Book Review: Raining Men and Corpses

Book: Raining Men and Corpses (A Raina Sun Mystery book #1) by Anne R. Tan

Edition: Digital

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

It goes without saying that Raina Sun's life is a mess and being involved in a murder only added to her problem riddled life. As a grad student, she's totally broke and adding to her financial woes is the $2,000 she loaned (more like she was conned out of) to her ex-boyfriend and grad school advisor Holden Merritt, who has still not paid her back.

In an attempt to get her money back from Holden, she lied hoping that it would spur him into returning at least some of her money. They had planed to meet at his office at the end of the day but by the time she arrived at the history building, Holden had been found dead by the department secretary, Gail.

They were both questioned by the police and the entire situation was unnerving but Raina seeing her ex-boyfriend Detective Matthew Louie completely turned her world upside down. It's been years since she has seen him and was surprised to see him in Gold Springs.

She thought going to grad school in the small town of Gold Springs would be a great way to avoid her family and perhaps finally distance herself from her feelings for Matthew. No such luck on both accounts because her grandmother made a surprise visit and would be staying with her. And Matthew seems to be giving out mixed signals which pretty much describes how their relationship has unfolded over the years. They continue to boomerang back to each other with Raina left wondering why she can't move on.

It wasn't long before she was being considered a suspect by the police because of her prior relationship with Holden. However, there were plenty of other suspects who had a motive for killing him and Raina was going to put her amateur detective skills to the test to find out who did it.

This was a fast-paced dramatic and humorous cozy mystery that had Raina trying to solve a murder while trying to sort out her life, love and finances. She got a little investigative help from her grandmother and her best friend Eden, an investigative reporter. However, there were a few instances that had Raina suspicious of Eden's motive for helping her and it left her wondering if she could trust her best friend.

I enjoyed reading this first book and plan to continue on with the series. Raina is an interesting character she's not perfect but she is someone who will try her best to fix her problems, even if she would prefer to avoid them.