Sarah Graves

When I learned that I'd won a copy of Sarah Graves' Winter at the Door through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers, I felt ambivalent about the news. I'm a fan of her 'Home Repair is Homicide' series, but I don't always like all of the series an author writes. I needn't have worried. This first Lizzie Snow novel lacks the humor of the other series, but I kept reading. There were some decent red herrings. A few subplots were left open for more books.

First off, Lizzie Snow is no Jake Tiptree. show more Lizzie has no family except for her niece, Nicki, who disappeared years ago. She'd be nine now, if she's still alive. Lizzie has left her job as a Boston homicide cop to move to Maine's northernmost county, Aroostook, because she's received a tip that Nicki might have been spotted there.

Bearkill is a small town. How will Lizzie adjust to being a deputy there? Her furnished rental house hasn't much to brag about except its view. Well, there's a nice backyard if you like that sort of thing (I do!). I approved of Lizzie's feelings about her new office and the changes to be made there. Her first test of small-town policing comes when she visits Area 51, the local bar. It won't be her last.

Ms. Graves gives caring readers reason to worry. There's a baby whose loving grandmother's illness is worse than her daughter realizes. There's also a husky teen with tattoos and piercings whose home life is far from ideal. Worse is a stranger who wants Lizzie watched. Why?

There are two potential romances here: a state trooper and a veterinarian. Unless there's some Awful Revelation later down the road, I'm rooting for the vet. Cat lovers are out of luck, but dog lovers have a black and tan hound named Rascal to enjoy.

Has there been a rash of suicides in the county, or is there a serial killer at work? So far as Lizzie knows, the dead men have only their former occupations in common. Then the search for Nicki takes a deadly turn. Who's playing for keeps and why?

I loved the descriptions of the woods and the characters grew on me. I still like Jake Tiptree better, but I'm looking forward to more of Lizzie Snow. By the way, Lizzie was introduced in the 16th and last Home Repair is Homicide mystery, A Bat in the Belfry, if you haven't read it. show less

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE MALTED MILKSHAKE is Book 2 in Sarah Graves’ A Death by Chocolate Mystery series.
I couldn’t be happier about this book. Sarah Graves is a clever, interesting author whose previous two mystery series I have enjoyed immensely. Jacobia (Jake) Tiptree and her family and friends in the small coastal town of Eastport, Maine, segued effortlessly from the Home Repair is Homicide series into this new one.
Jake and her best friend Ellie Valentine have opened a bake shop, The show more Chocolate Moose, in an Eastport store front. Their specialty is chocolate. And, it turns out, homicide investigations.
Toby Moran, Eastport’s local bad boy, is murdered outside of the Rubber Duck Bar & Grille.
Jake and Ellie hope to find the real murderer.
I like the detailed characters, the incredible sense of place, the wisecracking humor and the plots. Since I live in Maine, it is very nice to see one of its towns portrayed in such a friendly, descriptive light. (Aside from the murders, of course.)
I could really go for a nice chocolate malt right now! show less

Here's a twist on the successful approach to writing a mystery series: after carefully developing some ten supporting characters over eleven books, now send nine of them away/out of town/out of the country with little explanation; after charming and intriguing readers with the personality, streets and buildings of the town of Eastport, Maine, now have the mystery take place 90% or more away from the town in the Maine wilds; after basing the series on home repairs and letting the reader learn show more about the lay-out and history of the main character's home as a focal point, now reduce the technical repair to fixing a lamp and filling a hole in a cement front walk. A kidnapped child, at one point thrown up in the air and lying motionless on the ground, is simply added Bizarro-Eastport-World fodder. As you can gather, this book was a big change from the previous mysteries and monumentally disappointing: endless narration from the dim minds of evil-doers or a previously unknown babysitter, and even poor treatment of Jacobia from the one supporting character who does interact with her a few times in the book (the police chief) but who takes none of her observation or experiences seriously which, in turn, leaves her open to more problems (not exactly well motivated given his support in other books). At the final moment he reveals he apparently was "helping" her by doing long distance research quietly behind the scenes...all very forced. This work was tedious to read aside from a few pages in the beginning where I read curt dismissals of character after character (poor son Sam to an apartment in Portland e.g.) and a few brief pages at the very end where they all re-appear, and her father helps Jacobia clarify a mystery about her mother. All the pages in between are ramblings of others and hasty actions by Jacobia (whom I have come to dislike more much as inversely I got to like her ex-husband more as the books went along). This will absolutely be the last book I buy by this author…anything else will be a library borrowing at best in the hope of reading a mystery involving more about Eastport, Sam, her house, and the other characters. I liked that this was never “just” a tea-cozy series, but if I wanted to read mysteries involving bitter, sniping criminals or child kidnappers traipsing about in the wild without any interesting supporting characters, I have other authors I can Google. But to end on a good note, visit, if at all possible, the still unspoilt town of Eastport, Maine: you’ll find houses, shops and restaurants, and local geography all much as they are in the books. We did and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. show less

The town's pirate festival promises to be good business for Jacobia "Jake" and her friend Ellie who own the local bakery. When a man turns up dead in their basement, Jake becomes the chief suspect and knows she needs to catch the person or persons responsible before she lands in jail. The bakery plays a secondary role in this adventure with the seaside location paramount. While the main characters feel better developed than in the first installment, the mystery itself needs better plotting. show more Jake and Ellie come across as bumbling fools who fail to heed their own intuition, rather than clever amateur detectives. I almost quit reading this installment when a snake scene went on far too long. Potential exists for the series, but it still needs a dose of reality achieve it. show less