Shelf Control #196: Murder on Sea by Jane A. Adams

Wednesday, the 17th of August, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!

For today’s pick, I looked through my kindle list again, and this one was among the more recent additions, and the first of I think a cosy series, the Rina Martin mysteries–Murder on Sea (2008) by Jane A. Adams. The series has seven books, the last having been published in 2015. Adams is the author of quite a few mystery series, among which Merrow and Clarke seems to be an ongoing one.

In Murder on Sea, we are introduced to Rina Martin, a retired actress ‘with a taste for tea, gardening, and crime solving’. Having played a TV sleuth for years, she retires toFrantham-on-sea, a sleepy town on the Dorset coast where she runs an immaculate guest house and enjoys the peace. But of course, not for long. A few doors away, old Mrs Freer is bludgeoned to death and Rina is drawn in to the mystery. Mrs Freer’s house was ransacked and she kept a gun under her pillow. The case is being investigated by Detective Sebastian McGregor but for her own and her neighbours’ safety, Rina gives him a helping hand.

From reviews of this one I see that Rina is described as being like Jessica Fletcher (who I liked very much) but the investigating is mostly done by DI McGregor. So it might be that as a first in the series (as I have seen in some others I’ve enjoyed as well), the main character doesn’t quite come into her own, that happening only in later books. This one found its way on to my shelves since I do enjoy picking up mysteries very often, and cosies make a good break between heavier reads (mysteries and other fiction).

Have you read this book or any other in the series before? How did you like it? Any other cosy series or standalones that you’d like to recommend? Looking forward to your thoughts!

Lisa’s pick this week is My Oxford Year (2018) by Julia Whelan, the story of a young woman who finds love and much more at Oxford and becomes torn between pursuing her political dreams and being by his side when he needs her.

Book description and cover picture from Goodreads as always.