I wanted to read this because it takes place in Bellingham, and I like books that are placed in the Northwest, but I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. Part of the problem is that I'm not really comfortable with characters who lie, especially when that's basically their first act in a story. Even a little white lie makes me cringe. If the character had been better established first I might be willing to overlook a lie (ie cringe and move on) but I just couldn't get past it at the beginning of the story.