Diane M. Johnson's Blog, page 6

More of the Incessant Push for AI

 And why? The tech industry seems to be deaf to the shouts of many creatives with regard to the multitude of concerns that come with unleashing this AI dragon that they so desperately want us to hail as the biggest thing since...ever... Or maybe since Hydra. I don't know, but I'm not buying it. The promotional push is everywhere, thanks to algorithms that no one wants in their lives (Yes, Target. I bought a package of diapers. It was for one baby shower. I don't need your ads at EVERY internet turn, pushing diapers on me).

As a writer, I find my Facebook feed filled with sponsored ads that the algorithms have decided I need for the latest and greatest software that will "write the stories for me." But I don't want the software to write the stories for me--where is the goddamned challenge in that? 

Also, as a screenplay finalist in a handful of script competitions, I got this promotional doozy in my email.

The tone deaf sponsors of this abomination of a competition have since removed it and apologized to the greater screenwriting community (aka the WGA) after one day's worth of backlash, and I applaud my fellow screenwriters for getting the job done.

But the problem is that someone thought it was a good idea in the first place. Someone thought it was a good idea to push the envelope, to sell us on the necessity of AI to "be creative for us." I have gone through the ads in my feed, I've taken the time to click on the little corner icon that brings up the menu where you can choose the option, DON'T SHOW THIS AD AGAIN and DON'T SHOW ADS SIMILAR TO THIS AGAIN, and STILL they keep coming. Okay, fine, I say. If they're going to keep coming, I will leave snarky remarks in the threads just to piss them off, because I want them--and everyone--to know that they can stop selling me shit that I don't want or need. That will make a difference, right? They'll read those comments and discern my discontent, right???

Okay, huge assumption on my part. Wishful thinking, yeah. But you would think, with the snarky feedback and the social media posts that I have made in support of the WGA and against the use of AI in the creative world...you would think that the algorithms would get the hint. But I get it. I am a target audience when it comes to pushing AI writing software. That part of the equation is not going to change.

What I REALLY don't need though is a baked goods company trying to sell me on the benefits of AI in my life. That's right, Wolferman's Bakery, that sells breakfast muffins and pastries sent me a newsletter eblast about using AI to better improve my life. Wolferman's Bakery wants me to think hard on that, and since they asked for opinions on that topic, I decided I would oblige.

This is what I had to say:
I’m not sure why I’m getting a newsletter in support of AI from a baked goods seller (or floral arranger—who knows, because the email came from Wolferman's but the address is 1800flowers…), but whatever… Your email blast found its way to the wrong inbox. You see, I am a writer, a book author, a screenwriter, and I’m not as enamored with the onslaught of promotional advertising being shoved in my face left and right as our money grubbing tech bros hoped I would be.
A good number of writer types are in agreement with my stand as is evidenced by the current Writers Strike, where key components of the agreement, that the AMPTP refuses to recognize, address the usage and implementation of AI in a highly creative field. Add to that the growing number of writers and artists who are filing lawsuits over the vast amount of material that AI has trained on without author/artist consent to create “new” art, “new” stories. Background actors are being scanned for features and TV and being paid a day's wage so that studios can use their images "in perpetuity" without a say as to how those images are used, and without further compensation.
At minimum, there needs to be serious regulation put into place. There needs to be clear rules regarding copyright and compensation, because AI training on the artistic endeavors of others—for the sake of selling their AI technology to the masses and to corporate entities—is clearly a violation of fair use in my opinion.
So no, I am not super excited by this new technology. I have had the opportunity to read a few AI examples in the creative writing field, and to be honest they are monstrosities. And derivative. And I know, you might say that I'm biased, and yes I am, but seriously. They were that bad. And I get it to some degree—artists who don’t make a lot of money, who are trying to get their material out there on a budget, might cave to the cost effective use of AI to self publish a book or to have it read by an AI voice, or to push past the block, or to have it create some artistically rendered book cover. I get that. But you lose something when you rely on artificial intelligence to do the work for you. You lose the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes from the work. And you fail to support the artistic talents of others. Because writing, at least, isn’t about writing another story like the last story. It’s about putting your heart and soul into a story to learn about yourself and to create something special that speaks to you. That you hope will speak to others.
So, no. I am not in support of AI like the tech industry hoped I would be. But thanks for asking.
Anyway, thanks for entertaining me by reading this rant. Also, don't buy books from robot authors.

Short Book Review: Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins -- Another book to (cough) leave behind

 I thought I was going to blog about my kid's graduation from college this month and the random drunk dude who crashed the party, and maybe I'll get to that. I've jotted down enough handwritten notes about it that could conceivably infuriate, bore or amuse any potential readers. But I'm still a bit enraged by that whole incident, and I don't want to have my fingers fly across this keyboard to unleash my anger upon the innocent. Maybe another day. It would be a long blog, and I don't want to lose my audience.

Instead, I'll share this short, angry review of this book; Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.

Image courtesy of www.tynedale.com

You may say to yourself, this book is over 25 years old! It's proven its success as a series, in movies and TV. Over a million copies sold! Why review it now? All of these things are true. It doesn't matter what I think, because the authors and publishers of this book have reaped their reward. The Christian public has spoken.

That doesn't make it any less of an awful book. My mom gave me this book -- about 25 years ago, and I promised to get to it. And I did, now...because back then the book didn't appeal to me. But now, having written my own trilogy of a religion infused horror/thriller, I thought maybe it was time to read up on more books that defined the Christian thriller genre, and this first book is one of those Christian fiction game changers. In all honesty, I didn't expect to love this book. My Perfect Prophet trilogy has a bit of a religious backdrop, but it's not designed or intended to convert anyone whereas I had a feeling that Left Behind was hoping for that end.

And it does hope for that end, absolutely. But it's also just badly written, in my opinion. It's okay, I can say that. The authors have received plenty of money, I'm sure, to prove me otherwise. Maybe my own books are worse--I don't know--but...I had a hard time fighting a numbness brought on from reading this book. 

I have to admit that the cliffhanger ending was a welcome twist. It helps explain why everyone so easily dismisses who the obvious villain is, whether you’re familiar with interpretations of the book of Revelations or not. That having been said, I cannot dismiss all the things that made this book a real chore to read. Buck Williams is such a cliché, but I sort of like him. He’s the most proactive character of the piece. But every character is a cardboard cutout, superficial person to the point where I failed to sympathize with them. Rayford Steele, the pilot who finds God, is an arrogant ass. The woman he’s thinking about, Hattie—who he’s never touched, although he wants to (as told to us in the very first paragraph of the book), is vapid and superficial too.

And let’s not talk about how this book utilizes women in light of the Bechdel test. I know, I keep bringing up that test lately in my reviews, but I can’t avoid it here. It’s that bad. I had hope for Steele’s daughter, but the book ultimately failed her too.

The book is indeed preachy—look, it can’t not be, given the subject matter. I get that. But it got repetitive fast. It’s an easy read. I blew through this book, not because of the heart pounding action but because the overly repetitive parts were skim-worthy.

I did not like this book. Sorry. I rated it 2 stars out of 5, and that's being generous. But the plot was a plot, so I guess that has to count for something. Plus, over one million books sold! I don't know, maybe the 25th anniversary edition has been revised and edited. I can only hope.

And that's it. That's the review. I won't heap on more anger and bitterness with that drunk party crasher at my son's grad party. Maybe next time.

And if you like religious tinged horror fiction, maybe give the Perfect Prophet series a try. I can only pray for better reviews than this one. It's a risky suggestion, I know. But hey, you get the entire eBook trilogy for the price of one Left Behind!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/perf...

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/prop...

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/perf...

Left Behind — Another book to (cough) leave behind

Left Behind by Tim LaHaye

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I have to admit that the cliffhanger ending of the book was a welcome twist. It helps explain why everyone so easily dismisses who the obvious villain is, whether you’re familiar with interpretations of the book of Revelations or not.

That having been said, I cannot dismiss all the things that made this book a real chore for me to read. Buck Williams is such a cliche, but I sort of like him. He’s the most proactive character of the piece. But every character is such a cardboard cutout superficial person that I failed to sympathize much. Rayford Steele, the pilot who finds God, is an arrogant ass. The woman he’s thinking about—who he’s never touched, although he wants to (as told to us in the very first paragraph of the book), is vapid and superficial too.

And let’s not talk about how this book utilizes women in light of the Bechdel test. I know, I keep bringing up that test lately in my reviews, but I can’t avoid it here. It’s that bad. I had hope for Steele’s daughter, but the book ultimately failed her too.

The book is preachy—look, it can’t not be, given the subject matter. I get that. But it got repetitive fast. It’s an easy read. I blew through this book, not because of the heart pounding action but because the overly repetitive parts were skim-worthy.

I did not like this book. Sorry.



View all my reviews

Perfect Sacrifices Giveaway Participants Chosen

That’s right, ten lucky winners have been chosen! I will get those books out to you in the mail soon, I promise. Thank you for your interest, and don’t forget to leave reviews if you like it!Perfect Sacrifices: Book Three (3)

The AI Experiment

I’m not an A-list writer. I’m happy with the ideas I parlay into scripts and novels, and I aspire to make a decent living from it, sure. But I’m also an introvert comfortable in her own introvert skin, and I don’t spend a lot of time investing in the marketing aspect of the business. I get decent reviews for my books and hit the upper echelon of script entrants who make it to the finalist lists often, but I don’t make a lot of money from it. I work a “real job” for a living, and what I make from writing versus what I spend would clearly put me in debt if it was my sole source of income. I’m also not into podcasts or audiobooks, so I’ve never seriously considered converting my novels to an audiobook format.

But I’ve recently come to the conclusion that it would be foolish to dismiss the audiobook audience. We all have busy lives, and reading, while arguably beneficial to both mind and soul, is time consuming. It’s not designed for multitasking, while audiobooks allow us to listen and drive, or listen and mow the lawn above the roar of the machine’s motor, with headphones or earbuds in place. So, I decided to look into the transfer of book to audiobook and found that to do it properly is…expensive.

Here, you can revisit my opening paragraph that outlines how I don’t make a lot of money. The cost of creating an audiobook—a good audiobook—involves talent. It involves narrators who do their jobs well, and who should be paid a decent wage to do it. But that’s a difficult cost to swallow for an Independent Author (IA, not AI) who is already spending their negative cashflow on things like professional book review sites (Kirkus isn’t free) or the “opportunity” to get honest reviews through NetGalley or other review sites for a fee—by offering your book to readers for free (And those readers love free books—but they don’t always reciprocate with a review…).

Image from Daniel Jose Older @djolder
on Twitter
no copyright infringement intended
Enter the rapidly growing technology of AI or, if you live in a cave, Artificial Intelligence. The technology is among the list of things that the WGA (Writers Guild of America) is currently striking over, and with good reason. Computers are learning to make art, write stories and read in surprisingly accurate likenesses of real people at an exponential rate. It’s currently a point of contention in the book publishing world too, as using credible sounding AI voices to narrate books puts real people out of a job. But back in November of 2022, the technology was being utilized by lay people as a cool thing to play with. 

Soon, I began wondering if having an audiobook available might be a good idea, especially for the visually impaired who would benefit from access to more narrated books in their lives; because everything has some catch-22 built into it, and I found a reasonably priced audiobook package through BookBaby that would convert my books to audiobooks using AI voices. My first novel, The Schoharie, was my experiment. Needless to say, I was disappointed and I regret that experiment. 

BookBaby uses Speechki for its audiobook conversions, and I had reservations from the start. The fervor over AI wasn’t at a fever pitch yet, but there were rumblings. BookBaby and Speechki give their AI narrators names – like Derek Torres—and my first thought was, well that’s kind of deceptive… I told them that I didn’t want to follow through with the order unless it was clear to the buyer that the voice was indeed AI generated. BookBaby assured me that an AI disclaimer would appear on the cover image of the book, and it does. I’m not going to delve into my disappointment with BookBaby’s review and rejection policies during the audiobook’s conversion except to say that maybe it soured me more over the process on a personal level, but in the end, I felt like the conversion was a waste of my money. Lesson learned from that experiment.

Here's why, and it’s not what you might think. First, the conversion is still expensive, especially for Independent Authors who might not have the money. If you can justify the cost of creating an audiobook, aim for real people who can inject the right amount of emotion to your words. The Speechki AI conversion failed to add the right inflection throughout my book – especially when it came to dialogue lines that were questions and…I don’t know. Maybe that’s a good thing, because if AI can’t add the right inflections to achieve the right emotional punch, then we still have a way of telling the difference between a human voice and an AI one. I don’t know how long that difference might last though, and I’m not enthused about the potential to have that line erased.

But let’s address the simple fact that AI is already an important part of our lives. We have Alexa and Siri, and we don’t think twice about asking them for directions or the weather. Although, the endless promotional ads enticing me to sit back and chat with an AI generated therapist is just…creepy as fuck! Stop it! I may be an introvert, but I’m not that hard up for friends. Back on track, though—we don’t think twice about using autocorrect or Grammarly as writing tools. But on that note, autocorrect irritates the hell out of me. I don’t use the word duck as regularly as it thinks I do, and if I do, it’s usually a mistake that it doesn’t correct. And Grammarly…I downloaded it once, then said nope, and deleted it the next day. It ruined the flow of thoughts spilling out of me, and I already write and correct things in spurts.

Anyway, those are some things to think about regarding the future of books and art and movies with AI. I haven’t even touched on the insane level of digital actor replacements being used by deepfakes. It’s a lot to comprehend, a lot to keep watch on, a lot to worry about. Artists already struggle when it come to being compensated for their work. They let some of it slide because of their passion for that work. They don’t need Artificial Intelligence replacing them because of some formula. Screenwriters in particular are confronted with the notion that their scripts should adhere to some “formula,” but in reality, it’s the rulebreakers that take the audience by surprise.

My AI narrated audiobook version of The Schoharie is currently available exclusively through BookBaby. As of the date of this blog entry, the audiobook version hasn’t made one cent. 

And I’m okay with that.

Book Review -- A House With Good Bones, by T. Kingfisher -- A Horror Comedy Delight

 

Cover Image courtesy of
Tor Nightfire
Do you note how NetGalley asks if you would recommend this book to others? Well, I was talking about and recommending this book before I was finished with it. It’s horror lite, most certainly. But it’s clever and funny and well worth the read. I was reading this, also, upon a visit home to my mom after a bit of a health scare. My mom lives in my grandparents old house in a rather rural neighborhood. Her best friend is a gardener and bird enthusiast, and vultures are a common sighting. So maybe it was karma that led me to this book.

I’m also still viewing the world of entertainment with that Bechdel test lingering at the back of my mind, and T Kingfisher passes that metric without out batting an eyelash. Sam is a bug scientist. She's single, and while the story has a potential love interest in Phil the handyman, Phil is far from the center of attention. Because Mom has been acting weird. Sam needs to know what’s up because the house, that had once been filled with the bright eclectic flavor of her mom, has slowly returned to the "nice and normal" ambiance of Sam's grandmother who, in hindsight, turns out to have been not very nice at all in her quest for normalcy. Also, the local witch down the road has a haven for vultures, and those vultures are very keen on giving attention to Sam's mom's house.

As strange and suspicious events continue to unfold, involving a lack of bugs in the garden and mom's insistence to adhere to grandma's outdated ways, Sam embarks on an investigation that unravels a few unsettling truths about her family history that author Kingfisher masterfully connects to some outrageously true history connected to L. Ron Hubbard.

It’s such a clever and creative little horror story, with how it weaves the seemingly unrelated horror elements into a cohesive whole by the end. I want to give spoilers so bad with this, but I’ll refrain. Suffice to say that it gets five stars and is near guaranteed to entertain.

Free Reads On NetGalley, Plus a Review on Pi��ata, by Leopoldo Gout

If you aren���t familiar with it, NetGalley is great. It's an opportunity for writers to get their work out to readers for free in order to coax honest reviews of their recently published (or soon to be published) work. It���s an opportunity for readers to get a free look at new books by both new and established writers before the general reading audience sees it.

Of course there���s a catch. Readers are expected to leave a rating or review of the book. But this isn���t like Goodreads, where there's that chance of a new author giving you what for if the review isn���t what they want to hear. No, NetGalley is a trusted intermediary in that process. There's no chat room where author and reviewer might virtually bump into each other. NetGalley is the barrier between the two, giving the reader the chance to give an honest opinion and the author a chance to garner thoughtful feedback for themselves and, potentially, more readers.

I've prefaced this blog with a pitch for NetGalley for two reasons. First, I am going to review a newly released horror novel, Pi��ata, by Leopoldo Gout. I found it on NetGalley. Second, I'm pitching my own new release, Perfect Sacrifices, which isn���t currently on NetGalley, but will be soon. Perfect Sacrifices is book three of the Perfect Prophet series, and you can find books one and two (Prophet Reborn) on NetGalley for a limited time, starting now. I am so happy with the completed third book, and I hope horror readers will love it. But it needs reviews before people will consider it, and there is a bit of backstory that comes easier if you���re familiar with the first two books. Perfect Prophet and Prophet Reborn have decent professional reviews, but it's the regular reader reviews that people look for. The more, the merrier. So please feel free to check out and review Perfect Prophet and Prophet Reborn for free at NetGalley for the next three months. You can post those reviews elsewhere too, if you want to make an author happy. Here's a link where you can sign up or login if you���re already a member���

https://www.netgalley.com/auth/login

And here���s a link to Perfect Prophet  and Prophet Reborn specifically���

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/?text=Diane+M.+Johnson

Onto the real reason you���re here, a review on Pi��ata by Leopoldo Gout.

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/267318

First, thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ARC of this intriguing horror novel. I���m a sucker for horror with cultural or historical roots, and Pi��ata easily fills that bill. Also, I picked this book up on the tail end of reading a book that failed the Bechdel test, and that metric is still at the back of my mind, so��� This book has several female main characters who talk to each other about things beyond the men in their lives. Bravo, Mr. Gout. You passed the test!

I enjoyed this horror piece, about a Mexican descended family from NY who travel to Mexico because of mom's work as an architect. It doubles as an opportunity for the woman's school age daughters to get a taste of their heritage but, teenage girls being who they are, it doesn���t end well. But the teenage apathy isn���t the worst of the family���s problems. The mom, Carmen, is a woman in a male dominated field, and the site that her firm is helping renovate into a hotel is an old church with a dark historical past.

The near decimation of the Mexican indigenous population at the hands of conquistadors and Spanish missionaries has left a centuries old stain on this location of the world, and the history and cultural relevance of the pi��ata is at its core. Once part of Nahua rituals of death and rebirth, it has now become a party favor, a mockery of its original importance and meaning. Until Carmen's youngest daughter Luna shows up and introduces herself to the long silenced spirits of the past who seek revenge. Luna becomes a sort of conduit for those vengeful spirits in a way that that little girl in the movie Poltergeist was used by the voices on a static filled TV. Sort of. I���m not going to provide any more possible spoilers except to say that the idea that Poltergeist uses���the gentrification over sacred land, is an easy comparison.

I enjoyed the book, most definitely, although the build to the horrific end was a little slower than I would have preferred. The slow build pulls the rating down maybe more than it should. I don���t know, maybe it was the writing style that was fine���but it didn���t quite fill me with the looming terror that I felt it should have. Until the end. It ramped up quickly by the last quarter of the book.

Free Reads On NetGalley, Plus a Review on Piñata, by Leopoldo Gout

If you aren’t familiar with it, NetGalley is great. It's an opportunity for writers to get their work out to readers for free in order to coax honest reviews of their recently published (or soon to be published) work. It’s an opportunity for readers to get a free look at new books by both new and established writers before the general reading audience sees it.

Of course there’s a catch. Readers are expected to leave a rating or review of the book. But this isn’t like Goodreads, where there's that chance of a new author giving you what for if the review isn’t what they want to hear. No, NetGalley is a trusted intermediary in that process. There's no chat room where author and reviewer might virtually bump into each other. NetGalley is the barrier between the two, giving the reader the chance to give an honest opinion and the author a chance to garner thoughtful feedback for themselves and, potentially, more readers.

I've prefaced this blog with a pitch for NetGalley for two reasons. First, I am going to review a newly released horror novel, Piñata, by Leopoldo Gout. I found it on NetGalley. Second, I'm pitching my own new release, Perfect Sacrifices, which isn’t currently on NetGalley, but will be soon. Perfect Sacrifices is book three of the Perfect Prophet series, and you can find books one and two (Prophet Reborn) on NetGalley for a limited time, starting now. I am so happy with the completed third book, and I hope horror readers will love it. But it needs reviews before people will consider it, and there is a bit of backstory that comes easier if you’re familiar with the first two books. Perfect Prophet and Prophet Reborn have decent professional reviews, but it's the regular reader reviews that people look for. The more, the merrier. So please feel free to check out and review Perfect Prophet and Prophet Reborn for free at NetGalley for the next three months. You can post those reviews elsewhere too, if you want to make an author happy. Here's a link where you can sign up or login if you’re already a member…

https://www.netgalley.com/auth/login

And here’s a link to Perfect Prophet  and Prophet Reborn specifically…

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/?text=Diane+M.+Johnson

Onto the real reason you’re here, a review on Piñata by Leopoldo Gout.

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/267318

First, thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ARC of this intriguing horror novel. I’m a sucker for horror with cultural or historical roots, and Piñata easily fills that bill. Also, I picked this book up on the tail end of reading a book that failed the Bechdel test, and that metric is still at the back of my mind, so… This book has several female main characters who talk to each other about things beyond the men in their lives. Bravo, Mr. Gout. You passed the test!

I enjoyed this horror piece, about a Mexican descended family from NY who travel to Mexico because of mom's work as an architect. It doubles as an opportunity for the woman's school age daughters to get a taste of their heritage but, teenage girls being who they are, it doesn’t end well. But the teenage apathy isn’t the worst of the family’s problems. The mom, Carmen, is a woman in a male dominated field, and the site that her firm is helping renovate into a hotel is an old church with a dark historical past.

The near decimation of the Mexican indigenous population at the hands of conquistadors and Spanish missionaries has left a centuries old stain on this location of the world, and the history and cultural relevance of the piñata is at its core. Once part of Nahua rituals of death and rebirth, it has now become a party favor, a mockery of its original importance and meaning. Until Carmen's youngest daughter Luna shows up and introduces herself to the long silenced spirits of the past who seek revenge. Luna becomes a sort of conduit for those vengeful spirits in a way that that little girl in the movie Poltergeist was used by the voices on a static filled TV. Sort of. I’m not going to provide any more possible spoilers except to say that the idea that Poltergeist uses—the gentrification over sacred land, is an easy comparison.

I enjoyed the book, most definitely, although the build to the horrific end was a little slower than I would have preferred. The slow build pulls the rating down maybe more than it should. I don’t know, maybe it was the writing style that was fine…but it didn’t quite fill me with the looming terror that I felt it should have. Until the end. It ramped up quickly by the last quarter of the book.

Perfect Sacrifices Book Three is Out!

The final book of the Perfect Prophet trilogy is out in ebook format, and available for preorder as a paperback at most online book retailers NOW! That includes Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, BookBaby, and is available for FREE if your local library uses Hoopla.

But hey, it's book three. How will you know what's going on if you haven't picked up the first two in the series, Perfect Prophet and Prophet Reborn? Well, this is your lucky day! If you are familiar with NetGalley, you can download and read Perfect Prophet for FREE for the next three months. Perfect Sacrifices will also be posted soon.

https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/boo...

There's a catch, though--NetGalley is a website specifically designed for leaving reviews. Free books in exchange for honest reviews. Reviews are crucial for any author to boost their chances at future sales. So, I ask that you kindly check out NetGalley. Look for Perfect Prophet, available now, and Prophet Reborn available soon! Who knows? If I garner enough reviews, maybe I'll post Perfect Sacrifices there too!


And as always, thank you for your patronage and support.

At the tail end of Women's History month--A book that fails the Bechdel test

Cover image courtesy of
Sterling and StoneAnd look, I understand that not every piece of reading or viewing entertainment out there needs to pass this simple test, but the lead character of Once Upon a Crime by Nolan King is a woman. You would think the author would be able to give her a female friend, and you would think that—as a cop—she could find things to discuss with that other female besides men. I’m not being nit picky here, and if you don’t know what the Bechdel test is, look it up. Also, the victims of this cop thriller are all women, stalked by a serial killer with an obesssion for Grimms' fairytales. 
Anyway, we could argue about the specifics of the Bechdel test: 1) The story needs two "featured" women (Chelsea Sullivan is the only featured one, even though her detective partner has a mom and ex girlfriend who make a brief appearance to be concerned about…the new girl in his life…), 2) Those "featured women" need to have at least one brief conversation together (Chelsea's only brief conversation is with a librarian near the end of the story, and she's not a featured character), and 3) that conversation between two "featured" women has to be about anything other than a man (if we’re counting the partner's mom and ex girlfriend, well they’re discussing him and his love life, so—fail). 
But hey, as detective thrillers go, this story was… okay. If you're a fan of TV shows like Bones, Castle, Big Sky, where there are two detective partners tracking down crime while flirting with the potential that they are meant for each other (by denying it at every turn), this story might be for you.