Tool & Die

A sleuth as tough as the nails she drives into the walls of her 1823 Federal home, (Publishers Weekly) Jacobia Jake Tiptree's leisurely summer dreams involve rebuilding the front porch of her Eastport, Maine, fixer-upper and shingling the leaky tool shed out back. That's why she's hired the avenging angle of household hygiene, Bella Diamond, to keep her house and her teenage son, Sam, in tip-top shape. But when Bella confides in Jake that she's been receiving death threats, Jake has two choices: find out who is frightening the hapless housekeeper--or risk losing her Jake is on the case. Then, her prime suspect turns up dead. With a marauding moose loose in town, a troublesome love triangle occupying Sam, and her estranged relatives about to descend for Fourth of July (the upstairs bedrooms are still unpainted ), Jake's golden Maine summer is sure to be anything but peaceful. No matter how carefully Jake remodels her life, murder still finds a way to take up residence