Murder by Death

First, on the cover of this book Kirkus Reviews compares this new series to Donna Andrews' Meg Langslow series. This book in no way, shape, or form resembles a Meg Langslow book. Kirkus must have wrote that after happy hour on a Friday night.  

The main characters' family was neither quirky nor eccentric, merely dysfunctional. I didn't find them charming at all. Her brother merely came across as sad and pathetic.

The rest of the characters in the book were also not all that likeable - it felt as though the author just went that little bit too far with each of them. And the hint of a love interest is only described as having an incredibly annoying, braying, laugh. I'm supposed to want this attraction to happen?

The plot itself was good enough - a very effective red herring had me sure the murderer was someone else until the very end. I've already bought the second book, so I'll give it a read and hope that the first-book kinks have been worked out and the author as well as the characters, have grown.