I imagine some readers actually enjoy these books. I'm glad.

I am not one of those readers.

From a writing craft perspective, these are not five-star stories. There was apparently little basic research into such important areas as law and police training. And then, they are overly wordy, meaning actions are described to death, many little things we don't need to know, which always reads like padding. I don't want to read styrofoam! And then there are the characters. Payten's the MC, but she is not well written. Marko is better. Every victim and suspect was better. ...Who does that?

I managed to read the first story. the prequel novella Murder in the Painted Lady. It suffers from the 'too much description, though starting each chapter with a recorded message to the dead woman was smart. One chapter has a dramatic ending thought that that was ?? because it had nothing to do with what preceded it. And then, in the penultimate chapter, MC puts on six-inch heels, and moves like it's nothing when that's not her usual shoe. I'm sorry, no one does that and doesn't suffer for it, particularly during an altercation. In which the author missed a MAJOR way to add tension to a fight. Good agency, bad edit fail. Points for keeping me interested enough to finish it, but it could have been so much better.

I started the first novel, and just couldn't with all the excess verbiage. I didn't return for some time. But I tried again today. When I got to Payten's scenes, again, not as well done, trite, annoying. I skipped ahead a book... Same old. Fine. Last story. If there's no improvement in the first Payten scene, I'm out.

There was emphatically no improvement. And so I warn you; if you love police procedurals, this will annoy you. If you want a strong female lead, ditto. A good POC lead? Ditto. It could be instructive if you're learning how to edit, I suppose. ( )