The basic story idea is a good one. However, the novel is full of flat characters, a sputtering plot-line and darlings which most definitely should have been killed. The main character makes frequent comments about the fashion characters around him are displaying - I found these distracting and disruptive of my ability to suspend disbelief. Would a straight alcoholic deputy coroner raised on the "wrong side of the tracks" by an alcoholic father really have knowledge or interest in women's fashion? Really?! Furthermore, the "you said" mechanism used to frame the narration is distracting.