This was a super cute premise but unfortunately is now the best example I have of underwriting. This makes me sad as a fan of campy criminal procedurals.

I couldn't get a good handle on Leda. All of her personality felt stripped from the book. When Grady goes to interview an old cop buddy and said cop buddy describes her as having a huge personality I got whiplash. Was I reading the same character??? Grady was boiled chicken. No seasoning. Also probably a bad cop, but not in a compelling anti-hero way. Niki had a plastic boot, a boyfriend, and the whisper of a personality. Points for retired cop/Daschund wrangler.

There were seemingly unnecessary scenes that dragged the pacing. Geez we spent a lot of time at Castaway's and not a lot of time solving the actual murders this whole book is allegedly about. I'm not confident we needed to see any Klairvoyant Karaoke. It's an interesting subplot. But was it really integral to the case? If there was an eventual tie-in, I lost interest before I got to the payoff. 

Minor grumble: the dialogue was too long. So much dialogue could have been cut without any loss of reader understanding. This started at the very beginning, with Grady talking to his daughter for SO LONG. I have heard about a screenwriting exercise where they cut every other line of dialogue, as newer screenwriters tend to overwrite dialogue. If it still works, they need to trim dialogue. I think this book would have benefitted from the same exercise.

Minor pet peeve: Brand naming. Way too much brand naming. Surely we could situate readers in the Seattle area without name dropping Amazon and Starbucks as much as we did. This book looks like it was published before the social commentary on Bezos really soured, but if anything this is an even better reason to be mindful of your brand references - you don't have control over how they age.