Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree's leisurely summer dreams involve rebuilding the front porch of her Maine fixer-upper and shingling the leaky tool shed out back. That's why she's hired the avenging angel of household hygiene, Bella Diamond, to keep her house — and her teenage son Sam — in tip-top shape. But when Bella confides in Jake that she's been receiving death threats, Jake has two choices: find out who is frightening the hapless housekeeper — or risk losing her. With a marauding moose loose in town, a troublesome love triangle occupying Sam, and her estranged relatives about to descend for the Fourth of July — and the upstairs bedroom still unpainted — Jake's summer is sure to be anything but peaceful. No matter how carefully you remodel your life, murder can take up residence anywhere.