One of the “Home Repair” mysteries from Sarah Graves. This is my first venture into this series, and I’m disappointed. I was looking for a modern series; It struck me that, aside from Dick Francis, all the mystery authors I was seriously reading and collecting were dead. There was Tom Clancy, but I gave up on Jack Ryan after he became president and solved all the Isreali/Palestinian problems, and John LeCarre didn’t seem the same after the Soviet Union fell.

I have to say, though, that I’m not sure if I’m disappointed at the book itself, or because the book didn’t come close to living up to the hype that was stuffed into the first three pages. I found little of the “tart wit”, “zingy dialogue,” etc., I was promised.

What I found instead was a fairly serviceable plot, with the only “home repair” I noticed being dumpster diving for shutters and the handy tip that you need to clamp the work in place before applying the belt sander (so much for “Diane Mott Davidson with a toolbelt insetad of recipes;” since woodworking is my hobby, perhaps there were more tips that went by without being noticed). It wasn’t hard to see the end coming, especially when the (rather obvious) dope dealer died. Still it was handled with aplomb, and I always say I don’t mind knowing where I’m going as long as the trip is fun. I did wince, however, when the murderer, who went to great pains to remove something incriminating from one of the victims, was found, some 200 pages later, to still be carrying, in a pocket, that incriminating piece of evidence.

Bottom line? Don’t go into this book expecting the greatest mystery read of all time, or even of the year. The characterization is reminiscent of James Patterson’s all-woman murder society (it strikes me as I write this that, aside from Hercule Poirot, I haven’t run into any male protagonists in quite some time, the guys are always the villains and sometimes the sidekicks) but it’s a rung or two below that in terms of execution. It’s an adequate storyline, though; not a waste of time.

Recommendation? Tentative. I’m going back to sample another book (and possibly two) from this series before I give up on it. I haven’t however, decided to start buying hardcovers of it.