Bat In The Belfry: A Home Repair Is Homicide Mystery (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
This was my first book in this series. It is a very good cozy mystery. The story opens with the murder of a teenage girl in the old bell tower of a local church. The ringing of the church bell is what alerts the town that something is wrong in the church tower. To complicate matters, a major storm is blowing in from the ocean onto the coast of Maine. Jake Tiptree is trying to prepare her old house for the storm, but she notices that her son's houseguest, Chip, is out in the storm. When he is seen near the crime scene, he becomes a suspect in the gruesome murder. Jake begins her own investigation when the local police believe Chip is the murderer. Mixed into the plot are some teenage hoodlums, a long missing child, and some romance. Good details about the storm and the investigations without bogging down the story line. Interesting characters. Would recommmend the series. Part of the 'Home Repair is Homicide' series, which is set in coastal Maine, New England. A teenaged girl climbs the stairs of a derelict bell tower at night for a bet, and someone hiding at the top kills her. The townsfolk 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 and ever since has been repairing a fixer-upper house and helping to solve murders.We get 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 crumbling three-storey and attic house with forty-eight windows. The heating bills must be beyond her. But by now Jake has remarried, and her son, in his twenties, has a friend called Chip to visit for a few days. 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, her niece, 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.Another of the fictional small towns with soaring murder rates, in the Moose Island community where hunting and fishing are part of getting the groceries, weapons abound. 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 going on. Jake also has a plumbing emergency, and 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 of this tale. And we learn 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.
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