Forgotten Voices

This is a faintly bemusing book, to be sure. It’s described as a Rina Martin mystery but she's in the background for most of it. And that's a shame, as I like her eccentric house and its inhabitants.

Rina is an actress of a certain age, who made her name in Lydia Marchant Investigates. Nine years after the last series, the show is back in production. Off-screen, Rina is apparently a shrewd amateur sleuth and is consulted by her policeman friend DI Mac MacGregor, who seems to set a lot of store by her views.

We’re out in the sticks in Frantham on the south coast of England where Ellen Tailor is found dead in her farmhouse for her children to find. Ellen is widowed, and doesn’t have a great relationship with her mother-in-law who has had a beady eye on the farmland. But it doesn’t seem to explain her death. And then there is another killing.

Forgotten Voices is part of a series, but there is very little backstory, which is problematic for the main characters – and for the bemused reader. It also has an unusual and intriguing World War 2 angle, but this seems buried for most of the book, and therefore lacks vigour. And in the end, that's true of the whole book. There are too many characters meandering around and none are really developed decently. I wanted to know so much more about Rina and her eccentric house guests and visitors. And when it comes to Mac the cop, he’s pretty much a blank slate. We don’t even get to meet his wife Miriam, who is mentioned often and seems to have important history. Rina's sole contribution seems to be to sit at a table and read papers.

Adams’ strength is undoubtedly quirky characters. These were apparent in her previous book Paying the Ferryman, which I liked a great deal. The trouble this time out is that she is expecting too much of new readers who may have strayed into this ongoing series. And even if you’ve met Rina before, Forgotten Voices needs an injection of energy to keep any reader hooked.