I wasn't sure quite what to make of Alison at first, since it seemed to waver between serious and silly in the beginning, especially once it moved from first-person Alison to third-person checkups on the rest of the cast, but once it truly settled down into gentle British absurdity I was fully on board with it. It's also short enough that it doesn't wear out its welcome.

Alison and Taron make for interesting, weird, sometimes bickering and sometimes loving friends, with a great arc of coming together to BFFs and slowly drifting back apart. I kind of know both of them from my own circle, so maybe that helps me put up with them -- by far the highlight of the book. The side characters are different slices of zany, more than they are people, but help flesh out a tale that needs extra humor to keep moving, since Alison can be a tab too morose on her own. It's surprising how far back the whole initial detective concept can be pushed and still keep going.

The ending was 100% channeling Douglas Adams. The absurdity knob can indeed go to 11!

This doesn't seem to be part of a series, which is too bad, as I had just started getting to know these folks. But perhaps that was enough.