☆❀☆

Last night I finished the third novel in S. R. White's Detective Dana Russo series, Red Dirt Road. Stayed up too late. Couldn't put it down.

Yeah, it's a slow burn, like everything in this series, but I'm so glad to be along for the ride. There's just something about Dana's thought process - I love being inside her head. She's... steady, slow, methodical, picks things apart and thinks things through. Normally, I don't get so attached to the characters in the crime novels I read, but I really really like her.

I like that she's a numbers person, math-y, finance-savvy. I feel like that isn't something I see in most of the detective protagonists I read about. And in the past few novels, it wasn't really a focus, but in this one I liked the way her background in Fraud came up, and how she used those skills to pick apart the details of the financial informaton she was sent to figure out what was going on, the motive, etc.

And. I like that she's kind of a nerd. Not necessarily a huge nerd, but she picked up the reference to the Kobayashi Maru test and understood it without looking anything up, and the detailed explanation she gave for what it means suggested to me at least some level of scifi-savviness beyond general pop culture osmosis. ...Which doesn't mean she's a Trekkie, but. Yeah, okay, headcanon, she's a Trekkie.

Still shipping Dana/Lucy a lot. It's kind of too bad that they're separated due to Dana being sent to another location for this case, but on the other hand, the feeling of relief when they do get time to talk on the phone - those brief conversations - is so familiar and so good. Plus the lingering possibility (or threat) in the background that Dana might end up transferred, and that they'll be separated.

I'm honestly still not sure whether those two are friends or whether there's meant to be more going on. Then again, I kind of like the ambiguity. ...And I want to write fanfiction with them, but I don't have any specific ideas, not to mention my writer's block etc etc. But. We'll see.

Aughhh, I really want the next book to come out!!!
[EDIT] Oh wait, White Ash Ridge came out last week! But the library doesn't have it yet. Augh augh aughhhhh. orz
[Edit again] Hold on, the March date is the Australian release - it doesn't come out here until the end of July. That does make me feel a bit better, weirdly. (BUT I DON'T WANT TO WAIT.)