The third book in the Park Trilogy, Angel Park is the conclusion to the story of the Ongoing Investigation Division - an effort to devote manpower to cold cases and reallocate resources to work the cases to their natural conclusion. The department is made up of Detectives Stan Wyld and Jake Steiner, I.T. specialist, Mallory Dimante and newly acquired pet/police dog, Jake. Angel Park is the continuation of the OID's second case the disappearance of film director, James Marston.

I loved the first book and it's been steadily downhill ever since. The plot was messy, the characters were irritating and the romance was bizarre. Jake and Mallory's interactions were stilted and weird and they got weirder. When they finally had sex it was on the heels of him hitting on and sleeping with another woman and Mallory failing to tell him that woman is a prime suspect.

On top of that, Stan and Michael don't appear as much and it all got way too ridiculous. And the ending was super disappointing. Why kill off Stan? He was happy with Bea - why couldn't they just live happily ever after. I mean I get killing off main characters but there was nothing gained by it in this except to make me sad. I would suggest reading the first book, Olive Park, and stopping there unless or until, an editor reworks the final two books and restructures the narrative for a more cohesive story. There's definitely a gem of a story in the trilogy - but the execution in the last two books have let it down.

3 stars. ( )