Having read a previous excerpt from this author, I was somewhat familiar with Dolly's background. Obviously she and her friends are a part of this story but hopefully the detective is the main character. Before jumping into this book I would need to know whether the Dolly series is something I would need to read first in order to fully enjoy this one. Dolly and the widows are not characters that appealed to me very much so if it is necessary to read the other series in order to follow this one, I'm going to pass.