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Annette Roome
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A Real Shot in the Arm (Chris Martin Mystery Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Annette Roome (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
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A CWA Award winner and the first novel in the bestselling Chris Martin mystery series.

Chris Martin — housewife and mother-of-two — seizes the chance to re-gain her independence by putting her endless housework to one side and fulfilling her adolescent dream of becoming a journalist - much to the dismay of disapproving husband, Keith.

Shortly after taking up a Junior Reporter role at the local newspaper the Tipping Herald, Chris is given an assignment to cover a conference at a local hotel.

But when the hotel becomes a crime scene Chris begins to uncover a very different story to what she had had in mind.

The corpse that was discovered hanging from a fire escape doesn't look to her like a suicide - heroin addicts don't OD and then string themselves up.

But who would have been driven to murder within this tight-knit community?

The further Chris gets into the investigation, the more questions arise and the more personal sacrifices she is willing to make.

Praise for Annette Roome...


“A terrific debut for a wholly sympathetic, wryly witty sleuthess” THE TIMES

“Narrated with splendid comic disenchantment...this is an exhilarating debut” THE SUNDAY TIMES

“From its splendid opening sentence, A REAL SHOT IN THE ARM announces the arrival of a welcome new voice in crime fiction. Annette Roome's first book has all the ingredients a good crime novel should — credible inter-weaving plots, pace, tension, wit, lively characters and dialogue.” SIMON BRETT

“Whoops of delight for a clever and refreshing newcomer” THE OBSERVER

Annette Roome won the Crime Writers Association John Creasey Award for the Best First Crime Novel with A Real Shot In The Arm, the first book in the bestselling Chris Martin mysteries.
Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 4
    Chris Martin Mystery
  2. Print length
    280 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    September 2, 2014
  6. File size
    2027 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Total Price: $11.96
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fed up with household chores and an uncaring husband, English mother Chris Martin, 40, gets a job on the small local paper, trading one form of drudgery for another until she happens on the body of a teacher who appears to have hanged himself, but who really died of a heroin overdose. Chris and wisecracking reporter Pete Schiavo, who soon beds her, uncover blackmail, a crooked real estate deal, bribery, police corruption, a drug connection and the book's sole ingenious idea--an environmentalists' effort to save a wooded area by salting it with an endangered species of tree frog. Although it's possible to empathize with Chris, this Nancy Drew story for grownups is shallow, implausible and full of chatter that neither develops character nor moves the story forward. Nevertheless, the book won the John Creasy memorial award for best first mystery when published in Britain in 1989.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00N9W6LEU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lume Books (September 2, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 2, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2027 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 37 ratings

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Annette Roome

Annette Roome

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
37 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

There are 0 reviews and 7 ratings from the United States

Top reviews from other countries

Mr. A.J. PENDLEBURY
4.0 out of 5 stars A very good punning title....
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2017
Verified Purchase
As ever with the Endeavour Press ,the synopsis was first class and needs no rewriting . ! There were several aspects to this book which I really enjoyed..I thought the coverage of the Drugs Conference at the slightly dodgy hotel was well portrayed and I would have liked more on that aspect and perhaps less on home lives of the two journalists. However many readers will rightly say that these domestic details actually add to the development of the main characters.

Perhaps there were too many ideas in one book ..the ending seemed a bit rushed and I never felt that the " Major" was brought to justice or that the police corruption element was developed quite enough . Overall I did enjoy this debut novel and will certainly try others in the series.
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Mr. C. McNish
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly down-to-earth - a fantastic read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2014
Verified Purchase
After downloading this book on a whim - and because it was free - I was surprised to find myself hooked for a completely different reason than what I would have expected. The central character is Chris Martin, a forty-something housewife who seems to have little else to look forward to apart from an impending mid-life crisis, an aspect of her life which is both stayed and enhanced when she fulfills a childhood dream by becoming a newspaper reporter. Her first major assignment turns into something a lot more sinister when she finds herself having to investigate a murder - and a whole lot more - rather than report on the conference she was attending.

While the story rolls along at a steady pace, with a few twists and turns to keep you guessing without stretching the bounds of reality, and is entertaining reading, I started taking more of an interest in what became something of a sub-plot - Chris Martin's personal life. A good story will always produce at least one strong character for the reader to ally themselves with, but the emotional connect here was so strong due to one simple reason: the descriptive writing of the blossoming relationship with her colleague and mentor Pete is so realistic that it could have been written about any one of several people I know personally. The down-to-earth writing is compelling in the way that the mundane drudgery, such as grocery shopping and doing the laundry, elicit a sense of sympathy, while the ever-widening gulf between Chris and her husband Keith as she becomes more involved with Pete, and her subsequent sense of guilt and neglect of her family, allow empathy in huge amounts. To create such a strong character is something for which the author should be highly commended; maybe it is the first-person style of writing, taken from Chris' point of view, which gives the reader a feeling of deeper personal involvement in her life.

I literally couldn't put this book down; I read it within a day and contrary to another review suggesting the end was poor and the author seemingly 'got bored', I thought it was a perfect finale - a cliffhanger that I hope will be resolved in a follow-up book! If you want a well-structured whodunnit that can also offer down-to-earth romance without having to resort to gratuitous sex scenes (definitely a case of less is more here) or constant bad language, then I can't recommend this book highly enough.
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Kimmsie
2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2021
Verified Purchase
I'm sure there are many who will like, not to say love this. But I have to be honest and say it is not for me. The character Chris Martin, actually got on my nerves and I just wanted to shake her. Instead I simply gave up on the book.
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Shelia Wyatt
4.0 out of 5 stars A real shot in the arm
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2014
Verified Purchase
Really good read ,just a bit of a rubbish finish , as if author got bored at the end .
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Tom Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
Weren't the 1980s weird? Hug fun to revisit them in a lively detective thriller that is also often very funny.
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