Avery Baker never thought she’d leave Manhattan, until she inherited her aunt’s old Maine cottage and found her true calling—home renovation. But when Avery goes to work restoring a condominium, she discovers it’s another condo owner who’s been condemned...

Avery and her partner, Derek, are fixing up a cute little condo in homey Waterfield, Maine, hoping for a quick turnaround and some extra money. It seems like a simple project—and Avery is looking forward to using her big-city experience with small spaces.

But they didn’t expect to have their every move watched by the resident busybody in the condo, Hilda Shaw, who loves snooping on everyone’s comings and goings. When the busybody becomes a dead body, Avery suspects foul play. Soon she’s doing some snooping of her own— and it seems everyone in the complex has a secret. Could one of them be worth killing for? Avery needs to work fast, before someone decides to fix her...for good.

Series: A Do-It-Yourself Mystery

Review

For fans of:  B.B. Haywood

When Avery Baker and Derek Ellis bought Mr. Antonini’s tiny little two-bedroom condo, they figured it would be an easy flip that would make for a quick sale and result in a tidy profit.  They did not, however, expect that once they started the renovation, their every move would be surveilled by nosy neighbor Hilda Shaw.  And they certainly didn’t expect that just a few days into the project, they’d discover Miss Shaw dead, the apparent victim of foul play.

The meddlesome old woman rarely left the building, so it seems reasonable to assume another tenant is responsible for her murder – but who? Derek wants Avery to steer clear of the investigation and let the police do their job, but when a second neighbor is killed and a third falls ill, Avery knows she must get to the bottom of the mystery before the body count can climb any higher. 

Wall-to-Wall Dead is the sixth of Jennie Bentley's Do-It-Yourself Mysteries, and my feelings about it are decidedly mixed.  The book's core is actually pretty solid.  The concept is a nice twist on the classic manor house mystery. Bentley offers up of plenty of suspects, all of whom have motive, means, and opportunity. Her clues are clever and artfully deployed.  The pace is steady, the plot is cohesive, and there are some nice twists and red herrings sprinkled throughout.

That said, for a series purportedly about home renovation, Wall-to-Wall Dead contains precious little information on the subject.  And oddly, home renovation is practically the ONLY subject upon which Bentley does not expound at great length over the course of her tale.  The narration is digressive to the point of distraction; it’s like having a story told to you by a highly caffeinated Rain Main.  She does it with people:  whenever a new character enters a scene, the reader is immediately subjected to a detailed character bio – complete with such things as profession, family, friends, hobbies, and fashion preferences.  She does it with places:  Avery enters a church, and the reader gets a page-long rundown regarding the age, height, style, and location of said church, followed by a half-page on the provenance of the stained glass windows.  She even does it with foodstuffs:  Avery eats a whoopie pie, and the reader is given an entire paragraph of whoopie pie trivia. 

It’s clear the author did an impressive amount of research before she sat down at the keyboard, but rather than simply allowing that research to inform her writing, she instead chose to cram the random facts she collected into every available nook and cranny of her story.  And rather than adding depth and texture to the tale as Bentley likely intended, all that extra information just serves to overwhelm the senses and distract from the plot. 
Add to this the fact that Avery is officious, judgmental, and almost criminally nosy, and you have a book that just kinda sorta rubs you the wrong way at almost every turn.

Reviewed by Kat N.

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