04 Murder On the Beach

The new ‘Rina Martin’ mystery ** -** When DI ‘Mac’ McGregor came to Frantham he was a broken man, guilt ridden at the death of a child he had tried to save, and whose killer had escaped. But he found friendship there, in the shape of Rina Martin’s strange little household, and romance with CSI Miriam Hasting. But now his past is catching up with him. There are new leads in the child-killer case, and Mac rejoins the hunt – only to become the hunted . . . Can Rina save him from his darkest trouble yet? ** From Publishers Weekly Det. Insp. Mac McGregor, who's been on spiritual retreat in the seaside town of Frantham since a terrible ordeal a year earlier, gets a second chance to catch a killer in Adams's absorbing fourth Rina Martin mystery (after 2009's The Power of One). When Mac confronted kidnapper Thomas Peel on a beach one night, Mac was unable to stop the fiend from cutting six-year-old Cara Evans's throat and escaping. Now Peel, who some hoped had committed suicide, has resurfaced in the Frantham area. Peel's grown daughter, Emily, has new cause to be afraid, as do many others. Rina and her household of diverse and diverting characters at her Victorian B&B, Peverill Lodge, lend Mac their support, though Detective Chief Inspector Wildman, who heads the hunt for Peel, remains poised "to catch him out, to take note of any weakness and seize upon it." Peel's abduction of Mac's crime scene investigator girlfriend, Miriam Hastings, raises the stakes. The suspense builds to a fitting and satisfying climax. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Rina Martin and her odd household welcomed DI McGregor to the small British town of Frantham on the Sea. He was depressed and guilt ridden after failing to prevent the murder of a child and capture her killer. The town turned out to be more exciting than he thought it would be and he settled in, began to heal, and found CSI Miriam Hasting, his true love. Now, however, someone has spotted the child's killer, and the cold case has been reopened. McGregor feels compelled to finish the job despite his anxieties. As he follows the leads, he becomes a target and must move quickly to avoid becoming the next victim. Adams, who also writes the Naomi Blake series, has created an amiable cozy with a more complex plot than is typical for the subgenre. Her work will appeal to readers who enjoy M. C. Beaton and Clare Curzon. --Barbara Bibel