Another fine installment in Carlisle’s Fixer-upper series, which sees Shannon and Mac living together and working on a veterans’ tiny home development. But that project, and Mac’s latest writers’ retreat, are impacted by murder. Carlisle’s empathetic portrait of veterans is quite gripping.

In this installment Shannon is working on creating a tiny house village for veterans when someone close to her and someone close to the project is murdered. Add to the mix a writers retreat and a lighthouse and you have another engaging mystery from Kate Carlisle.

I always look forward to the next Shannon Hammer book!! This one doesn’t disappoint. It captured me from the beginning and kept going until the end. I love how Shannon solves the murder. How her brain works and how she puts two and two together. I also love her relationship with Mac and how they work as a team. I love what they are doing for our veterans in this book. Very admirable. Our vets deserve the best. Overall, great book and would recommend to everyone!

Absence of Mallets is another excellent installment in the Fixer-Upper Mystery series by Kate Carlisle! Contractor and construction guru Shannon Hammer and her team set to work building a village of tiny houses for veterans in her hometown of Lighthouse Cove. When her boyfriend, acclaimed writer Mac Sullivan, hosts a writers retreat that quickly goes awry, Shannon, Mac, her sister Chloe, and the police chief Eric all have to untangle several webs of lies and solve a murder. I found this book just as charming as the rest of the serious and it kept me guessing until the end just what exactly had happened and who might be responsible! Highly recommend this great cozy mystery!