Pioneer Press Review for Character Flaws
“Character Flaws”: review by Mary Ann Grossman, published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Sunday, August 16, 2026
There’s no shortage of flawed characters in the third in this series featuring Grayson Dyle, co-owner of a Twin Cities product design firm who occasionally works with law enforcement.
Dyle and his girlfriend Kate are attending a gala celebrating a new building project that will include high-end rental units and a facility for the unhoused through an agreement between a builder with dubious morals, the state of Minnesota and St. Celestine Catholic church, where Tom is the bishop. In “Design Flaws” and “Ruby Red Flaws” we learned that Tom is the biological father of Grayson and his elder brother Dean. The family relationship between the Bishop and the brothers is a closely guarded secret because Tom was a priest when the boys were conceived.
As Dyle and Kate exit the gala, they witness a shoving match between two women, one of whom is the daughter of the building developer who’s protesting her father’s plans, believing there is a shady deal going on. When the daughter is found dead in the parking ramp, there is no shortage of suspects, including Dyle. An ambitious woman detective finds DNA on the dead woman that links to a male in Grayson’s family tree. But how could that be? It doesn’t match Bishop Tom and Tom’s brother is deceased and had no children.
Grayson turns to his “half-aunt” DeeDee, who’s keeping a detailed family tree that shows no other known males left in the family.
So he begins interviewing those who were in the parking ramp when the woman was strangled, including an angry man who was kept out of the development project and a woman seen fighting with the victim. That woman has gone into hiding and Grayson can’t find her. Meanwhile, Bishop Tom is having a crisis of the soul and a priest sent by the Vatican is studying the church’s financial involvement in the building project. Representing the state of Minnesota on the project is the governor’s ruthless chief of staff who could pull Grayson’s business license if he doesn’t get the cooperation he wants.
In Grayson’s private life, he’s ready to ask Kate to marry him but it never seems to be the right time. And although his brother Dean, who works on cutting-edge surveillance devices, is helpful, he can also get Grayson into lots of trouble by planting probably illegal bugs in suspects’ homes and offices. But the overheard conversations help Grayson in his investigation.
A trademark of this series is the Twin Cities settings, from coffee shops and restaurants to a big house on a hill. The author also breaks up the seriousness with characters like DeeDee who’s been a widow for years. She worked at a crematorium and collects urns, one of which contains the ashes of her late husband she takes with her everywhere. But her slightly flighty facade hides a lot of wisdom about Grayson’s family. For added fun, there’s a lawyer nicknamed Loophole Larry.
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Pioneer Press Review for Ruby Red Flaws
“Ruby Red Flaws”: review by Mary Ann Grossman, published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Sunday, March 16, 2025
Now that Sheila’s body was covered, I turned to the MC and whispered, “This is obviously a murder, or she wouldn’t have been wired to the swing. The killer could still be somewhere in the building, and they may even be sitting here right now…” — from “Ruby Red Flaws”
It was an ugly sight. The corpse of the swing girl at Ruby Ray’s Supper Club in Lilydale along Highway 13 was wired onto her trapeze, one hand moving back and forth to the horror of the audience. Among the diners are Grayson Dyle, co-owner of a Twin Cities product design firm, and Kate, his bookkeeper girlfriend who works for Ray, the club owner and husband of the dead woman.
When it’s obvious the woman has been murdered, Kate races to the safe to be sure her employer’s big uncut ruby is still there. It isn’t, and law enforcement accuses Kate of the murder and stealing the ruby, found by Ray in Australia and displayed in an old museum next to the supper club.
Dyle, a nice guy who loves Kate, is determined to find the real killer to clear Kate’s name. He has also been asked by his biological father, a Catholic bishop, to look into a priest who is holding cult-like services at the supper club on Sunday mornings. (Dyle and his brother, who had been adopted, learned of their birth parents in “Design Flaw,” first in this series.)
As Grayson looks for the killer, a lot of information comes out about the rogue priest and the ruby of which of which Ray is so proud. Is there a real stone and a fake? Why would anyone kill Ray’s wife, who everyone admired? The supper club isn’t doing very well financially but can Ray sell the property to build condos overlooking the river that require variances?
Grayson is a likable sleuth, trying to do the best he can for everyone. And the author grounds his story in local color from having a little fun with Edina (“cake-eaters”) to a church that looks like St. James Evangelical Lutheran in West St. Paul and a salute to the real-life Diamond Jim’s club in a mall that is now the site of condos.
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Pioneer Press Review for Design Flaws
Design Flaws was one of “9 stellar Minnesota-based mysteries published in 2023”