My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Nail Biter (Home Repair is Homicide Mystery #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. Bu...more
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. Bu...more
Mass Market Paperback, 352 pages
Published
October 31st 2006
by Bantam
(first published 2005)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
482)
Nail Biter
Sarah Graves
Suspense
Audio Book
copyright: 2006
isbn: 1-57270-503-5
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...more
Sarah Graves
Suspense
Audio Book
copyright: 2006
isbn: 1-57270-503-5
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...more
I am still enjoying this series. But at least in this one she didn’t include any questionable historical details. They are light with occasional household rehabbing hints. Jake Tiptree has been, through this series, rehabbing her old house in Eastport, Maine. Here, she and her friend, Ellie, have bought an old cottage with the intention of rehabbing and then renting. However, some folks come along who want to rent before the rehab. I guess the ladies made it livable and there are 5-6 unrelated p...more
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 poo...more
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 ol...more
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 ol...more
view 2 comments
This was an okay book - I think I was a little bothered by her writing style because (a) she used stupid a's and b's to make lists, and (b) it was very distracting. It got to the point where I was just waiting for her a's and b's to show up. And the plot was a little confusing. It's a mystery, so it's supposed to be confusing, but she purposefully held back info, and it was so obvious that she was just trying to drag out the story. And the home repair tips were few and far between, and too b...more
I really enjoyed the fast pace of NAIL BITER. Jake rents a house to people who turn out to be witches, aka scam artist. A man is killed a 15 year old goes missing. Jake takes it upon herself to find the girl. There are a few times when Jake takes too many risk, but I've found that to be a running problem with all the books I've read. Still, it's worth the read.
Melissa
rated it
Recommends it for:
mystery lovers looking for some lightness included in their otherwise serious mysteries
Shelves:
mysteries
#9 in the Home Repair is Homicide series starring Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree and takes place in an ocean-side town in Maine. It was funny, yet mysterious, and I even cried a little (but I've been very emotional lately so...) plus there were some home repair tips. Oh and it ended with a fresh mystery, so that when the audiobook ended, I started shouting at my radio, demanding to know what happens next. (I've already requested some of the earlier books in the series from the library.)
...more
...more
Another strong entry into the Jacobia Tiptree series. This one had a couple of wicked curves, which I won’t go into here for fear of spoiling it for anyone, one of which came completely out of left field. I think this is my favorite book in the series so far. I really liked Mac Rickert; sort of a modern-day Robin Hood, as Ellie calls him.
This series is just a lot of fun and entirely unpredictable. No risk of figuring out whodunit before the conclusion here. And a slightly snarky, yet practical female sleuth who fixes broken down houses in Eastport, Maine is a very appealing character. I'm not too much of a series girl, but I'll continue listening to these.
Jacobia puts herself amd eventually Ellie in more danger than ever before. While searching for a missing mute teenage girl, the readers learn more about Jacobia's childhood and gain insight into her behavior. An unexpected development concerning her ex-husband Victor provides even more insight into Jacobia's chracter and past life.
Story was OK, but rather like "Wreck the Halls", the solution of the mystery drops out of the blue at the end of the book. It also has suggestions of supernatural events occuring. While I might read others in this series if I stumble across them, I probably won't seek them out. I like stories of detection and I like them to be based in the real world.
This was interesting to read because it was set in Eastport Maine and so all the terrain and surrounding places were familiar to me. It had a stead climb and the people were interesting. I thought the witches would have a bigger play but they didn't. I will read other books by this author.
I started this in Cleveland. I picked it up from a used book store while waiting for our table at Tommy's. On the jacket it isays "complete with Home Repair is Homicide repair tips." I enjoyed it, but like many of this genre I quickly move on and forget what I read.
I like the idea and the premise of this book (and the series) but I am not a fan of the style of writing. I probably won't read another of these. Also, if you read one of the later ones first like I did, you will know what happens in the earlier ones, so you should read them in order.
Picked up this book as the series title "home repair is homicide" is very funny and true, at least at my house! Reminded me of Diane Mott Davidson's books - same set of characters. Enjoyed it but feel that Davidson is the better writer.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Graves writes a nice mystery--a little edgier than a cosy, and full of regional description. I also like her home repair hints scattered throughout the story.
Witches, dead body, missing 15 yr old, coming to terms with childhood incest...makes for a differenct kind of read
This is the first book that I have read in this series, and the theme gets a bit jarring with all the home repair tips obviously interspersed in the story. I liked the main character but it's very light and a bit cardboard in the character development. The narrator did a great job with the Maine accents but I just cannot allow the time it takes to listen to this book. If I had it in paperback, I could skim-read it in a few hours and enjoy it for what it is. This is very much like Diane Mott Davi...more
Another fun read by Sarah Graves in the Home Repair is Homicide Series.
overstretched credulity, piss-poor payoff on subplot
This is the ninth book of a series, but the first book that I read. Didn't matter, the book was easy to follow and sent me to the library to find the rest of the series.
Lynn Calvin
added it
ereader ebook
I enjoyed this book, but there were a few things about the author's writing that annoyed me. She would make a great allusion to something, and then continue on and ruin it by explaining what she meant. Intelligent people read cozy mysteries too.
Set in Eastport, Maine, this is the latest (at the time) in a series about a former financial wizard who restores an old house and solves crimes in a struggling small town Down East. Always enjoyable with good characters, plots and setting.
This is another in the home repair mystery series. It adds new development to the characters, and continues the interesting happenings in the small coastal town. I really enjoyed it!
OK. I think I'm just getting tired of this series.
this one was really cool. that's all i have to say.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
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.
Series:
* Home Repair is Homicide
More about Sarah Graves...
Series:
* Home Repair is Homicide
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
