I'd read a couple of Alan Gregory mysteries before and thought they were pretty good, so i decided to begin with the beginning. This is book number one. I have to say, if i had started with the first one, i never would have read any more in the series. Alan is a psychologist, so the books are sort of like the Jonathan Kellerman series, but not. Not as good, for sure. Every character in this book is annoying. The two most annoying characters are the main guy, Alan, and the woman he's trying to date, Lauren. She is a b*tch and he is a total glutton for punishment for keeping coming back after everything that she gives him. This book elapses over a year, but i never feel for the people in it, even on the sad moments, it's oh whatever. They all come across as pretentious, and Alan as weak and annoying. The mystery itself was so obvious that i finished the book to see the twist ending..there's not really any twist. It's just obvious. It took me forever to read this book..i usually read one in a day or two, this one took half a month. i read others in between but i was pretty consistently picking it up, getting bored and putting it down, unlike sometimes when i start a book, forget about it, and then finish it in a day or two once i finally get into it. i never got into it. The overall series is good at best, but this book is poor, i would recommend just skipping it and diving in later on, you'll figure things out as they recap a lot. you're not missing anything, i give it two stars because i was able to finish it.