Charlie is a woman who reluctantly accepts an assignment at the detective agency co-owns with her brother. She is the business manager not the detective. However she does what any spunky woman does and ignores good advice, puts herself in jeopardy, repeats stupid moves and continues to make dumb choices until she solves the crime. Bleh. Give me a break. It is so cliche that I cannot believe anyone who had read good detective fiction would bother with this.Try JA Jance's books for a good, well written Southwest heroine.