A BAT IN THE BELFRY is part of the Home Repair is Homicide series, which is set in coastal Maine. A teenaged girl climbs a derelict bell tower at night for a bet, and someone hiding at the top kills her. The townsfolk are astonished to hear the bell ringing after many years, and the police hurry to investigate. Jacobia Tiptree, known as Jake, moved to Moose Island to escape an ex-husband - who promptly followed her - and ever since has been repairing a fixer- upper house and helping to solve murders. But maybe this case is beyond her skills.

A BAT IN THE BELFRY provides handy tips like, hold tiny nails steady with a needle-nose pliers while tapping them in. It's hard to understand why exactly a divorcee with a young son bought a three-story and attic house with forty- eight windows, in need of much work. The heating bills alone must be enormous. But by now Jake has made progress, remarried, and her son, in his twenties, has a friend called Chip to visit for a few days. Chip is a researcher while his girlfriend writes up crime, and Chip happens to be out for a walk at night when the old bell is heard ringing. Lizzie Snow who has just arrived on the island is looking for a missing child, and she tells police that Chip was at the crime scene. Conflicted between helping the police and protecting her guest, Jake just has to get involved, against her better judgement.

Like all the fictional small towns with soaring murder rates, everyone knows everyone in the Moose Island community and where hunting and fishing are part of getting the groceries, weapons abound. In this tale by Sarah Graves a weather alert is issued and a storm rolls off the sea, replacing the usual fog, with spray surging over the harbour walls as hail pelts Jake while the wind buffets her sideways. Between the weather and the large cast of characters, most of whom are new to the scene, there is plenty to occupy the reader. Jake also has a plumbing emergency to keep her on her toes, and it's possible that a colony of carpenter ants are making the bell tower weak enough to collapse in the gale. But that's all part of the fun. And we get told that a sticking wooden window sash will move easily if the channel is sprayed with furniture polish.

A BAT IN THE BELFRY is not so cosy as some crime novels, more amateur sleuth and with plentiful location detail to interest even the most jaded reader.

Book Summary

When it comes to home repair, Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree is a fervent wielder of power drills and paint brushes. And when catching criminals, she’s been known to really bring down the hammer. But when a shocking murder rocks the small town of Eastport, Maine, Jake may be the next victim for whom the bell tolls. It is nearly midnight when the enormous bell in the belfry of All Faith Chapel—silent for decades—booms forth, startling awake the entire town of Eastport. Upon inspection of the steeple, the police uncover the body of local teenager Karen Hansen, who had climbed the belfry’s dark, rickety stairs for a midnight rendezvous. But instead of the promise of an exciting new life, Karen meets her death. Meanwhile, as an epic nor’easter bears down on the idyllic island town, Jake Tiptree hurries to shore up her ramshackle old house against the big blow. An amateur detective, she has sworn off chasing criminals. But when the news of Karen’s murder spreads and much of the evidence points to Jake’s likable houseguest, she and her sleuthing partner, Ellie White, get to work. They discover an unexpected ally in newcomer Lizzie Snow, a woman from “away” who seemed to have blown into town with the nor’easter, and who also seems to know a lot about the mind of a killer. Can Jake and Ellie trust her? As a killer roams free and the townsfolk struggle against the pounding, screaming storm, the resulting tempest of gossip and suspicion rivals anything the Atlantic could brew up—and threatens to keep Jake and Ellie from putting the final nail in this cold-blooded case.