The first quarter of the book held my interest. Many times I was about to give up and close the book. I stuck it out, hoping that every page that led me to the end would get better and that it would be all worth it. Sorry to say, but I should have closed the book long before the end. ( )

I enjoyed this installment of the Home Repair is Homicide series very much. There is a slight supernatural bent to the story, as a book that may or may not have been written by a witch is the focus. The book was being authenticated by a man who seemed to look for satanic books on the side. When he was murdered, the book became the focus of many people who all wanted the book back.

There is also the subplot of Jake remodeling her bathroom. She grows irritated by the outdated bathroom and demolishes it without thinking. It was hard for me to believe that she would actually do that, given that it seems it was the only bathroom with a shower/tub in the whole house.

I thought the story moved along quickly. I liked Dave, the new man in town, who was searching for the book, and on a personal mission of revenge. Jake's son, Sam, did not appear in the book much. The book also advances the romance between Jake's dad and her housekeeper.

I am looking forward to the next installment in this series. ( )

Finally Graves gets to the topic of the book that was found in Jake's house's foundation. We found out that the man that she sent it to to get it appraised (and have him tell her if it was authentic or not) was killed at the end of the previous book, and in this book we have Ellie and Jake investigating who did it.

And boy are there quite a few suspects who could have done the deed to poor Horace. There's, of course, the guy from away (although he is from New England, Rhode Island to be specific, although I could never figure out if the college he taught at was based on a real one in RI or not), who was Horace's friend. There's the crazy writer lady who is, well, really, really out of her mind, a guy who is sorta also crazy, and the guy's younger sidekick too.

I liked how some of the plot had been seeded in the previous book (although when I was reading those previous books it was annoying to not have the 'boo story' right then). Most of the series before these books were separate entities, easily read as stand-alones, but now the series has gotten much more tightly woven as a series.

There was also quite a subplot involving Jake's Dad and Bella, Jake's housekeeper, very big one, and I mostly liked how it ended too.

On the other hand, regarding the very end of the book, I mostly thought it was a bit --meh-- after all that led up to it.

A solid novel in the series, but not my favorite one by a long shot. ( )

Dave DiMaio comes to Eastport to avenge the death of his friend and mentor Horace Robotham. He is also on the trail of a very old book that went missing the day Horace died. Unfortunately someone else in Eastport is also hunting for the book, and they are willing to kill for it.

Jake Tiptree is the owner of the book, and she wants it back too! However, she doesn't entirely trust Dave so starts to hunt for the book on her own.

I enjoyed this entry in the series. All of the regular characters are there, Wade, Sam, Ellie, and George all help with the mystery. Looking forward to the next in the series. ( )

Starts out strong but has a very disappointing ending ( )