Kansas historical playwright, Betty Laird, had this to say about the book: "Those last 27 pages I couldn't turn them fast enough I was totally taken by surprise when I learned the identity of the killer. I especially liked the author's character descriptions. Some of them are marvelously poetic. A great book " Esther sets this first State of the Murder series in Kansas City, Missouri. "Jordan Lamar Stafford was murdered in the wee hours of the morning, walking along his neighborhood street. Only a block or so from his Westport apartment a shot rang out, finding its mark in Jordan's temple...He lay on the ground, in a pool of blood. A topless girl stood over him, crying. Behind her, the street shone eerily with light from a dozen tall blue lanterns..." The opening sets the mood for a fast-moving escapade that keeps your attention rivited from the first page to the last. Dena Brooke is drawn into finding Jordan's killer before the killer can find her even though she is only in Kansas as her best friend's guest. No one told her, when they sent an airline ticket to her home in Florida, that it was an - invitation to a murder.