Nothing wrong with trying to be prudent with your money in this economy. And Stumptown isn't exactly based on Kodiak books - it's more like Strugatsky Brother's Noon Universe books, where the books shared basic settings, a few recurring characters but not much else (except for Time Wanderers, which managed to bring together most subplots and character arcs from every book that preceded it. But I digress). In Stumptown's case, most characters are brand-new, but the cop Dex she was talking to on the phone, Tracy Hoffman, previously appeared in Fistful of Rain.