Portrait of a Murderer by Martin Edwards, Anne Meredith

This is the story of a dysfunctional family that was brought to its knees by greed.  When money is your first love, there's no room for loving anyone else.  They all came home for Christmas and their father dies on Christmas Eve.  Not from natural causes, either...

Poisoned Pen Press and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published April 3rd.

Each chapter offers the story of the different siblings and their husbands and wives.  They all have their own motivation and their own need for money.  But what do you do when the money runs out?

You learn who the murderer is early in the story.  Then you watch the facts stack up to put the blame on another man in the family.  No one in the family is willing to do favors for the others.  If he's guilty, that's the way it is.  But one who married into the family learns things that make him suspicious.  However, he needs proof.

There was a lot of detail in this story that could have been shortened.  They do their best to convey the circumstances of each family and the era and they do a good job at that.  A little faster pace would have made it a more pleasant read but it was a decent mystery and the ending didn't surprise me.  What goes around, comes around.