Contractor Shannon Hammer and her crew are hard at work at her boyfriend’s passion project, Homefront. It’s a village of 50 tiny houses built especially for veterans. Mac, Shannon’s boyfriend and a very successful author, raised funds for Homefront and helped to find the land. He and his friends have conceptualized and designed a place where veterans could live and heal, complete with a community center with a dining room and conference rooms, medical and psychological services, classes, and even a barber onsite.

Shannon was proud to have won the contract, and she and her crew have been working hard to create a village of unique homes that would be safe, comfortable, and welcoming. They have already finished 25 of the 50 houses, and vets have already started moving in. And Shannon is preparing to teach classes herself, to help share marketable construction skills to veterans who want to learn to swing a hammer.

When Shannon met Linda, a veteran and a mosaic artist, they immediately hit it off. Shannon loved Linda’s work and asked her to help with the Homefront project, to make some unique kitchen backsplashes for the homes. Linda loved the idea and accepted the job, and when she was getting started, with all her tools and materials lined up, Shannon couldn’t help but admire her collection of mallets. Linda had a dozen different mallets for the different materials she used, including a big mallet that her grandfather had made himself, adding some lead to the mallet head for some extra wallop to the tool. Shannon understands the importance of good tools, and even took some photos of the hand-crafted one to share with another artist friend of hers.

Meanwhile, Mac is keeping busy finishing up his next book and hosting a group of writers at his mansion by the lighthouse. The six authors in residence are mostly published already and don’t need a lot of direction from him. However, he does feel responsible for them, so he shows them around their small town and even takes them to Homefront and lets them sit in on a writing class. But when some of the veterans share their writing with the class, the writers group are as encouraging as they are critical, so Mac puts an end to that immediately. One of the writers from Homefront, Travis, had written a particularly beautiful piece, but with his inexperience as a writer and his PTSD from his time in the military makes Mac concerned that the criticism will quiet him.

Shannon isn’t particularly happy with the writers group either. Lewis, the author whose first book sold especially well, keeps pulling out his phone and taking photos or videos of others without asking permission. He went out for drinks with Linda and told her that he was worried about his next book, that the other authors are jealous of him and won’t help, but the manuscript is due in two weeks. She told Shannon all about that, feeling really bad for him and his situation. But just a couple of days later, Mac sees an announcement about his next book being sold, and the early buzz is really good.

But Shannon has to focus on her work. She goes back to Homefront and spends her days putting together the tiny houses. There’s one day when Linda was supposed to come late, after spending her morning collecting seashells out by the lighthouse, but she never showed up. Shannon tried to get ahold of her, to make sure she was okay, but it wasn’t until that night when she went with Mac to see the writers group and give them a writing assignment on the beach that Shannon finds out what happened to her new friend. That’s how they found Linda’s body on the beach.

Shannon is heartbroken for her friend and wants justice to be done. But it’s not until another vet is attacked and her work is sabotaged, causing injuries to herself and her sister that she really starts to look around to see who could be the killer. As much as she would love for it to be Lewis, the arrogant writer, she needs more evidence than just his not being a nice person. Could it have been one of the other writers? Could it be one of the veterans? Shannon wants to find answers before someone else gets hurt, or worse.

Absence of Mallets is the ninth book in the Fixer-Upper series of murder mysteries from Kate Carlisle. Following contractor Shannon Hammer and her construction crew who focus on restoring Victorian houses in their small Californian town. Her boyfriend is a former Navy SEAL and a bestselling author of military thrillers, her sister stars on her own home construction television show, and Shannon and her family and friends help solve the murders that Shannon has a tendency to stumble over. These books are clever, well plotted, fun, and filled with actual DIY construction tips.

I love the Fixer Upper mysteries, and I think that Absence of Mallets has a lot of substance. The writers group brings a lot of intrigue, and the idea of Homefront, the community for veterans, is a truly special project, and I was thrilled that Carlisle brought that into the story. Ever since I heard about that part of this novel, I wanted to dive into this book. I know of real-life projects similar to this, and I love that she is spreading the word about veterans communities. I hope this sparks more ideas for what we can do to help our veterans. But back to the book, I thought this one had a lot of good suspects, and it may turn out to be my favorite book of this entire series. I definitely recommend this one to anyone interested in giving the Fixer Upper mysteries a try. And if you’re already a reader of the series, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed in this one.

Egalleys for Absence of Mallets were provided by Berkley Publishing Group through Netgalley, with many thanks.