Dialogue needed work, too much infodumping instead of showing through the story, some of the messed-up material was dumped far too early when it should have been teased out over the whole book. The plot chugged along well enough for about the first two thirds, and then it went horribly wrong, the person who was supposed to be the protagonist getting sidelined into being a minor character, leading up to an incredibly unsatisfying ending. The original protagonist did not start off looking very bright, and by the end she showed herself as incredibly stupid. This was a first novel, so I'm not expecting perfection, but it seems that this had a first-time editor as well. The movie fixed a lot of the problems and added a recipe for martinis, so check that out instead.
