A Real Shot in the Arm

By: Annette Roome

Narrated by: Jacqueline King

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

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, and a drug connection.

©1989 Annette Roome (P)1989 Oakhill Publishing Ltd

Critic reviews

"[A] Nancy Drew story for grownups." (Publishers Weekly)

Couldn't stop listening

What made the experience of listening to A Real Shot in the Arm the most enjoyable?

The performance by Jacqueline King. She has flawless timing and delivery. She does great character voices without making it sound like she's putting on silly voice. Her reading is so good that I often forgot I was reading an audiobook and just got sucked into the story.

Which character – as performed by Jacqueline King – was your favorite?

The main character. The book is all in first person and Jacqueline King's delivery is hilarious.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed quite a lot. Annette Room's dry humour is what elevates this book above the ordinary. This book is comedy, murder mystery and chick lit (in the best sense) all rolled into one. It's not perfect and the mystery is a bit easy to guess, but it's fun and one of those books where you get wrapped up in the story and romance and have to know what happens next.

Any additional comments?

I'm disappointed the other books in the series aren't available on audio - hopefully Audible will rectify that!

good fun, a nice surprise

I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel, but I was glad I took the chance and listened to it. I've been trying to find the author's next book, with the same characters, but haven't found it locally or on Audible, but I'd like to try it.

The main character is a British housewife who takes a job with the local small-town newspaper - against her husband's wishes - as a chance to get out and about and do more than tend to her house, husband, and almost-grown son. While covering a rather boring local conference on substance abuse, she stumbles upon a dead body, apparently dead by hanging but who actually died from a heroin overdose. It's the biggest news to hit their little town in a long time, so she teams up with a more seasoned reporter from the paper and sets out to uncover the mystery.

What follows is a kind of convoluted story of murder, fraud, kick-backs, drugs, and adultery, but made into a fun and amusing story by the first-person narrative of the main character. And excellently narrated by Jacquiline King. I sort of thought of it as a British housewife version of the New Jersey bounty-hunter stories by Janet Evanovich. In fact, both authors won the Crime Writers' Association award for best first novel (Roome for this book in 1986, Evanovich for One For The Money in 1995).

Light entertainment in mystery form

Narrator was good. Story was decent. Not terribly interesting but okay for a cozy mystery. If this is the start to a series I am not compelled to try the next one.