VBT# Murder is a Family Business - Heather Haven

Today's VBT# is a light-hearted mystery/thriller from Heather Haven and titled "Murder is a Family Business". This is part of the Pump Up Your Books VBT's.

About The Author: Heather Haven

Heather is a story teller by nature and loves the written word.  In her career, she’s written short stories, novels, comedy acts, plays, television treatments, ad copy, commercials, and even ghost-wrote a book.  One of her first jobs as a writer was given to her by her then agent. It was that of writing a love story for a book published by Bantam called Moments of Love. She had a deadline of one week and then promptly came down with the flu. She wrote "The Sands of Time" with a temperature of 102 and delivered some pretty hot stuff because of it. Later on, she wrote short comedy skits for nightclub acts and ad copy for such places as No Soap Radio, where her love for comedy blossomed. Many of her short stories have been seen in various publications, as well as 2 one-act plays produced in Manhattan, one at the well-known, Playwrights Horizons.

Her novel, Murder is a Family Business, the first in the Alvarez Murder Mystery series, has been epublished by MuseItUp Publishing in January, 2011. The second in the series, A Wedding To Die For, debuts April 22, 2011. She is currently writing the 3rd of the series, and says they are a joy to write. Heather gets to be all the characters, including the cat!  

You can visit Heather online at http://www.heatherhavenstories.com/  and her blog at http://heatherhavensays.blogspot.com/ .

Synopsis of Murder is A Family Business - The Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series - Jan 2011

Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez doesn't think so. But the 34-year old ½ Latina, ½ WASP and 100% detective has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch.  Of all the nerve. Set in the present, Murder is a Family Business is the first in a series of humorous mysteries revolving around Lee Alvarez, a combination of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone and Janet Evanovich’ Stephanie Plum, and rest of the Alvarez Family, detectives all. Seemingly light and frothy on the surface, the novel nevertheless explores familial love, the good, the bad and the annoying.

Completing the family is Lee’s Never-Had-A-Bad-Hair-Day aristocratic mother, Lila; computer genius brother, Richard; beloved uncle “Tio;” and her energetic orange and white cat, Tugger. When this group is not solving murders, they run Discretionary Inquiries, a successful Silicon Valley agency that normally deals with the theft of computer software. The love, humor and camaraderie shared within this family are what set this series apart from others.

Review :  :

As a huge fan of light-hearted mysteries, I found this book really enjoyable and whilst I was reading it, it reminded me of the book Hasta La Vista, Lola ! in the Lola Cruz Mystery series written by Misa Ramirez. In Murder is a Family Business, we meet Liana aka Lee who has been given the job of staking out their client's husband Porter Wyle . His wife Yvonne, went to school with Liana's mother Lila . During the stake-out , Lee goes to investigate and finds that Porter has been murdered and then finds herself hauled into the police station. Now determined than ever to solve the case, Lee is going to with the help of her family of Private Investigators find out who killed Porter and why ? Though if she's not careful, the next obituary being written may very well be Lee's. If you are a fan of mysteries with a bit of fluff, then this is the book for you. The level of language in the book is a mixture of slang and upper-class Blue Bloods to support the main characters.