About the Author

Sarah Graves lives with her husband John, a musician and luthier, and their black Labrador Retriever in a house very much like the one Jacobia Tiptree is remodeling in Eastport, Maine. When she's not writing Jake's adventures, Sarah works with her husband on the house (of course!) and she plays the 5-string banjo (not well, but enthusiastically!)

Sarah has been a writer (and a reader!) all her life." I sent my first story to McCall's magazine when I was seven or so," she says. "It was about a squirrel lost in the woods. The editors sent a form rejection letter, possibly because it was not very realistic for a squirrel to be lost in the woods?" But this began her literary career of getting creatures (especially human creatures) into peril, and letting them figure out how to get themselves out again.

To listen to Sarah Graves on NPR’s “Morning Edition” interview, click here

Send your questions or comments for Sarah Graves to homerepairishomicide@verizon.net

A Word from Sarah

As I began writing Jake Tiptree's new adventure, CRAWLSPACE, it occurred to me that in books as well as in life, there are bad guys... and then there are really bad guys.

They're the ones you can't bribe or persuade out of their dark purposes, and what they want, you don't dare think about. They're the evil from your nightmares, those dreams where you're running but you're not getting anywhere.

And most of all, you're not getting away. The evil one gets closer. You feel his breath on your neck... cold breath. His hand clasps your shoulder, the fingers like ice, and so strong...

At last, you shudder awake. The bad guy is gone. It was only a dream... That's how it's supposed to happen, isn't it?

But in the new 'Home Repair is Homicide' novel, CRAWLSPACE, the monster doesn't vanish. He's got a taste for terror, the urge to kill, and a talent for hiding in plain sight.

So when a visiting true-crime writer and Jake Tiptree's son, Sam, both disappear, Jake knows this time she'll have to face the bad guy on his own terms, and in his own territory. Down in the dark, creepy underground place where nightmares walk... or crawl...
Down in the CRAWLSPACE. Writing it scared the daylights out of me — and I hope you enjoy it, too.

Peace —

Sarah Graves