At first I thought, well, I guess I do have my time to lose, because the book did not completely grab me, as the writing and character development felt choppy at best. As a matter of fact, the author throws so many characters at you at once (practically an entire police squad), that it was hard to keep them straight. Also, I had to remind myself to remember these were “Scott Cullen” mysteries, (aka Cullen because the author refers to so many characters by their last name, when he finally mentioned their first names, I had to double back to see of whom he was speaking). The other characters felt extraneous and formulaic in their development (really almost stereotypical) and it was hard to differentiate between what the author felt about the people in Scott Cullen’s life versus what “Cullen” felt about the people in his life . That said, I think the book may have worked better if Scott Cullen was actually the narrator rather than the third person one provided.
Anyway, once I got passed that and learned to keep the characters straight, the story in this police procedural wasn’t bad – internet stalker, meeting women via “Schoolbook” (not Facebook – let’s keep that straight), and murdering them. The pace picked up nicely in the middle, dragged a bit near the end but ultimately worked out. So in the end, I didn’t mind spending several hours in Scott Cullen’s Edinburgh at the bargain-basement price of $.99.
The next book in the series is Devil in the Detail and at $2.99 on Amazon, I’ll probably give this one a go too.