The violence and firearm-porn ramped up here from the first one, so I enjoyed it less. This had another central mystery that inrtrigued me, but there was a looming confrontation set up by the story structure that I was dreading — essentially the fallout of the “if people just talked to each other this entire conflict wouldn’t exist” trope teased for a whole book. I didn’t love that, but still generally enjoyed this. That said, I think you could stop after Pines and it would be fine.