Chip Hale, a former Navy Sea Bee and Vietnam Veteran, is a blue-collar worker who is as hard as a titanium pop-rivet, except where it comes to raising his two wise-cracking, techno-savvy, teenage granddaughters. He is also fond of using metaphors and similes that relate to the construction industry, and quoting his grandmother's wisdom. There is also a further softness displayed when he composes the occasional poem.

In the first book of the Handyman Mystery Series, Chip is faced with a cold case that rapidly heats up when a handyman hunts for his daughter's killer after her remains turn up beneath the city's police memorial. He relies on help from his granddaughters, and the expertise of his Handyman Inc. colleagues—an eclectic collection of retired professionals including a former Reno policeman, forensic fire investigator, Navy pilot, defrocked priest, U.S. Treasury agent, and reformed professional burglar, who all work as part time contract handymen—and the 'tools of the trade' greatly assist with finding a solution to the crime.