Mostly Murders

Book 1 in the Jane Christie series.

50 year old Jane Christie is obssessed with two things, reading murder mysteries and reminiscing about her late husband Gerry. She is reclusive, lonely and seemingly incapable of moving on with her life. But after a fall from a roof leaves her in a coma, she wakes up as a new woman. More assertive, more refined in taste and suddenly convinced that she is a brilliant Miss Marple style detective, although she has never done any actual sleuting outside the pages of the books she has read.

Sporting a new glamorous style and a distinguished, old timey British accent, Jane happens to be in the right place in time to prevent a man from luring a little girl away from her mother. Hailed as a hero in the press, Jane is soon swamped with requests for help, and in her new self-assured state, she is convinced that cracking these cases is her purpose in life. Teeming up with her neighbour Henry, an agoraphobic tech guru and hacker and her son’s wife’s mother Zora, Jane throws herself into the world of sleuthing, much to the chagrin of the handsome former cop, now private detective Dominic.

Murder Mystery in Melbourne is funny, engaging and charming in its descriptions of people and places. Zora is a no nonsense, multilingual goddess in a kitchen and the source of many funny broken English comments. Dominic is a tantalising potential love interest for Jane and a fountain of amusing Australianisms, and Jane is a wonderfully funny and inspiring character and a very entertaining amateur sleuth.

Cozy mystery – Contemporary