Some authors give minute details about the city or area in which their stories are set. They either choose a place with which they're very familiar or they list a disclaimer stating that while such and such a place is real, they've taken the liberty to change things to fit their needs.
     Some people may think I was being lazy and didn't want to have to make sure I had all of my facts straight about the city in which my story takes place. I'll admit it now, I'm a small town girl and don't have enough knowledge of any city to get descriptions of the city accurate enough to be believable. It would've taken me months just to research the layout of any given city to make that happen ... much longer than it took me to research any particular facts about the crime solving process. However, my main motivation for being so vague in my settings has another motive.
     Just as I don't go into in-depth descriptions of my characters so each reader can place themselves in any role, I've left the descriptions of the city vague enough readers can, hopefully, imagine the story taking place within their city or any city they want to imagine. All large cities have parks, residential areas, abandoned buildings, convenience stores, bowling alleys, and the multitude of other places mentioned throughout my story. I don't need to say Jake works in Pittsburgh, San Diego, or Chicago to get the point across he works in a large city full of crime. This leaves it up to each reader to pick a city.
     I actually have a city in mind. So yes, part of the reason I don't describe the city is I didn't want to do the research. I'm going to ask anyone who reads my book to play detective. Although the city isn't mentioned, there are enough clues (at least I think so) throughout the book which should at least enable you to narrow down the city to the state and what area of that state the city can be found.