Book Review: Triple Witch by Sarah Graves (Home Repair is Homicide Mysteries #2)

Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Interesting mystery

Cons: Lack of character depth, poor writing style

The Bottom Line:

Shallow characters

Detract from the mystery

For average book

Second Book Stumble

Triple Witch is the second entry in the Home Repair is Homicide mysteries. Series star Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree has mostly retired from her life of high finance in New York City to the town of Eastport, Maine. She's bought an old house that she fixes up when not solving the latest crime wave.

As the town of Eastport begins to gear up for the Fourth of July holiday, Jake has her hands full. First, her ex-husband is coming to spend the holiday with her and their son, Sam. He's insisting that Sam plan to enroll early in an Ivy League college when all Sam wants is to build boats. Also, Jake needs to fix up the outside of her house for the historical inspector coming to town.

Of course, all the gossip around town is about the murder. Kenny Mumford was the town drunk and trouble maker. He was also a former boyfriend of Jake's best friend, Ellie. Ellie isn't taking this murder lightly. But the stakes are raised when another body turns up. What is happening in this formerly peaceful town?

This book has an interesting premise and main character, and I was hoping to like it more then I did. However, the plot developed unevenly, with the sub-plots slowing down the main story in the beginning. Things do pick up in the second half, but the ending is so convoluted it takes pages of exposition to explain. If a few more clues had been thrown into the mix, the ending might have flowed better. Still, I was hooked on the story, turning pages to see what would happen next.

While Jake and her family are well developed, many of the other characters seem to fall into stereotypes that serve only to advance the story. This is especially true of the suspects, many of whom aren't especially interesting. Some of the characters only get a scene or two, making it hard to develop their personality.

And the writing style was choppy, often pulling me out of the book as I tried to understand what the writer meant. The author includes lists and asides in the first person narration, making some sentences and paragraphs contain too many thoughts to keep straight based on one reading. Then there’s the dialogue. The author loves to put the dialogue tag in the middle of the character's sentences, interrupting the flow of the line.

I enjoyed the first book more then Triple Witch, so I'm willing to give the series another try. Here's hoping that the third entry erases some of the shortcomings in this one.