I'm glad I inadvertantly skipped book #2 (this one) and read books #1 and #3 first because if I'd gone in order, this one would have turned me off the rest of the series. Book #1 was okay, book #2 is just plain bad.
Lorca is modeled after all the bad masculine cliches in fiction that we're way past now.
I definitely recommend continuing on to #3 Fear Itself -- that book does right by all the characters.