Murder by Death

Completely non-bingo related, but I've been itching to read this book since it arrived, and I was heading to Key West for a short stay, so into the bag it went.

Molly Harper has, until recently, been best known for her hilarious series of books set in the town of Half-Moon Hollow, about a community of vampires.  Her newest books are a departure from the Urban Fantasy and focus on women's fiction/chick-lit.  And one more thing is an earlier effort at the same: no vampires or werewolves, just a screwed over woman getting her own back in a deeply hilarious and outrageous way, then facing up to the consequences.  There's a new love too of course; without it this would be an incomplete book, but it's not insta-love and it doesn't smack of rebound.  Harper makes reader and characters alike wait for it and work for it.

I put off reading this one for years thinking it would be too shallow for my tastes in chick-lit, but after reading her recent series set in Georgia (Sweet Tea and Sympathy), I realised I might be missing out.  I was.  It's not a life changing read, but it is more thoughtful and involved than the title and synopsis would lead you to believe.  It was light, but not frivolous, funny but not at the expense of character development.  A perfect beach read.