I think I know some of the Cartel characters you are referring to. Totally agree. I was listening to it on a long dull night drive and I had to turn it off. Boring empty highway was preferable to another interchangeable set of meat puppets.

I think he does this to other sets of characters too, not just women (though women are the most egregious). He just doesn't know when to quit. Taken one at a time, his characters are good, but they come in squads and platoons. Then you devote all this energy to booking them in and they don't do anything. I want my characters to move forward and do things. But he just can't stop tangenting them and establishing every freaking little detail. Don, if you're listening--you're wearing us out. Six characters, one para of backstory. Spinning out interesting characters isn't enough. If you want to give us a new one, you have to kill one of the old ones.