This was a strong entry in the Jack Liffey series, it had everything that I was looking for from the previous entry. The concept worked well in this mystery genre and glad everything worked overall with what I was hoping for. John Shannon has a great way of weaving the story and glad I was able to read more in this world.

This is a tough review to write. Honestly, I didn't care for the book, not because it was a bad book, but simply because it didn't suit my own personal taste. For me, the prose was hard going, and the narrative turned out to be the sort of California-style narrative I really don't care for at all. I made it less than halfway through the book before I realized it just wasn't for me.

One thing that bothers me about NetGalley is that it establishes a real disincentive for us to try books from writers we don't know. If we request a book that looks interesting and it turns out we don't care for it, as in this case, we have to post a review anyway or NetGalley dings us for downloading a book and not reviewing it. 'I will not be leaving feedback' counts against reviewers, not against the book. Publishers would get much wider take-up of lesser known authors if we had a way to take an off ramp rather than reviewing a book we discovered didn't suit our taste. There ought to be a way to say 'not for me' without being penalized for it.

Now I'm stuck with posting a review like this and giving a book that didn't appeal to me a rating. That's really not fair either to the writer or to the publisher.

Thanks for the ARC! This was a fun one. I have not read any of the other Jack Liffey books, but I love some good LA mysteries, and will check out the other titles in this series. LA is the perfect setting for this sort of story and it really comes to life on these pages.