I starting reading this series because I received a ARC of James Sallis' new book Sarah Jane to review. The marketing of the books from Soho Press claims that James Sallis is going through a renaissance, and I am not sure what the qualifications are for that experience. The problems with his writing are 1) he is a Black author writing detective stories and that has already been done by talented writers like Chester Himes and Walter Moseley so you can't help comparing Sallis to them; and 2) Sallis' claim to fame is his book Drive was made into a film starring Ryan Gosling and Brian Cranston. To me, his books read more like movie scripts, there is plenty of atmosphere (they are set in New Orleans) and action, but the characters are not well developed. I think he should stick to writing movie scripts and not try to pass off a series of 200 page books as a finished product. But then I am not finished reading the series, maybe they get better.