The annual Salmon Festival is about to take place, and Eastport is crowded with natives, tourists, and an odd assortment of former residents. Ms. Graves pens a curiously gruesome murder while weaving even stronger relationships between Jake’s family, friends, and the entire town.

Reuben Tate has become the “sly grinning worm in the apple” of Eastport’s contented autumn and during his short return, he has had many run-ins with its inhabitants. This proves upsetting to most of the populace, including Victor. He has moved to town to be closer to his son, Sam, and he also plans to run a new trauma-care center that Jake is financially backing in order to keep him busy and out of her hair. While Jake, her boyfriend Wade, Sam, Victor and friends Ellie and George are dining out at a local restaurant, Reuben is especially obnoxious and bites off part of a man’s ear, then he confronts Victor and threatens him.

The next day, on an early morning walk, Jake and Ellie find Reuben’s body hanging by his feet in the cemetery, his throat slit by an antique scalpel. Then, the man Reuben had bitten the night before turns up dead, strangled with Victor’s tie. The police have enough evidence to tie Victor to both crimes, and he is arrested.

Although Jake finds Victor a great trial, if he is convicted then all the money she has tied up in the new clinic will be lost. Losing her investment means she might have to move back to Manhattan and manage other people’s money in order to earn enough for herself and Sam, and Eastport has been especially good for Sam, who had verged on becoming a delinquent in the big city.

Highly motivated to find the killer, Jake and Ellie need to explore the past secrets of many of their friends, most of which hope to let sleeping dogs lie. They discover that Reuben had been blackmailing many of them, and those he hadn’t been, had just as much reason to hate him. Their investigations net them the new nickname of the “snoop sisters” and a plethora of clues, but they do not uncover an obvious suspect.

Ms. Graves has a crisp and descriptive writing style that is a delight to read, while at the same time her words are able to portray the charming New England setting in fine detail. The characters are the good, the bad, and the ugly that inhabit Anywhere USA, yet the goodly number of close friendships Jake has cultivated are rare and special. Jake remains sane while raising her son, a senior in high school and usually manages to stay calm around her neurotic ex-husband.

Jake’s resident ghost in her hundred-year-old Federalist house makes another cameo appearance, and more clues to his identity as a pirate and musician are revealed. Sam decides to learn Morse code and brings home an Ouija board in hopes of communicating with him. Perhaps in her next book, Ms. Graves will deal with the mysterious disappearance of Jared Hayes.

The highly compatible blend of elements in Wicked Fix of an empathetic heroine, a captivating cast of characters, and an absorbing mystery are marvelously successful.

--Monica Pope