belt instead of recipes!”—Denver Post

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Audiobook, Cozy, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Halloween

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Sarah Graves lives with her husband John, a musician and luthier, and their black Labrador Retriever in a house very much like the one Jacobia Tiptree is remodeling in Eastport, Maine. When she's not writing Jake's adventures, Sarah works with her husband on the house and she plays the 5-string banjo.

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this series in the beginning. Jake (Jacobia) Tiptree was not a stupid woman – is not a stupid woman. In her past, she was a very successful investment advisor, making money for her clients and herself.

However, as the series goes on, she is doing more and more stupid things in the course of her amateur investigations. At least, she is not getting her best friend, Ellie, involved in some of these ill-advised capers. Ellie has a 1 year old daughter that needs her; Ellie doesn’t need to be put in danger, even if Jake puts herself in harm’s way.

I still hold fond feelings for Jacobia and Ellie and even thought Jake is acting impulsively and stupidly as the series goes on. In this book, both Jake an Ellie almost die in the denouement. Ellie isn’t showing a lot common sense herself at the end, but she showing that she if a loyal and true friend.

I will continue to read this series, but I am starting to have reservations. I’m not sure how much I’ll continue to like Jacobia and even Ellie, if they keep going off half-cocked in the pursuit of their investigations. At one point in the book, even Jake seems to recognize that they are reckless and impulsive.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was frustrating to read at a lot of points. It contradicted itself in the same paragraph a few times, some of the story was just stupid and unrealistic.. too many characters with multiple things happening. It made it seem like a big deal but you only just found out so you’re not invested in the “dramatic” outcome. Plus the premise of the story doesn’t even continue any further with the “cult”. It doesn’t relate to ANYTHING else written in this book.

[Peter Charleston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice story with a sad ending.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed it very much

[Carl Alves · Rating 1 out of 5]

To start with, the premise is preposterous that these two women who have no background in police or detective work, no intelligence background or anything that would suit them for this line of work would be recruited to find a missing person. Besides being woefully underqualified to do this work, the way they went about it made little sense and was very unrealistic. I found the constant home repair interludes to be horribly annoying. The characters, both the protagonists and antagonists were poorly drawn out. The twist at the end, including the antagonist's motivation was silly and not remotely believable. All in all a terrible novel.
Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished reading this book, but I don't plan to read anymore in this series. Jakes emotional problems are so over the top that I just get tired of reading about it. Honestly, the woman needs therapy!

[Emmalynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know about this one. Jake was incredibly dumb and did so many TSTL things I’m not sure why Wade is still married to her. Same with Ellie, who has a baby at home and is taking all sorts of risks that could jeopardize her life, her hubby George is right to be mad. The mystery as always could have been straightforward but it was bogged down with a lot of things that in the end had little to nothing to do with the actual murder. The death of a central character was also sort of sidelined and could have been treated way better.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery was good. Nice development of some of the characters but the main character who has been smart earlier in the series, got that cozy I have to keep secrets from others mentality. I am hoping that the old Jake returns in the future.

[Elizabeth M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a sweet little book. I’m actually from the Eastport area, so the characters and locations all felt very familiar to me! This was a good, cozy feeling murder mystery. It kind of made me think of Nancy Drew, but all grown up. I agree with some of the other comments here that Jake could be a bit… ditsy. Some of her choices made no logical sense whatsoever, which did make me roll my eyes a few times, but it didn’t ruin the story in the slightest for me. I did clock the murderer before the end reveal, but no spoilers here! All in all, this was a good story. It had a sad/intriguing ending, but I’m not sure if I’m going to be rushing to read the other books in the series.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast moving, suspenseful read taking place in
Eastport, Maine involving Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree
and Ellie White. The best friends buy a fix-it-upper
beach front property. Jake decides to rent the
house to a group of people who claim to be coven
of witches.
But after a man is murdered, a stash of drugs are
found and a young mute girl goes missing, there is
more to these renters than meets the eye.
Come along with Jake and Ellie as they go on a
dangerous journey to locate and save the young
girl.
Meantime back at Jake’s home, her father finds
a mysterious box in the cement basement wall,
there is a flood in the basement, the front
entrance gets demolished and rebuilt plus Victor
shows up unexpectedly.
I enjoyed the intriguing and detailed description
the writer used regarding the Eastport area. It made
me feel as is I was there with the characters.
The story is a real “Nail Biter”!!

[Kristen]

This wasn't my favorite of this series, but it did introduce a few new plot lines, all of which are quite interesting! The Victor stuff, the hidden book stuff, Jake's past... I'm interested to see what happens in the next one.

I should caveat that this book, like all of the books prior, suffers from the same things that make me a little crazy about Graves' writing. There are also plenty of parts which are just completely unbelievable, and parts which the author obviously did not do enough research on. But still... there's something about them that I like enough to keep coming back to and back to.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a trashy mystery read as a relief from the last one. It is from a series called Home Repair is Homicide Mysteries. It had an ending I didn't expect because a connection wasn't revealed until the end of the book.

I liked the main character and wouldn't mind reading the other books in the series. A funny thing about the character is that unattended home repairs bother her and she just has to fix them. For example, she was trying to get evidence from a drug dealer in an old house. She was quizzing them, but the leaky faucet drove her crazy. She just fixed it while she interrogated them.

[Olgalijo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy the mix of goofy snooping done and deeper psychological insights. This was the case also with Nail Biter, but what stood out most for me was how the author recognized that it was time to get rid of a character that had been very useful to set up the main character but that was becoming flat and stale.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this one better than some of the others, but there always seem to be too many extraneous characters in the story.

[Kriss Luckett-Ziesemer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite of this series. The others were pretty well-crafted mysteries, with a more sinister edge than your garden variety cozy. But this one was choppy and disjointed, with subplots that went nowhere and a lackluster mystery. I preferred the books before Ellie had her baby, and could be more of a sidekick for Jacobia, as Ellie loses her sassy edge when she becomes a mother. Also, in previous books, Jacobia is smart and savvy with good criminal instincts based in her experience in dealing with members of organized crime in her previous life, but this book has her making poor, rash decisions one after another, putting herself repeatedly into harm’s way with no regard for her personal safety. Each time, she is nearly killed and ends up sobbing in Wade’s arms and promising she will never be so headstrong and reckless again, yet mere pages later she’s rushing off again and putting herself once again in the direct path of potential killers, and her only indication to Wade that she’s “changed her ways” is that she leaves him a note. Twice. And the author makes a big deal out of the witch cult renting Jacobia’s house, yet they completely disappear after a while and are only loosely mentioned after that. If this were the first book of the series, I doubt I would continue with it.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series, but have slowed my progress because I'm more than halfway through and want to spread out the books I have left to read :) I like Jake and her friend Ellie, I love the support they both get from their friends and especially their husbands, and I enjoy learning a few home improvement tips with each book, even when they're for projects I'm not likely to undertake.

The murder victim in this story was one of those hard luck characters whose choices in life were always bad or seemed to go wrong. There were a handful of obvious suspects to think about, and a few more who weren't so obvious but still ended up on my list. I think I suspected almost all of them at one point or another, but didn't put it all together until just before the confrontation scene in the book. I may have missed a clue or two about the motive, so that surprised me too.

The next book from this series is in my audio library and given some of the personal developments that occurred in this book, I'm eager to see what happens next, but I must pace myself, so it will be a while before I listen to book #10.

[Cozy Reader Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

The problem of the previous book inserting random home repair tips mid conversation has been fixed. There's still the home repair tips at the end of the occasional chapter and they are occasionally relevant to what's going on in the story.

New thing is the first chapter/prologue is written from the first murder victim's perspective up until they get murdered. I found it very unnecessary to the story. It gave no details that couldn't and weren't given later in the book by someone else.

An annoying core character is finally no longer going to be part of the books after this one. Or, at minimum kept to flashbacks instead of new annoying interactions. They made the character a smidge less annoying to give them a more quiet and peaceful death, they weren't murdered just subplot to explain the character leaving the series.

I honestly waffled between who I thought was the murderer this time around. Finally, kinda, figuring it out right before the reveal.

[Avid Series Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nail Biter by Sarah Graves is the 9th book of the Home Repair is Homicide mystery series set in contemporary Maine. Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree is an amazingly handy fix-it woman, after several years of practice repairing and restoring her historic home. She hears a drippy faucet -- immediately runs through the list of tools and parts to fix it. In this installment, Jake and her best friend Ellie White have purchased a fixer-upper beach house for rental. They have demanding tenants, calling day and night for Jake to come fix something or other. On 'a dark a stormy night' (of course!) they call, she arrives, and discovers a dead body in the utility shed. Jake and Ellie enjoy sleuthing, so they investigate, discovering all sorts of secrets along the way. Once again Jake foolishly puts herself in harm's way, stubbornly believing she's the only one who is truly after the facts. The final death in the story surprised me.

The audio version is tremendous entertainment for a listener who is not at all familiar with "down East" slang and pronunciation. I hope all the remaining books (10-15) are available in audio. I plan to finish this series before starting the Death by Chocolate series also starring Jake & Ellie. These two have boundless energy!

[Elizabeth Graf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacobia and Ellie have a fixer up house that they rented out to a coven of witches. soon after the renter get there Eugene Dibble is found murdered over a possible drug deal.gone bad.

as usual Jake and Ellie get involved. though in this book, it has Jake putting herself more in harm's way than the both of them. there is some smaller plots involving her dad as he works on the basement foundation.

I will say the ending did take me by surprise as I did not consider the suspect. also, without trying to spoil anything I was caught off guard with the whole Victor thing.

a cute series that is fun to read.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less Home Repair and more Homicide in this one, but the plot was interesting. We learn more about Jake's young life that she has kept to herself until now, and some of what happens in this book #9 makes her vulnerable. Jake and Ellie are a great team and take care of each other. Sam is growing up well and Jake's ex, Victor, is a more positive presence when he drops in to visit Jake and her husband and any guests they may have. Jake and Ellie agreed to a short term rental for the fixer-upper they purchased, and the renters are a coven of witches in training and their instructor, so Eastport gossips are having a field day.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just wondering. Did I miss it or the person that Sheriff Bob Arnold was "helping " who had kids was not mentioned again... just wondering who and what the deal was that kept Arnold from acting on the Wanda kidnapping. Also, as Victor is dying he mentions Edward Jenner. What? Does that person/name come up in the next book? Sorry to see that Victor has been written out. I enjoyed his presence in the books.

[Peter Barr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one although it started a bit slow. Here is my spoiler. I've never seen falling down used (and certainly not as often as this book does) as a literary device. Sarah Graves has someone fall down every time she needs something to happen. The main character has to fall down 8 - 10 times in this book alone. For suspense, she almost falls down. Nevertheless, it's a terrific story and one of my favorite series. Now I'm looking forward to #10.

[Janet York · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don’t know what to say. The selling point on the cover was think Diane Mott Davidson with tools. No. This book was much too dark. I never would have read it if I knew it involved children. And not fond of mystical plot points either. And I didn’t really care for the heroine. However, it did have some good twists. Some I saw coming but others blindsided me. Will I read more of the series? I just don’t know right now.

[Ricki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great addition to the series, very enjoyable! Who could have imagined witches in Eastport, renting Jake and Ellie's run down cottage? Of course, when Jake goes to answer a complaint f noises that turns out to be a window sash come loose, she finds a dead body. Who would want to kill the con man..and what does the missing girl have to do with the murder? Quick read, but very good!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in this series that I have read (I know, I missed the first several books) and I really liked this one. Again, Ms. Graves has a unique writing style, very descriptive in a non-obvious way, and I like it. Storyline was decent. Left a huge cliffhanger! Not fair! Okay, well, a little fair. I look forward to the next and now am thinking I should start at the beginning.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 9 and one of the best books in the series! The characters remain interesting and it's fun to see how they have grown. There are interesting new characters too with an unexpected ending. I couldn't put this one down!

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow.

There is a lot in this book that was unexpected -- well done, to be sure, but unexpected. I enjoyed this a lot. It will be interesting to see whether any issues from this book will continue to affect books later in the series.

[Leyna Durham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a great read

This is one of my favorite series to read and reread. The plots are not cookie cutter and engaging. Oddly enough I have even gotten attached to Victor, I wish Sam would grow up and I'd like to see more of Wade . Definitely worth the read

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid entry into the series. It was good to get some further backstory on Jake's past. I feel like this series has really hit its stride or maybe I'm just better prepared in terms of what to expect. Either way, I'm liking it.

[Karen Keyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most of the books in this series so far, Nail Biter has a boatload of inconsistencies. The kind of inconsistencies that don’t necessarily ruin the story, but do detract from it because they are so irritating. For instance, Jacobia says she divorced Victor and fled from New York ten years ago, and that their son, Sam, is now 20. But later she says that Sam was a thirteen year old alcoholic & drug addict when they came to Maine (poor Sam, in the first book he was only a pothead but his past has gotten steadily more tragic ever since). It’s simple math and either the author or the editor should have caught it.