From the beginning of this series, there were things I liked a lot and things I didn’t. I read the first one and wasn’t rushing out to get the next one, then sometime later, read a summary listing Hero, not Kat as his wife, so I jumped back in. I was going through a stressful life event, so I just kind of settled in and binged the whole series (in part because it took like 90898 books for Simon to be born)

I realized quickly that these books are highly formulaic. Murder, don't want to solve murder, save innocents, autopsy, must solve murder, almost get murdered, kill thugs, kiss wife, talk to every character a dozen times, action fight scene, wrap up case, slight foreshadowing to the next book. I swear the author even copies and pastes entire paragraphs book to book. Especially when it comes to descriptions of characters like Paul, Kat, Herndon, and Lovejoy. I guess she expects us to be too stupid to remember who the main supporting characters are? Or isn't creative enough to introduce them in a way that's more unique?

This one was a little interesting because we finally got to see the evil Ashworth meet his end. But I get tired of the author grossing me out and throwing tons of red herrings everywhere. I'd rather read something interesting than gory. Also, I found it a little confusing why Sebastian likes Stephanie so much. She's a brat, a liar, and kinda creepy. The author introduces a whole parental rape storyline (but it's not incest because he's not her real dad), which was unnecessary. She didn't do a good job setting up Stephanie in the other books for me to care about her in this one. Also, no one is out riding a horse a month after giving birth to premature twins. Your abs are shot.

Really, the only reason I keep reading is to see Simon and waiting to see Sebastian solve Hero's mom's murder (and get rid of that witch cousin Vicky).