I wanted to like this book, but once again the 'tell, don't show' problem kept coming up. It felt less interesting to follow when the plotline itself was a good set up. Hollywood scandal, murder, illegal drugs and a pretty good climatic action scene should be an easy sell. I think part of the problem is McKevett's become used to the characters and assumes everyone else has to. But we haven't. We don't know the information written on sheets of papers, the bios. All the readers hear about are the same characteristics.

The scandal surrounding Jason's fidelity was very manufactured. To easy to guess as the series went on. As was the killer, which I'd suspected off and on again for about 150 pages. Execution felt too flat for the idea of the book. Steroids are a serious problem, Tammy's right about that, but it was almost a throwaway red herring. Not nearly enough to really validate the constant leads. Once again, Dr. Liu and Eileen merely serve as plot devices when both women could have easily demonstrated a little more in their fields.

Added to that, Dirk meeting his birth parents seemed rather shoehorned. These aren't the Reids with a billion books to back them up. The most important information was thrown in during the last 5 or 6 pages when the reader already finds Dora annoying if confident. Van and Dora could have learned more about each other, talking while shopping, showing why the older woman is the way she is. Instead it was left up to Richard, Dirk's father, to explain Dora's problems. For a book with strong women, sometimes it feels like the writer only wants to use them sparingly.

Too bad since I was actually looking forward to this book's plot.