A murder of magpies

Smart? Wittily crafted? Not really. Yes there is a story here and the story is a decent one. But it's occasionally hard to follow due to the completely uneven editing. Romance w cop? Ok, fine for the genre but where on earth did it come from? Bouncy bouncy text–as in “bounces from one thing to the next fast enough that you aren't supposed to quibble about details like motive, character development, etc.”