- Paperback: 10 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group; Reprint edition (Dec 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0553573993
- ISBN-13: 978-0553573992
- Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 2.5 x 17.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 555,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
After the third body of a strangled child is found on the grounds of self-proclaimed feudal lord John Tyler, the police focus on the members of his closed community - especially on a woman named Vaun Adams, a brilliant painter who's already served eight years for murdering a young girl. But Vaun's supposed suicide attempt during a furious storm doesn't fool San Francisco cop Kate Martinelli, who - with the help of Vaun's beloved therapist Gerry Bruckner, Kate's no-nonsense partner Alonzo Hawkin, and her live-in Lee Cooper, a psychiatrist who works with artists - rescues Vaun, brings her out of her catatonic withdrawal, and sets her up as a Judas goat for her murderous former lover Andy Lewis. Unusually sensitive and densely imagined - you really can feel Vaun's torment - despite King's first-novelist habit of explaining her characters a little too generously. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
This gripping debut of the Kate Martinelli mystery series won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery, generating wide critical acclaim and moving Laurie R. King into the upper tier of the genre. As A Grave Talent begins, the unthinkable has happened in a small community outside of San Francisco. A string of shocking murders has occurred, each victim an innocent child. For Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide and paired with a seasoned cop who's less than thrilled to be handed a green partner, it's going to be a difficult case. Then the detectives receive what appears to be a case-breaking lead: it seems that one of the residents of this odd, close-knit colony is Vaun Adams, arguably the century's greatest painter of women, a man, as it turns out, with a sinister secret. For behind the brushes and canvases also stands a notorious felon once convicted of strangling a little girl. What really happened on that day of savage violence eighteen years ago? To bring a murderer to justice, Kate must delve into the artist's dark past--even if she knows it means losing everything she holds dear.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The unthinkable has happened in a small community outside of San Francisco. A series of shocking murders has occured, each victim a child. For Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide and paired with a seasoned cop who's less than thrilled to be handed a green partner, it's a difficult case that just keeps getting harder.
Then the detectives receive what appears to be a case-breaking lead: it seems that one of the residents of this odd colony is Vaun Adams, arguably the century's greatest woman painter, and a notorious felon once convicted of strangling a little girl. But what really happened eighteen years ago? To bring a murderer to justice, Kate must delve into the artist's dark past - even if it means losing everything she holds dear...
A very good start to the series. Well-written and interesting characters - I look forward to reading the next installments.
Then the detectives receive what appears to be a case-breaking lead: it seems that one of the residents of this odd colony is Vaun Adams, arguably the century's greatest woman painter, and a notorious felon once convicted of strangling a little girl. But what really happened eighteen years ago? To bring a murderer to justice, Kate must delve into the artist's dark past - even if it means losing everything she holds dear...
A very good start to the series. Well-written and interesting characters - I look forward to reading the next installments.
4 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A brilliant book to say the least! I also stumbled across this book and it is truly a great book. It has fascinating strong characters with a brilliant plot which kept me reading well into the night.
3 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book because the author had won the Edgar for best first crime novel, and it had quotes by Conan Doyle and Henry David Thoreau before the first chapter. A big mistake, Laurie King is not that intelligent, or perhaps reading George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, Peter Robinson, and Henning Mankell spoils you for lesser lights. This book seems to have been written by numbers, lets throw in a child serial killer, a talented artist with a fragile personality, a world weary divorced cop, yes another world weary divorced cop. But wait a minute said our author there are not enough cliches here so we will set part of the book in a reclusive California commune lorded over by a kindly egomaniac millionaire and have as the leading character a lesbian detective with a understanding psychotherapist lover. Throw in a several pages of art reviews and a ton of psychological mumbo jumbo and we don't need a believable plot. Even for California the plot is ludicrous, the endnotes state "there is a coldly calculating tortuous mind at work", well unfortunately it wasn't writing the plot.
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