Bantam Books, 2008
Headed for Eastport, Packing Heat
Sarah Graves’s latest murder mystery, The Book of Old Houses, has a number of corpses, as you might expect, and a host of twists and turns — including a point of view and a narrative of a character other than Eastport’s amateur sleuth Jacobia Tiptree — that you might not expect.
The story opens with the character in question driving from Providence, Rhode Island, to Eastport — carrying a .38 Police Special, but that’s about all the plot that I’m going to reveal. Suffice it to say that there are plenty of curve balls to keep the reader guessing, and, of course, Tiptree does a pretty good imitation of The Perils of Pauline before the story ends.
The Book of Old Houses is the eleventh is this series of mysteries called “Home Repair Is Homicide.” As with past volumes Graves heads each chapter with practical advice entitled Tiptree’s Tips.
But she gets down to real advice in the text with the following: “Strategy: in a very old house you may think you need books on remodeling, but what you really need is Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. That radiator might have looked harmless enough just standing there in the bathroom corner, but I knew it intended to resist its own removal by the heating system equivalent of nuclear winter.”
An indication of how serious Jacobia is about home repair comes when husband Wade presents her with a special gift — a pair of soft-jawed (her emphasis, not mine) pliers. And she’s thrilled to pieces to get them.
And then there’s the Affair of the Bathtub, which is an exciting adventure in and of itself.
Readers of earlier mysteries will recognize many familiar faces, and of course there are new additions as well — some welcome, some not.
Graves also continues to paint vivid pictures of Eastport itself. For example, she writes: “Gray and white gulls floated over the paintbox blue waves of Passamaquoddy Bay, their outstretched wings nearly motionless as if suspended on invisible wires. Beyond, islands loomed out of a channel that led, Dave supposed, to the North Atlantic. Pine-studded and wild, the islands emerged from pale lingering fog banks like wrappings of spun glass.”
And any Eastporter will recognize this situation; it’s August, mind you: “By now tourists were streaming from the Motel East, freshly showered and looking for breakfast. I watched a woman in white shorts, a sleeveless shirt and running shoes get all the way to the edge of the motel’s freshly blacktopped parking lot before turning tail and dashing back to her room.” A few minutes later said woman reappears clad in a heavy sweater.
Readers of earlier Graves offerings will also notice that the title is a departure from shorter, zingier titles –Wreck the Halls, Tool & Die, and the like — as is the story itself. But the complex cast of characters, along with Jacobia Tiptree’s self-directed humor and inclination to get herself into trouble are still very much in evidence. In short, Graves just seems to get better and better.
Now, about that guy who’s heading for Eastport and packing heat: who is he and what’s he up to?
My lips are sealed.
Bob Gustafson is a semi-retired veteran reporter who lives and works in Eastport.