A maybe (not) series

 Black Velvet (The Erin O'Reilly Mysteries #1)
by Steven Henry

I finished this book automatically thinking I'd put the next one on my list, but...maybe not. It was not memorable. Oh, the action was good and the mystery okay, but there just wasn't anything in it that dug at the heart and demanded more.  It seemed like a good author who was writing in the "female detective with police dog" genre because that was trendy, not because it was special to him in any way.

When a man writes a woman lead character--or the reverse--he or she needs to have the book carefully reviewed by an opposite sex-er for realism. And while I can't put a single finger on a scene where it was glaring obvious that "a man wrote this", it still seemed that way. "Erin was furious. She wanted to hit something." Hmmm. Little things, like taking risks women don't typically take. But maybe I'm being oversensitive.

I see that he's written thirteen of these, so obviously other people don't have that objection. Or if they do, they don't care.

I might try one more.