Her house rattles, squeaks, leaks, has loose plaster, and every other problem imaginable, but Jake makes an odd sort of sense when she says, "other than the prospect of being hanged, nothing concentrates the mind so wonderfully well as a session of scraping paint." Jake has time to paint and restore her house in the slower paced town of Eastport, where the lifestyle is down-to-earth and the inhabitants are practical and pragmatic.

"Coming upon a body," says Jake, "is an experience, like childbirth or a head-on collision, that takes the breath out of a person," especially when the body is found in her own house with an ice pick sticking out of its cranium. The victim turns out to be Threnody McIlwaine, one of the world's richest corporate raiders, whose enemies abound. Jake is very surprised when her best friend, Ellie, confesses to the murder, thinking that she has the "killing potential of an embroidered handkerchief."

Jake is sure that she is protecting someone and sets out to discover what really happened. It would be difficult to find a more diverse and intriguing set of suspects. There is Threnody's latest wife, Nina, who is a refugee from a poor war-torn country, her numerous family members, and her suspiciously handsome cousin who show up just days later to enjoy her newly inherited wealth. Then there are the victim's two neglected and unhappy daughters – one married, the other with a boyfriend – and all of them wanted his money.

Unfortunately for Ellie, both her father and her boyfriend are suspects, too. Her father is completely broke now because of Threnody's bad investment advice, and her boyfriend, George, after hearing an argument between Ellie's father and Threnody knows that without any money to take care of her invalid mother, Ellie will never leave home and marry him.

Interwoven into the plot is Jake's appealing teenage son, Sam, her annoying ex-husband, Victor, and her boyfriend, Wade, who is not only handsome, but also sensitive, supportive, and refreshingly sensible. And of course, what mystery would be complete without a resident ghost, who opens and shuts doors and occasionally leaves a vanishing, pink ribbon with seed pearls.

In her debut mystery, Sarah Graves, does an excellent job introducing the town of Eastport and its inhabitants; her heroine approaches life with fortitude, honesty, wry wit and an infectious sense of mirth. The plot's twists and turns are neither too confusing nor too simplistic, but leave plenty of surprises for the finale. It is always a treat to find a new author, and I look forward to the next Jake and Ellie mystery, which is due out in May, 1999.

--Monica Pope