A three/three and a half star book. But it gets an extra star for the wave of nostalgia I got reading about my home town.

I'll be grabbing the rest of them. They're cheaper than a trip home. ( )

This is a solidly engaging but unexceptional police procedural. The writing is fluid and easy to understand but doesn't have much style. Two Long Beach, California police detectives, the male still grieving for his dead wife, and the female who is also a martial arts instructor, investigate the brutal murder of a teacher in her classroom after school. The investigation is a bit plodding, however, and at one point even ignores an obvious suspect. You know twists are coming, and they do. The ending is satisfying, but it is the growing relationship between the two detectives that is really the heart of the book. The author is much better at characterization than plotting. So despite my lukewarm review, I actually just clicked and bought the next in the series from Amazon (but the Kindle version was only 99 cents, and I had a credit...) I should mention that this is also one of those books where the author can't restrain from commenting on a lot of other books, songs, Starbucks, etc. There is a right way to blend these references in that can add realism to a story, but it is a bit awkward here.

I listened to the audio book, which was very well read by Alex Hyde-White. ( )

I finished this novel in one sitting, as it was very a compelling read. That being said, I had figured out who the killer was, the minute he was introduced into the story, about chapter two or three. And this was primarily because of the way the killer acted in the killing scene. Still, a good read. I'm wondering how the next story in the series will go, since something happened to the lead character at the end of the novel.
Here is a great review that explains the novel better:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1020211745?book_show_action=true&from_...

3.5 stars, and recommended. ( )

A teacher is murdered in her classroom and Long Beach homicide detective Danny Beckett is tasked with finding her killer. I picked this up because it's a local author and part of the story takes place in my neighborhood, which is interesting (even if Dilts has moved a few things - for whatever reason he had). It was better than I had expected from a first installment, so I'll continue the series, hoping that future installments' endings are a little more savvy than this one. ( )

It was't awful and the characters were intersting. It dragged for me and I guessed the doer in the first quarter of the book. I will not look for others by this author. ( )