Half-Price Homicide (Dead-End Job Series #9) Book

This is the first Dead-End Job Mystery that I have read. Part of me wants to start from the beginning so I have an understanding of the character growth (and plot development) but there are far too many books and far too little time. In this installment Helen is working at a high-end consignment shop when a trophy wife meets a crushing end and Helen's prints are found on the murder weapon. Although there are legitimate reasons for that, she already has a strained relationship with the Detective in charge. It doesn't help that she has to return home to handle her mother's affairs and her ex-husband steps back into the picture as does her mother's worthless second husband. There are a lot of threads here that would have been helpful to have more background on, which I would have had I started the series from Book 1. The biggest problem for me was that I didn't like Helen. She is running from a summary judgement giving her ex-husband half her income but she wasn't a sympathetic character. Her fiancée is great but I am not sure what he sees in her. Again, the flaw is not knowing the series. I have another book a little later in, and undoubtedly, that will provide some character growth.