As the star of the series, Jacobia (Jake) Tiptree is the quintessential fixer-upper, beginning with fitting the pieces of her own life together after her divorce, saving her teenage son from delinquency, and of course, restoring her 1823 Federal clapboard home – complete with resident ghost. Ms. Graves' characters are perfectly fleshed-out and believable, her plot is strong and incorporates important, real-life issues, and her books are becoming some of my favorites.

Jacobia's career as a highly successful money manager in Manhattan ended when she discovered her neurosurgeon husband in bed with a medical secretary and her son involved with the wrong crowd of delinquent friends. She moved to a small fishing village in Maine to start over, and the move turned out to be a good one for both of them. But life in Eastport is not entirely idyllic, as Jake soon discovers.

Jake is out walking with her best friend, Ellie, when they find a dead body along the beach with a bullet hole in his head. The victim turns out to be Kenny Mumford, the town's bad boy and troublemaker. Ellie feels personally involved as she and Kenny dated in high school, so she is determined to uncover the truth.

Ellie and Jake sail out to Crow Island to break the bad news to Kenny's father, Timothy, who is devastated and hints that Kenny's life had recently turned around with the possibility of coming into a great deal of money. It does appear that Kenny had come into some money, because when Ellie and Jake go to collect Kenny's things for Timothy, they discover that Hallie, Kenny's new girlfriend is a young, unemployed heroin addict, and Kenny appears to have paid all her debts and bills.

Events become frightening when Ellie and Jake find Timothy's body and bags of money. Then Hallie warns Jake to quit asking questions or she will be hurt, but her warning is too late because Jake is already in the direct line of fire.

Meanwhile, Jake's ex-husband is staying in her home since all the hotels are full, and he is turning into the houseguest from hell. Jake knows that when Victor is involved in her life, disaster is not far behind. Therefore, she is resigned when she hears through the grapevine that the new owner of the vacant house outside of town is the New York trader, Baxter Willoughby, who bilked many victims out of millions of dollars. Her previous work for the SEC, helping them gather evidence to sentence him, is supposed to remain a secret, but Jake worries that he might know of her participation.

If Jake's relationship with her ex-husband is still strained, then her new romance with Wade continues to develop into something extraordinarily special. He never tries to stop her from doing anything she really wants, and he supports all her endeavors completely. Most importantly, his pragmatic, sensible exterior encompasses the interior of an ardent romantic.

Triple Witch has a crystal-clear, well-contrived plot line with intricately planned and detailed layers that produce a very commendable book. In addition, the charming characters and small community camaraderie insistently draw the reader in. The greatest compliment I can bestow upon the author is my desire to get to know more about all the characters in Ms. Graves' books, and their lives in Eastport, Maine. I wait anxiously for the next Jacobia Tiptree mystery.

--Monica Pope