Murder by Death

Definitely not one of her best books, but not nearly as poor as I was led to believe.  Admittedly, it's set in my home town, which never fails to delight me as my home town only read made it on to the map in the last 15 years or so.  But I enjoyed following the main character's vision and her hard work on restoring the Cracker house, and I thoroughly enjoyed the romantic interest's background of owning Jungle Jerry's, a fictional but entirely accurate take on Sarasota Jungle Gardens, right down to the parrot that rides a bike. 

Nostalgia definitely bumped the rating on this book at least a star; the villains were too villainous to be real - although in Florida non of them were impossible - and the plots were superficial at best.  I always hold up her non detective fiction against her an early work of hers, Hissy Fit, and this falls far short of that incredibly readable story, but it's not, as I said, her worst.  Living as far from home as one can get and still be on the planet, I thoroughly enjoyed the virtual trip home, so, 4 stars.