Bad idea on two accounts:  first, some of those walls are load-bearing walls, something her free-spirit Dad reminds her to always check first, and second, Jacobia has agreed to host a tea party the next afternoon for a retired teacher and an islander is always judged by the success of one’s tea party. 

Both of these things make Jake very cross, and thus she is not thinking straight when a man shows up on her doorstep, says he was friends with the book dealer to whom Jake sent a book she found in her basement for an appraisal, and asks Jake if he can leave his gun with her. 

Dave DiMaio has come to Eastport to locate a former associate of his. Dave suspects this associate may have something to do with, or know something about, Horace’s death.  Horace was murdered shortly after Jake sent a book, dated 1825, that had been sealed in a basement wall.  The odd thing about the book was that the name of every owner of the house, up to and including Jake, was written in what appears to be blood.  Jake is sure the book must be a fake and that someone has hidden it in the walls as a joke, but who would play such a cruel prank, and why would Horace end up dead shortly after he received the book? 

Once Jake (with the help of pal Ellie) begins to see things more clearly, she becomes suspicious of Dave and sets about to learn the true motives for his visit to Maine; she also sets about polishing her silver and dusting out her best tea cups, before the onslaught of the tea ladies black ball her socially.  

Jake is an enjoyable character that anyone who has every tried a home improvement project, never mind an entire houseful of them, will empathize with.  Her ex-husband has recently died and is no longer haunting her, allowing her to get on with her life with new hubby Wade.  Jake’s son Sam has also taken the first steps toward sobriety, and she is learning to become supportive while still letting him do this on his own. 

Ellie, with baby daughter Lee in tow, is a whirlwind and enthusiastic cheerleader for Jake when life gets her down.  Jake is also coping with her free-spirited father who has just asked Jake’s housekeeper to marry him, causing Belle to be cranky because her track record with husbands is less than stellar. 

This is a thoughtful mystery, with hints of the supernatural and include not only who wrote The Book of Old Houses and how did it get entombed in Jake’s basement, but also who killed Horace and how does it all link from Boston to tiny Eastport?   As always, the time spent with Jake is too short, leaving readers anxious for their next visit to the harbor town in Maine.  

                                                            --Jennifer Monahan WInberry