I have mixed feelings about this book, and I think some of the negative feelings I have might have been alleviated had I read the five previous books in this series before reading this one. There are some series, especially in the mystery genre, where a new reader can just jump in wherever they feel like it, and still get every bit of enjoyment from the book they'd have gotten if they'd read all the previous books. I don't think that's true of Jardine's Oz Blackstone series, though. The entire first third or so of this book was devoted to subplots that had continued from previous books. Oz, a former detective now turned movie star, has tried to reconcile with his wife, Primavera, but she has left him for another man, which makes him feel better about the fact that Susie Gantry, whom he slept with while on his honeymoon (!), is now having his baby (!!). Oz is so charmed by the baby, and surprised by his affections for Susie, that he commits to a relationship with her by the time the baby's been around for a week or so. Meanwhile, other women are throwing themselves at him--old flames, co-stars in his new movie, even his not-yet-ex-wife--and he finds it hard to resist them, womanizer that he has traditionally been. Oh, but he must! Think of the children!The whole time I was reading this section of the book, I was thinking two things. 1: Is there going to be a mystery in here somewhere? and 2: Jeez, every woman this guy meets tries to jump in the sack with him. Seems like a textbook case of wish fulfillment on the author's part, as does the fact that Oz is starring in a movie that's an adaptation of one of the novels in Jardine's other crime series, featuring Detective Bob Skinner. And you know, more power to him I suppose, but the fact is that the women just kept throwing themselves at Oz to the point where it really upset my ability to suspend disbelief. By halfway through the book, when the sixth or seventh woman in a row seemed determined to set an aggressive course for his bedroom, I was thinking, "Oh, well, of COURSE! After all, every woman in the world wants to fuck Oz Blackstone!" That was the part that no amount of previous series reading would have made better. Who knows, maybe it's like that in every book, and if I'd started with the first book, I never would have gotten to the sixth. But even that would have been something I could have worked with if there wasn't so much of the story that I had no involvement in, and therefore no real interest in. As I said, there was no real mystery until 100 pages in or thereabouts, when the mysteriously reappearing old flame (who throws herself at Oz on multiple occasions, natch) discovers the body of her ex-fiancee and business partner. Oz is convince that she didn't kill him, but the police are just as convinced she did. After a while, other bodies start turning up, in a pattern that seems obvious to Oz, but is missed completely by the police because they don't have the information that Oz has--information that, if revealed to the police, could get his old flame, and even Oz himself, into all sorts of additional legal hot water. So Oz has to figure out who is committing the murders before the poliice charge his ex with them, or turn up any unsavory details, or both.Once the main plot of the book got going, I'll admit that I did enjoy it a good bit more than I had towards the beginning. I still found the main character's unfortunate combination of rampant egotism and seeming irresistibility to women annoying, and had trouble liking him as a protagonist, but the process through which he solved the mystery was enjoyable to read, the action scenes were engrossing, and the plot kept me guessing right up to the end. However, the detailed subplots that tended to relate to incidents that had occurred in past books, which I knew nothing about, were distracting, and at risk of belaboring the point, I found several aspects of the main character unappealing. This book was OK at best. I doubt I'll read more by the author, at least not anytime soon.
