Apparently, at an earlier time, ALA librarians considered book series a bad idea, as they promoted intellectual laziness. Intellectually snobby as the judgement is, there is a bit of truth to it. It's tempting to sit back with a series of books and not have to learn about a new set of characters and settings, especially if there are several books already published in the series when you read the first one. Dale Mayer's Lovely Lethal Gardens series are gently humorous, excruciatingly slow paced outside of the murder (or not) mystery, and largely implausible. Arsenic in the Azaleas is the first in the series, introducing recent divorcee and former trophy wife Doreen, her grandmother Nan, her love interest Mack, and her sleuthing, protecting, and cuddling dog, cat, and parrot.
