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. The 34-year old half-Latina, half-WASP and 100% detective has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve. For Lee, this has become personal. From San Francisco's famous Embarcadero to quaint Princeton-by-the-Sea, she is out to find the killer. And for the killer, this has become personal, too.

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 Evanovitch's Stephanie Plum, and the rest of Alvarez Family, owners of Silicon Valley's Discretionary Inquiries. 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 kitten, 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. Seemingly light and frothy on the surface, the novel explores familial love: the good, the bad, and the annoying.