Shadows in their blood Book

I don't have to have a murder on the first page, or even in the first chapter. But to wait till page 125 (actually we don't know that Fabian is truly dead till page 146) is a book 189 pages long is almost criminal. Why? Two reasons: 1)we have only about 40 pages for detection, solution, explanation and administration of justice; and 2)without a dead body to live up the story, so to speak, the entire burden for making the story interesting falls upon the narrator, in this case Trixie, an aging character actress and sidekick to Evangeline, a slightly older aging actress who used to be one of the Grand Ladies of Hollywood, and never got over it. While Trixie is observant enough, her narrative is not that compelling, and the other characters just don't come alive through her words. It's like listening to someone talk about a group of people she knows quite well, but you don't, so where a word or a glance may speak volumes to Tries, the reader is left wondering what just happened. A story about making a Dracula film in a spooky location during beastly weather should be dripping with atmosphere, but that is lacking too. It's not that Miss Babson cannot write a story that is as engaging as it is intriguing, for she is a very fine writer, and the other Trixie & Evangeline books I've read have been thoroughly delightful. While Shadows in Their Blood is still a good read (Miss Babson does not know how to write a bad book), it could have been better, and has to count as something of a misfire in this otherwise entertaining series.