Half way through and at points I wanted to just leave it alone.

The first 1/3 feels like a Hallmark movie. The characters aren't well developed so it's hard to get into the murdered librarian who everyone thought was an angel.

When reading the dialog I keep asking myself "could I see people talking this way?"

About half way through the narrator just starts throwing jokes into the story. A narration style that wasn't there earlier on.

There are some good moments to the story... hopefully it gets better

Here's an example...
two characters are outside of a department store window. Inside the window is a Christmas display with a robotic Santa Claus reaching in a bag and pulling out a present. But it's just the same box that he keeps doing this motion with.



Not only the humor is new but this type of breaking the fourth wall with a nod and a smirk towards the reader. None of this happened prior in the story (100+ pages prior).