An excellent mystery that could have been 5 stars BUT...it receives 1 star from this reader. I can't give 2 stars and say it was OK. For 3 strong reasons it was not. 3 Strikes = Not Recommended!

1-The description on multiple platforms indicates the setting of Santa Monica, California as indicated by

"No Dice is set in Santa Monica, California where a gaming goliath is trying to steamroller local opposition to building a glitzy casino complex on the shoreline. A real whodunit confronts Santa Monica police detective Dave Mason when a crucial city councilwoman is murdered on the eve of the vote bringing the gaming consortium another step closer."

The author's "Acknowledgements" indicate the police department...

"I am grateful to the Santa Monica Police Department and all the officers who took part in the Citizen Academy program. I would also like to thank Lauralee Asch of the Department’s Community Relations Unit for her time, information freely given, and her encouragement."

However, 121 times in the Kindle edition the setting and respective police department are indicated as "Santa Marina, California." In checking the paperback edition via the feature on Amazon of "Look Inside" Santa Monica, California is used. Did neither the author herself or anyone at the publisher of Pertinacity Press since copyright of 2011 check the Kindle Edition to notice this blatant error? This was Mar Preston's debut novel. Now she is writing guides to teach others. Is everyone afraid to mention this to her?

2-There are also multiple copy edit errors! Very simple copy edit errors that would not be captured by spell check but could have so easily been discovered and corrected.

3-This is the 1st time that I've read a novel that did not use a scene transition (i.e., a blank line between paragraphs, asterisks, a piece of clip art) to indicate a smooth pivot to a different location, group of characters, etc. within a chapter. Within one chapter of the book the reader is engrossed in a conversation between Ginger McNair and her father taking place in the kitchen of her apartment. The conversation doesn't seem to continue or end except that in the next sentence it is the next day and Ginger is sending an email blast in the community hall. Within another chapter, Detective Dave Mason is conducting an interview at an individual's place of business. Again, the conversation doesn't seem to continue or end except that in the next sentence the reader is suddenly with Ginger in the midst of

"a long, contentious meeting of the Coalition strategy group."

I didn't mind that the conversation ended or the day or location changed in the storyline. I did mind the abrupt scene transitions that made the advance of the novel choppy and ineffective rather than a seamless flow of good storytelling.

As any mystery reader I wanted to read to the close of the investigation. It was a poor reading experience and not a writing style I choose to pursue. ( )