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A Do-It-Yourself Mystery #3
Plaster and Poison
Home renovation and design tips included!
Ex-New York designer Avery Baker left the bustle of the big city to start her own home renovation business in Maine. But as she renovates an old carriage house on behalf of a soon-to-be wed friend, she stumbles across a lifeless body-a person known all too well by the blushing bride. The small town is abuzz with big suspicions, and Avery realizes she must unravel a matrimonial murder.
Ex-New York designer Avery Baker left the bustle of the big city to start her own home renovation business in Maine. But as she renovates an old carriage house on behalf of a soon-to-be wed friend, she stumbles across a lifeless body-a person known all too well by the blushing bride. The small town is abuzz with big suspicions, and Avery realizes she must unravel a matrimonial murder.
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 2, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
June 21, 2016
Good entry in the series. I enjoyed that there was a storyline involving a mystery from the WWI era as well as a current one. While I saw some big neon signs announcing what was going to happen in the older mystery, even with the lack of suspects I still wasn't expecting the outcome to the modern mystery. Good story.
May 21, 2019
This series gets better with each book. I was hooked as Avery followed the clues regarding a mystery that happened in the past when Derek found a heart an initials carved into a post in the carriage house that they renovating. It was fun to meat Avery's mother and step-father in this book. In the current mystery readers get to see some of Kate's past and meet another one of Avery's family members. I'm really enjoying this series and looking forward to the next one in the series.
February 7, 2018
I LOVE this series and this is my favorite so far! The mystery is more intriguing and there are more twists and surprises. There is an old mystery which adds to the current one they are trying to solve. I really enjoyed the double mystery and it is well done. Avery's Mom and Step-dad are visiting from CA. Avery & Derek are asked to renovate Kate's carriage house into a house for Kate & her fiance Chief of Police Wayne to live in after their wedding New Years Eve. Kate's ex boyfriend and her daughter's dad is found dead. Then Derek's stepsister is missing. Plus they find lovers initials while they are renovating the carriage house which leads them to learn more about some ancesters. Avery & Derrick work together to solve the mysteries and renovate the carriage house. Avery & Derek's relationship is more romantic. This is an awesome cozy mystery- an awesome intriguing mystery (or 2), interesting and likeable characters, romance, friendship & humor. This one has even more of everything! Loved it!
July 30, 2025
A cozy mystery set around the holidays, an upcoming wedding and a murder and missing person. The characters are believable. It was an easy read.
July 25, 2010
Avery and her partner Derek are redoing a carriage house as a getaway for Kate, who runs the local bed and breakfast, and who is about to marry police chief Wayne. When Avery and Derek find a dead body in the house, and the corpse turns out to be the father of Kate's college age daughter, the job hits a snag. Wayne can't investigate, so the state troopers are called in. Avery's mother and stepfather are visiting from California, and Derek's stepsister Beatrice leaves her husband in Boston and moves in with his folks, so the duo have plenty to keep them busy. Then Beatrice disappears, and their sleuthing moves into high gear.
April 5, 2010
Another great cozy from Jennie. I think what I really enjoy about this series is that Avery, the heroine, remains the same but the books don't seem to echo one another. Each is a new adventure, no repetitive cliches or phrases, no feeling like the heroine isn't naturally maturing and progressing. I hope that Jennie is planning on a fourth because I'm looking forward to Avery's next adventure.
July 10, 2024
Avery Baker and her boyfriend, Derek Ellis, are working together to renovate their friend Kate's old carriage house into a home for Kate and her soon-to-be husband, Wayne, the chief of police of the small coastal town of Waterfield, Maine. All is going well until Avery and Derek find a dead body wirh a connection to Kate's past in the carriage house one morning, bringing all of the renovations to a halt, and also putting Kate and Wayne at the top of the suspect list. As if this wasn't enough, one of Derek's family members goes missing and Avery's mom and step-dad arrive in town for a visit from California. Soon, Avery, Derek, Kate and even Avery's mom get pulled into the investigation, trying to fit all of the pieces of both incidents together. In the meantime, Avery is also trying to determine whose initials were carved into an old part of the carriage house when it was originally constructed.
Although I enjoy the small town coastal setting and the main characters in this series, there didn't seem to be quite as much interaction between the local townspeople in this book as usual. I did like that Avery and her mom got along so well and had such a great relationship. I'm wondering if Avery's jealous streak when it comes to Derek's ex-wife will eventually hurt her relationship with Derek, though.
Although I enjoy the small town coastal setting and the main characters in this series, there didn't seem to be quite as much interaction between the local townspeople in this book as usual. I did like that Avery and her mom got along so well and had such a great relationship. I'm wondering if Avery's jealous streak when it comes to Derek's ex-wife will eventually hurt her relationship with Derek, though.
May 21, 2025
When Avery and her boyfriend, Derek, find themselves between renovating flips, their friend Kate asks them to renovate the old carriage house on the grounds of the B&B she owns so she can move into it once she gets married to police chief Wayne. It will be a tall order to complete the job before NYE, which is when Kate and Wayne are getting married. Nevertheless, Avery and Derek dive in. Their work comes to a halt, however, when a dead body is discovered in the carriage house. The victim is someone Kate knew all too well. Now Avery finds herself less concerned about her friend’s future living quarters and more worried about keeping Kate out of prison.
Lively story with lots going on: the murder, a mysterious disappearance, the arrival of Avery’s mother and stepfather for a visit, and an old mystery concerning a love triangle that Avery is determined to unravel. I enjoyed reading about her engaged in activities that did not involve investigating the crime. Avery and other characters were three-dimensional and relatable. I figured some things out early, but others caught me by surprise.
Fun read, four stars
Lively story with lots going on: the murder, a mysterious disappearance, the arrival of Avery’s mother and stepfather for a visit, and an old mystery concerning a love triangle that Avery is determined to unravel. I enjoyed reading about her engaged in activities that did not involve investigating the crime. Avery and other characters were three-dimensional and relatable. I figured some things out early, but others caught me by surprise.
Fun read, four stars
December 5, 2016
Avery and Derek's renovation business has gone quiet for the winter, so they take on a job to rebuild a carriage house for a friend from the ground up. But well into the job they arrive at the site to discover the dead body of the friend's ex-husband.
I'd forgotten this was one of the ones pulled from the library shelves during the postal strike and I got myself all excited for nothing. A cozy with a supportive partner acting as both sidekick and love interest? What a concept! What a dynamic! What a- oh, it's the third in the series, never mind. Yeah, I checked Goodreads and the first book sounds pretty par for the course love interest-wise, but everything's settled and established by this book so it's in stark difference from all the 'first in a new series' ones I've been going through. My god, the formula gets repetitive. This was a breath of fresh air.
This one has a background mystery with roots in the past, with names carved in the timber of a house being renovated. It's always a treat for me to come across a mystery that references actual history/traditions, as it gives the town and world a sense of grounding, like it didn't just pop into existence with the first novel. In this one we learn a bit about the yeowomen and Richtfest (topping out ceremony). The first were female yeomen, who were admitted to clerical positions in the navy in World War 1. The topping out ceremony is a Scandinavian tradition to appease the tree spirits displaced with the construction of wooden buildings. When the bones of the project are finished (the last beam is secured), a tree decorated with streamers is set up on top and the workers break for a toast and sometimes a meal to celebrate. While still in use, it's been modernized to include having workers sign the topmost spire in skyscrapers and masons celebrate the bedding of the last brick, and its popularity has spread to Canada and the US.
Props for considering that the lover's initials might be for a gay couple when the possibility comes up. It would have made an interesting twist, but even if it didn't go that way it was a unique little red herring to throw at us.
The main plot was acceptable but while the first book in a cozy mystery certainly tends to read like paint-by-numbers, the sequels blend together too. A main mystery with lower stakes than in the first book, the victim and suspects are all new characters so there's no risk of being betrayed by someone we've already learned to like, an occasional secondary mystery to keep readers occupied (due to the previously mentioned lower stakes), all fluffed up with lead character personal life development/drama. The solution was clever, I didn't see it coming at all, but some of the clues were smacking them in the face and the characters were willfully ignoring them (Person A lives hours away and has a super busy schedule and can't be reached but no one knows if he's away from home or just ignoring calls, while person B is known to be staying somewhere in town but no one knows where. The cops find out someone's been staying in a model home and the characters just assume it was person A?). It got old fast.
The love interest isn't as bland as usual and is pretty supportive of his girlfriend's ability to help in his renovation business, but at the same time he doesn't sound like a very good businessman. The odd comments are thrown in about his past work and he seems to have a history of arguing with his customers and refusing to replace things he thinks shouldn't be removed. For example, in the first book he was doing a cosmetic reno of a property Avery inherited and flat out refused to tear out the kitchen cupboards. After some serious design work on her part she likes them well enough now, but she's the homeowner and shouldn't have needed to do that work at all when she'd hired Derek to get rid of them. If they were that nice, he could have taken them home with him instead of throwing them out, but this isn't the only occasion that's mentioned where he refuses on the grounds of preserving the original accents/architecture. He also has the unlikable habit of writing off Avery's dislike of his ex-wife as jealousy.
Avery's character was a bland cozy lead without many attributes going for her, so what little personality trait she's given in this book really shines through. She's insecure about her parents liking Derek, on how useful her decorating skills would be in his reno business, and on any other little thing she can find to fret about. Anytime Derek's ex-wife shows up, and she's got a large role in this book, the other woman is dismissive and 'customer service friendly' to Avery and her mother, and flirts and cozies up to Derek and Avery's stepfather. But whenever Avery shows her dislike of Melissa it's dismissed by Derek as insecurity or jealousy, despite her mother having the same reaction (the more I type up this review the less I'm liking the romantic lead of this series). Also, she has habit of sharing other people's personal information. A friend's husband did time and they spent the last 5 years keeping it a secret from the rest of the town? Well, now that Avery knows it's just going to get out anyway so she might as well start spreading by telling this other friend all about it.
And like most other modern cozies it ends with craft advice based on the theme of the series. I can take this alright from the sewing/knitting/cooking themed books, but if I need advice on upholstering a wall I won't be getting it from the back of a murder mystery. I'd go to Pinterest. Especially since one of her bright decorating ideas is to add window baskets to the skylights.
The verdict? This one's a pass, and according to Goodreads I'd already read the first in the series and wasn't any more impressed with it than I was with this one.
I'd forgotten this was one of the ones pulled from the library shelves during the postal strike and I got myself all excited for nothing. A cozy with a supportive partner acting as both sidekick and love interest? What a concept! What a dynamic! What a- oh, it's the third in the series, never mind. Yeah, I checked Goodreads and the first book sounds pretty par for the course love interest-wise, but everything's settled and established by this book so it's in stark difference from all the 'first in a new series' ones I've been going through. My god, the formula gets repetitive. This was a breath of fresh air.
This one has a background mystery with roots in the past, with names carved in the timber of a house being renovated. It's always a treat for me to come across a mystery that references actual history/traditions, as it gives the town and world a sense of grounding, like it didn't just pop into existence with the first novel. In this one we learn a bit about the yeowomen and Richtfest (topping out ceremony). The first were female yeomen, who were admitted to clerical positions in the navy in World War 1. The topping out ceremony is a Scandinavian tradition to appease the tree spirits displaced with the construction of wooden buildings. When the bones of the project are finished (the last beam is secured), a tree decorated with streamers is set up on top and the workers break for a toast and sometimes a meal to celebrate. While still in use, it's been modernized to include having workers sign the topmost spire in skyscrapers and masons celebrate the bedding of the last brick, and its popularity has spread to Canada and the US.
Props for considering that the lover's initials might be for a gay couple when the possibility comes up. It would have made an interesting twist, but even if it didn't go that way it was a unique little red herring to throw at us.
The main plot was acceptable but while the first book in a cozy mystery certainly tends to read like paint-by-numbers, the sequels blend together too. A main mystery with lower stakes than in the first book, the victim and suspects are all new characters so there's no risk of being betrayed by someone we've already learned to like, an occasional secondary mystery to keep readers occupied (due to the previously mentioned lower stakes), all fluffed up with lead character personal life development/drama. The solution was clever, I didn't see it coming at all, but some of the clues were smacking them in the face and the characters were willfully ignoring them (Person A lives hours away and has a super busy schedule and can't be reached but no one knows if he's away from home or just ignoring calls, while person B is known to be staying somewhere in town but no one knows where. The cops find out someone's been staying in a model home and the characters just assume it was person A?). It got old fast.
The love interest isn't as bland as usual and is pretty supportive of his girlfriend's ability to help in his renovation business, but at the same time he doesn't sound like a very good businessman. The odd comments are thrown in about his past work and he seems to have a history of arguing with his customers and refusing to replace things he thinks shouldn't be removed. For example, in the first book he was doing a cosmetic reno of a property Avery inherited and flat out refused to tear out the kitchen cupboards. After some serious design work on her part she likes them well enough now, but she's the homeowner and shouldn't have needed to do that work at all when she'd hired Derek to get rid of them. If they were that nice, he could have taken them home with him instead of throwing them out, but this isn't the only occasion that's mentioned where he refuses on the grounds of preserving the original accents/architecture. He also has the unlikable habit of writing off Avery's dislike of his ex-wife as jealousy.
Avery's character was a bland cozy lead without many attributes going for her, so what little personality trait she's given in this book really shines through. She's insecure about her parents liking Derek, on how useful her decorating skills would be in his reno business, and on any other little thing she can find to fret about. Anytime Derek's ex-wife shows up, and she's got a large role in this book, the other woman is dismissive and 'customer service friendly' to Avery and her mother, and flirts and cozies up to Derek and Avery's stepfather. But whenever Avery shows her dislike of Melissa it's dismissed by Derek as insecurity or jealousy, despite her mother having the same reaction (the more I type up this review the less I'm liking the romantic lead of this series). Also, she has habit of sharing other people's personal information. A friend's husband did time and they spent the last 5 years keeping it a secret from the rest of the town? Well, now that Avery knows it's just going to get out anyway so she might as well start spreading by telling this other friend all about it.
And like most other modern cozies it ends with craft advice based on the theme of the series. I can take this alright from the sewing/knitting/cooking themed books, but if I need advice on upholstering a wall I won't be getting it from the back of a murder mystery. I'd go to Pinterest. Especially since one of her bright decorating ideas is to add window baskets to the skylights.
The verdict? This one's a pass, and according to Goodreads I'd already read the first in the series and wasn't any more impressed with it than I was with this one.
July 25, 2020
The third book of A Do-It-Yourself Mystery in which Avery and Derek are renovated Kate's carriage house behind the B & B for her and Wayne's new home before their wedding. Derek comes across initials engraved on the post (W-E plus E-R with a heart). As always the someone ends up dead and the body is dumped in the carriage house. The dead body is Kate's daughter, Shannon father, Gerald. What a mess! While Avery is waiting to help with renovations she decides to solve the mystery of the initials. Avery finds out some interesting facts about the Ellis & Ritter Family during her research. What a tangle of webs of the past!
While this all going on Beatrice, Derek's step-sister left her husband Steve and now is living with Derek's dad and step-mother. And someone still needs to figure out who killed Gerald!
The storyline was good but a little too much going on!
While this all going on Beatrice, Derek's step-sister left her husband Steve and now is living with Derek's dad and step-mother. And someone still needs to figure out who killed Gerald!
The storyline was good but a little too much going on!
August 25, 2017
Annoying or entertaining, that is the question I have even having read it. I like some parts about the series and hate other things. Please stop this endless jealousy by the main character Avery. It gets really tiring. Also the editing is terrible, there are so many tiny details about renovation that are just wrong. Unfortunately they all just add up and you wonder does the author know anything about construction, does she have anyone who does proof read the books? There is enough here that I liked that I will try another but I really urge Jennie Bentley to improve the editing!
September 15, 2021
This is number 3 in the Do-It-Yourself Mystery series. This series differs from others by having the MC find love in the first book. Usually it's a love triangle, but at the very least, it's drug out for a while.
I liked this one. The mystery was good and we got some more family background on Derek, as well as meeting Avery's mom and stepdad. One thing annoyed me. Derek assumes Avery only dislikes Melissa because she's his ex and not because she's a heinous bitch. Dude. It's not all about you.
I liked this one. The mystery was good and we got some more family background on Derek, as well as meeting Avery's mom and stepdad. One thing annoyed me. Derek assumes Avery only dislikes Melissa because she's his ex and not because she's a heinous bitch. Dude. It's not all about you.
November 4, 2021
Avery and Derek are renovating a carriage house into a private residence for Kate and Wayne who are preparing for their wedding. Avery is also looking forward to a visit from her mother and step-father. She is not pleased when plans are derailed by a dead body and missing woman.
This is another great book in the Do-It-Yourself mystery series. I enjoy the characters and the setting. The storyline is interesting and I enjoyed Avery’s side investigation of the carved initials. I love researching things like that, though I never have such an easy time of it. I recommend this book (series).
This is another great book in the Do-It-Yourself mystery series. I enjoy the characters and the setting. The storyline is interesting and I enjoyed Avery’s side investigation of the carved initials. I love researching things like that, though I never have such an easy time of it. I recommend this book (series).
May 8, 2020
Another enjoyable tale. Nothing like parents to complicate matters for many people. Wedding bells are in the air, but first a murder and an ancestral mystery need to be solved first. I enjoyed that some of the characters took on slightly different roles from previous books. I found myself guessing pretty far into the story which was an additional treat. I recommend this book, but do recommend starting at the beginning of the series to understand the characters’ relationships better.
February 8, 2020
This is the first book by this author I've read. It is not the first in the series, and while the book is really quite enjoyable I felt like there was relational history I was missing. In this story line we see an older mystery, and the new one (both hitting close to home) that was fun to see how it all comes together
August 26, 2025
This third installment of the “A Do-It-Yourself Mystery” series is a cozy mystery. The story is narrated from the first-person perspective of the female protagonist, Avery. While it’s another okay mystery in the series, it leans heavily on common tropes found in the cozy genre. However, what sets it apart is its focus on the featured remodeling and design elements.
July 27, 2018
Really liked the first 2 of the series....had to wait to get the next 2....read a few other authors...jumped right back in, like that friend you havent seen in years...but its like you were never apart.
August 28, 2020
This was a good read. Avery and her boyfriend are redoing a friend’s carriage as a house two months before the friend weds.
The story had a good amount to it despite being a short book. However, the writing style was a bit stilted. It kept the book from being rated higher.
The story had a good amount to it despite being a short book. However, the writing style was a bit stilted. It kept the book from being rated higher.
January 15, 2018
Fun cozy mystery series.
February 11, 2019
Idyllic town, idyllic friends, nasty woman to hate (because she deserves to be hated as only someone who thinks negative attention means she is important) and a dead body. Great cozy mystery.
April 2, 2019
I'm really enjoying this series. Love Derek and Avery's relationship.
October 1, 2019
Great Series
February 6, 2020
Great
dnf
August 13, 2021It wasn't bad, I just wasn't in the mood at the time. May try again in the future.
August 21, 2021
3.5 stars
February 5, 2022
A bit better than the first two....
January 10, 2023
Another good one in this series. Some time with family, as well as a murder.
March 23, 2025
These are pretty fun for murder mysteries. And I did not guess the bad guy this time!
May 12, 2025
New author to me but one that I would keep reading
May 27, 2019
A great story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews