BEVERLY HILLS DEAD, by Stuart Woods, 2008, Putnam, New York, hardcover, 291 pages, $25.95.

Part-time Mount Desert Island resident Woods takes readers into the past for the latest novel in his newest series featuring cop-turned-movie executive Rick Barron.

As “Beverly Hills Dead” opens, Barron, now head of production at Centurion Studios, has just wrapped the first film he has directed, “Times Square Dance,” which stars his actress wife, Glenna Gleason.

Barron has enjoyed working with that film’s screenwriter, Sid Brooks, and convinces Centurion’s chief, Eddie Harris, to option Brooks’ next script, the western “Bitter Creek.”

There’s one big problem on the horizon. Brooks is a member of the Communist Party, and soon finds himself facing the House Un-American Activities Committee. He ends up blacklisted based on his testimony and struggles to find work.

Barron soon has another problem to deal with as well, as one of the stars of “Bitter Creek” meets an untimely end.

“Beverly Hills Dead” features Woods’ usual blend of colorful characters and fast-paced action and dialogue, with a little romance thrown in. It’s intriguing how he introduces characters whom he has already used in earlier novels.

The novel also proves Rick Barron to be a worthy predecessor to such modern Woods protagonists as Stone Barrington, Holly Barker and Will Lee.

-DALE MCGARRIGLE

THE BOOK OF OLD HOUSES, by Sarah Graves, 2008, Bantam, New York, hardcover, 294 pages, $22.

At a time when most people aren’t contemplating household improvements, Graves returns with the 11th book in her “Home Repair is Homicide” series.

The Eastport author actually set up the action in this novel in her 2007 mystery “Trap Door,” in which her protagonist Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree discovered an old book in the foundation of her 200-year-old Federalist house. The book appeared to be as old as the house, but it listed the names of all of its owners in the ensuing years, including Jake, written in what appeared to be blood. So she sent it off to an expert to be authenticated.

Now that expert, Horace Robotham, has been murdered, and Jake’s book has gone missing. When Horace’s prodigy, Dave DiMaio, shows up in Eastport, armed and looking for Horace’s killer, Jake and her buddy Ellie White get drawn into the mystery at the worst possible time.

You see, Jake’s dad and his beau, who happens to be her housekeeper Bella, are feuding. Her son Sam has just come home from rehab. Also, Jake impulsively decides to remodel her upstairs bathroom the same week as she’s due to host a surprise tea for one of Eastport’s most illustrious citizens.

Still Jake can’t escape her inquisitive side, as two other people, both reasonable suspects in Horace’s murder, end up dead as well. She and Ellie, once again, have to escape death a couple of times to solve this mystery.

As is appropriate in coastal Eastport, Graves baits readers with a number of red herrings, all the while keeping the real catch, the killer, just out of reach. As “The Book of Old Houses” proves, the author successfully builds suspense even better than she knows how to restore old houses.

-DALE MCGARRIGLE

“FREEDOM,” by Ilze Berzins, 2008, Albert Street Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, paperback, 279 pages, $25.

The small Waldo County town of Freedom seems an unlikely setting for a murder mystery, especially when you factor in a group of Latvian immigrants, a fledgling filmmaker and livestock.

But “Freedom,” the ninth book by Ottawa author Ilze Berzins, is an unusual mystery.

The narrator for “Freedom” is Izzie, a wounded wannabe writer of Latvian-Canadian descent who is living with Nick, a doctor-turned-farmer, and is caring for her cranky old Aunt Marija. Ironically, Izzie craves freedom to live a more exciting life.

Izzie seeks escape, and hires Dzintra from Latvia to become Aunt M’s caretaker. A faded beauty, Izzie doesn’t realize that she’s being stalked by slacker film student Marty, who has made her the object of his documentary.

Also part of “Freedom” are two missing boys, a drowning on a nearby lake, and eventually a murder, although that comes late in the book.

Berzins said she was inspired to set the novel in Waldo County after spending time as a tourist in Freedom and nearby Belfast. She does a good job of capturing the rednecks, dreamers, losers and homesteaders who reside in that area.

In “Freedom,” she saves the shocks until the novel’s very end, after sprinkling red herrings throughout. It’s an intriguing read, with a peek into a Latvian subculture that few in Maine would otherwise recognize.

“Freedom” is available at the Fertile Mind Bookshop in Belfast or at www.ilzeberzins.com

-DALE MCGARRIGLE

“THE WICKED BIG TODDLAH,” by Kevin Hawkes; Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007; large format hardcover, $16.99.

“The Wicked Big Toddlah” by Kevin Hawkes is a kids’ book about a giant baby. It starts with the baby at the hospital, and takes us through all the normal baby stages, but the pictures make it very funny to see what Hawkes is really talking about.

In the book, each page is a different event or stage that Toddie (the baby) goes through. When Toddie comes home from the hospital, we learn how he can’t sleep through the night just yet. It explains how it’s very difficult to take care of Toddie, and how much he loves to take baths. One scene depicts Toddie’s eating habits, and when he first starts eating “solids.” His first word is in it, and his first birthday.

This book is very funny to read because the pictures of the giant child suit the comical aspects of Toddie’s life, and it could actually teach people a thing or two about what taking care of a baby is like. One of the larger purposes of the book seems to be to show that babies seem like they are much bigger than they are sometimes, because they take so much work and effort.

While Hawkes is actually an illustrator, he decided to write and draw a story of his own, and “The Wicked Big Toddlah” won the 2007 Parents’ Choice Award. Hawkes has illustrated many well-known children’s books such as “Library Lion” by Michelle Knudsen and “My Little Sister Ate One Hare” by Bill Grossman. He lives in Gorham with his wife and children.

-JACK WILDE