Graves returns with ‘Triple Witch’> ‘The Dead Cat Bounce’ author brings familiar faces to new mystery

TRIPLE WITCH by Sarah Graves, Bantam Books, New York, 1999, 292 pages, $5.50.

If you read Sarah Graves’ first book, “The Dead Cat Bounce,” then you’ve been looking forward to her next.

“Triple Witch” is here, along with most of the same wonderful characters. Again, the title refers to a stock-market term – the expiration of three different kinds of stock options all on the same day. In “Triple Witch,” three local people lose their lives. While the Wall Street titles of both books appropriately suggest the flavor for the plots, the stories are carried out in Eastport, Maine, the author’s adopted home.

In “Triple Witch,” Jacobia Tiptree and her Eastport friend Ellie White find Kenny Mumford’s body on the beach. Kenny seemed always up to no good — the kind of guy a town loves to wag its tongue about. However, enough people know of his small good works that this paradoxical character is missed. He is especially missed by Ellie, who was Kenny’s best friend in school.

She is determined to see justice done and, with the help of Jacobia, sets out to solve his murder. Their snooping makes life miserable for lots of ne’er-do-wells and for themselves, not to mention the other people who end up dead.

Jacobia Tiptree, a wealthy Manhattan escapee, did not start her golden life with all the advantages and a master’s degree in business administration. She worked hard to evolve from the teen-ager who got off the bus in Manhattan from deep coal country with nothing to lose. As she describes herself, she quickly became “an expert on the care and feeding of vast sums of other people’s money … at the age of 30 I possessed more assets than your small publicly traded corporation.”

Though initially an unwilling participant, Jacobia’s background as a teen-ager and on Wall Street help her to uncover some clues and become more and more motivated to solve the murders.

Two qualities stand out in Sarah Graves’ mysteries. First is her respect for her adopted home. Graves knows it for what it is. She describes the beauty of the Eastport area with a pure eye for both its wonders and weaknesses.

She knows that life in Washington County is not “heaven on earth” if you do not have money or a way to get some, and that making wreaths and cutting heads off little fish are tough ways to earn a living.

Yet Graves’ characters are all treated with a certain respect, even the annoying and murderous ones.

The other quality that comes through in Graves’ writing is her devotion to the mystery formula. The fast-paced action in the book is meant to keep you just the right distance from a feeling of disorganization and chaos.

There are hints as to the killer, and just when you think you’ve figured everyone out, there is another surprise. There are the de rigueur adversaries. The most antagonizing, though not the most dangerous, is Tiptree’s presumptuous, manipulative, snobbish neurosurgeon ex-husband, Victor. There are also the quirky characters who perform cameo splashes of brilliant color. Of course there is a surprise ending.

Graves occasionally uses Down East expressions, and most of the time they work. A few, however, were not clear — not even to people who have lived in Eastport for years. For instance, in a passage in which the men are talking about a boat that needs a lot of work, one says, “And he won’t any dab hand, fixing her up, either.” For the most part, however, the context helps the reader along.

Can you follow and enjoy “Triple Witch” if you have not read “The Dead Cat Bounce”? Most definitely. You will miss some nuances of ongoing character development, but that won’t harm your enjoyment of the plot or the characters you will grow to care about. This is a well-written escapist novel with a plot that keeps you pulled in close.

Some sharp Hollywood type visiting Maine for the summer might pick up this book and seriously consider making it into a “made-for-television” movie. If by some chance that happens, please do us all a favor and don’t try to imitate the Down East accent. It’s not something you can learn. Ayuh.