The Book of Old Houses

November 12, 2007
In this multilayered cozy, the 11th in Graves’s home repair series (after 2006’s Trap Door
), Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree has uncovered what looks to be a very old book while fixing up her 1823 house in Eastport, Maine. Local rare book expert Horace Robotham offers to take a look at it, but then dies in what appears to be a mugging gone wrong. Jake doesn’t think too much about this until a stranger drives up to her house three weeks after Horace’s death. He introduces himself as a friend of Horace’s, says he might have some information about the book and then asks Jake if he can hide a gun in her house. Meanwhile, Jake’s father is putting the moves on her sassy housekeeper, Bella. Although the development of minor characters is a little thin, local color and an entirely unexpected denouement combine for engaging reading.

May 15, 2008
Jake Tiptree is back wielding sledgehammers, screwdrivers, and wrenches in the old Maine house she is attempting to renovate. With more enthusiasm than sense or skill, she decides to remove a claw-foot bathtub from the bathroom on the morning she is hosting an afternoon tea honoring a respected pillar of the community. The suspense buildswill the tub be stuck halfway out the window when all the ladies arrive? Miss Fargeorge, the honoree, doesn't have much use for Jake, but she wants her to persuade a visiting professor to stop bothering people with questions. Professor DiMaio believes that his old friend, rare book dealer Horace Robotham, was murdered because of an old book Jake found buried in her cellar. Jake had sent Horace the mysterious bookwhich listed all the owners of Jake's house written in bloodbut he died suddenly, and the book disappeared. Jake doesn't want to believe the professor and certainly doesn't trust him, but she begins half-heartedly to investigate. When more deaths follow, Jake turns her enthusiasm to sleuthing and hires a local carpenter to take over her bathroom project. Narrator Lindsay Ellison's appealing voice and entertaining Maine accent carry the story; she gives Jake's character a straight interpretation even though she is the Calamity Jane of Maine. Recommended for larger mystery collections.Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA

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