Wicked Fix
A Home Repair Is Homicide Mystery
-
-
4.6 • 26 Ratings
-
-
- $6.99
Publisher Description
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 Tiptree—Jacobia'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 Festival—and 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....
From the Paperback edition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Everyone in the island town of Eastport, Maine, is cursing the return of Reuben Tate, a bad boy who terrorized half the town in his youth. So no one is too upset when Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree, a transplant from Manhattan, and her friend Ellie White discover Reuben's dead body hanging from the cemetery gate. Jake had been busy getting her rambling old house ready for winter and working with her ex-husband, Victor, to open a trauma center, but their plans are jeopardized when Victor's scalpel turns out to be the murder weapon, and he's arrested. Victor and Jake have had their trouble in the past, but she knows he's no murderer. Jake and Ellie's investigation turns up no shortage of suspects; the list of those who might have wished Reuben harm is a mile long, and the annual Salmon Festival has brought many old residents back to the small town. Graves (Triple Witch) skillfully uses these suspicious folk to draw out the suspense. Though the psychological motive for the crime is a bit far-fetched, the oddball characters--especially a preacher and son who form a musical group called the Bible Belters--make for good entertainment.
