Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
135th out of 3,396 books
—
7,814 voters
A Grave Talent (Kate Martinelli #1)
by
Laurie R. King (Goodreads Author)
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...more
Mass Market Paperback, 342 pages
Published
June 1st 1995
by Crimeline
(first published 1993)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Until about 2/3 through, this book was getting 5 stars. It had a compelling mystery, good character development and descriptions that enhanced the story that you actually wanted to read rather than skip. Then "suddenly" one of the main characters took on an unexpected and unwelcome twist that became the primary agenda for the remainder of the book, leaving the mystery as more of a side line. It really had nothing to do with the story.
Plus, I don't enjoy having an author suddenly focus on conver...more
Plus, I don't enjoy having an author suddenly focus on conver...more
fascinating and captivating novel - the first published (in 1993) by this remarkable writer (whose mary russell-sherlock holmes series i've been enjoying tremendously). king's vivid descriptions and compelling insights are luscious and provocative. i have several favorite quotes, including the two below:
“Tyler's Creek was a ravening, greasy gray monstrosity, thirty feet of grasping, hungry, primal power. It thundered like Niagara, pulling bits of hillside, roadway, and vegetation into itself wit...more
“Tyler's Creek was a ravening, greasy gray monstrosity, thirty feet of grasping, hungry, primal power. It thundered like Niagara, pulling bits of hillside, roadway, and vegetation into itself wit...more
***Plot Summary***
This is the first book in the Kate Martinelli series, set in San Francisco. When a third child ends up a victim of a homicide, Kate, newly promoted, is called into the investigation with her partner, Al. The bodies of the victims are found off of The Road, a commune-like place established by a wealthy, if somewhat eccentric, San Francisco resident. As the clues pile up, suspicion falls upon an artist who has been released from prison after she was convicted of the strangling de...more
This is the first book in the Kate Martinelli series, set in San Francisco. When a third child ends up a victim of a homicide, Kate, newly promoted, is called into the investigation with her partner, Al. The bodies of the victims are found off of The Road, a commune-like place established by a wealthy, if somewhat eccentric, San Francisco resident. As the clues pile up, suspicion falls upon an artist who has been released from prison after she was convicted of the strangling de...more
This interesting detective story introduces female detective Casey Martinelli and her partner Al Hawkins.
Together they investigate the murders of three little girls in separate incidences. The bodies are found in the same area and the occupants of ‘The Road’ are the most likely suspects. The Road is a hippy commune kind of set up; quite literally a road isolated and lorded over by a single man – Tyler. The Road is run according to his rules and is not electrified and no cars are allowed on it ex...more
Together they investigate the murders of three little girls in separate incidences. The bodies are found in the same area and the occupants of ‘The Road’ are the most likely suspects. The Road is a hippy commune kind of set up; quite literally a road isolated and lorded over by a single man – Tyler. The Road is run according to his rules and is not electrified and no cars are allowed on it ex...more
Laurie R. King's award-winning "A Grave Talent" introduces readers to Kate Martinelli, a policewoman recently promoted to detective, and the senior detective, Al Hawkin, with whom she is paired. Their first case together has them tracking down the killer of three little girls in an isolated, self-sufficient community in the Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco. The killings bear a strong resemblance to a murder some years ago, and they find the convicted killer in the community, having co...more
Slow to warm and fast to end, this Edgar Award winner finished on a high note that resolved some doubts I’d had through much of the book. Protagonist Kate and her partner Al are thrown together to investigate the murders of three girls. The location of the bodies in an enclave of simple living run by one man on the west side of the San Francisco peninsula, draws attention to a woman, Vaun, who turns out to have a past that seems to implicate her in the slayings. Vaun is known locally to be an ar...more
Hmmm. Conflicted. I liked it yet it irked me. The plot was gripping enough but some of the characters seemed almost mystically glorified (Saintly Lee and The Creator Vaugn) and not real humans. I liked all the "arty" stuff a lot, and would like to see some of Vaugn's paintings. (If, you know, she were real.) I can't remember when this novel was published and am too tired right now to Google it but I thought I remember 1992 -- yet parts of this novel seem set solidly in the mid-70's and the rest...more
The initial premise is tried and true: a veteran detective, Al Hawkins, is assigned a new partner, Kate Martinelli. She's no rookie, but she's climbed quickly up the ranks, and now that Al's been assigned the investigation of a little girl's murder, the higher ups want a woman on the case. And that's where A Grave Talent departs from the tried and true. Not that it falls short; on the contrary, this is an exciting, riveting police procedural. What is so surprising about AGT is that it was actual...more
Oh, if I could only persuade this writer to drop that dull Sherlock Holmes wanna-be series and go back to writing books like this!
I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone considering reading this novel. I will say that her pace is so thunderously rapid and her plotting so intense (along, sometimes, with the subject matter) that a friend of mine said she can't read this writer because it upsets her. She is a high-strung person, and the frenetic action and emotional toll between the covers of thi...more
I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone considering reading this novel. I will say that her pace is so thunderously rapid and her plotting so intense (along, sometimes, with the subject matter) that a friend of mine said she can't read this writer because it upsets her. She is a high-strung person, and the frenetic action and emotional toll between the covers of thi...more
I like King's writing style and found this book very interesting although not perfect -- the first half is stronger. The story evolves around a new detective partnership, the rather grumpy Hawkin and the fast-rising-in-rank younger detective, Kate Martinelli. The setting is a small, very strange community in the outskirts of San Francisco where a second shocking murder of a young child takes place. Vaun Adams, a brilliant and reclusive artist, becomes a potential suspect with a prison record fro...more
The descriptions of the art done by the painter in teh book are incredible.......much more depth of understanding that I usually bring to it again. I kept wanting to look the pictures up online to see them...LOL
Kate's relationship with Lee is well into the book before we realize that Lee is a woman as well, so there is that sort of small surprise that I recall from teh first time I read the book...and I was still carried along with the use of words and not using pronouns so that it was again a m...more
Kate's relationship with Lee is well into the book before we realize that Lee is a woman as well, so there is that sort of small surprise that I recall from teh first time I read the book...and I was still carried along with the use of words and not using pronouns so that it was again a m...more
I wanted to read this because I enjoy Laurie R. King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series. I was curious to see what her other books are like.
King is a diverse writer. There is only one passage in A Grave Talent that reminded me of her Russell/Holmes books. Also, the actual mystery involved here was much more developed, perhaps because there was far less need to focus on setting the scene and/or educating the reader historically.
On a different note, sometimes I forget how long ago the early ni...more
King is a diverse writer. There is only one passage in A Grave Talent that reminded me of her Russell/Holmes books. Also, the actual mystery involved here was much more developed, perhaps because there was far less need to focus on setting the scene and/or educating the reader historically.
On a different note, sometimes I forget how long ago the early ni...more
This the first of the Kate Martinelli series by Laurie R. King. It is very deeply disturbing in conception and psychological characterization: and that would seem to be it's strength and point. Which is to say that it is written to distress, disturb and discompose. Given these intents, the characters fulfill these intentions, as do the plotting and the twists of tale. Whoever choses books that make their adrenaline burst out, their stomachs wretch and their minds reel with horror, will have the...more
This book with a renouned artist at it core is written by an author that is herself a true artist who enjoys using well chosen words to 'paint' an intricate and thoroughly enjoyable tale.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I loved the characters in this.
Quality writing, memorable characters. I learned a little about art from this book and loved the settings. The characterizations were good, too. Something memorable to me from the book was one woman character's description of how she realized that she felt more sexually comfortable with women than with men. "Completely, profoundly, body & mind & spirit, Kate fell in love with Lee Cooper -- or rather, acknowledged the love that she had so long denied. She was amazed at the ease of the thi...more
I don't normally read crime novels but really enjoyed this one. I read this after reading a short story of hers in a collection of mysteries with a supernatural bent. This did not have a supernatural element but I thought it was very well written. It seemed a lot more character driven than I expected from a crime novel. I also liked that it focused on an artist. I was a bit concerned that it centers around the murder of children which, of course, I find very disturbing, but the book really didn'...more
A complete surprise of a book. I loved it! I was not expecting anything special, just the usual cop-finds-killer novel. By the time I hit the halfway point I was hoping the author had turned this into a series, and I am stoked to see that is the case. I thought the characters were solid, though some of the twists at the end of the book were a bit disappointing. This book should get 4.5 stars from me, but since GR doesn't offer that option we are down to four. I would recommend this to anyone who...more
A Grave Talent introduces King's lesbian detective, Kate Martinelli, in a mystery set in modern times and constitutes yet another page-turner, in my opinion. While I rarely, if ever read fiction anymore - and definitely not mysteries, King's mystery novels offer a delightfully engrossing exception to that rule. I love getting lost in a book...thinking about it when I'm not reading it and going to bed early just to log a few hours with a new favorite story. King's novels pull me in again and agai...more
I really liked this book. It's the first in a series starring Detective Kate Martinelli, and is filled with not only a good mystery, but also interesting substory of the contemporary art world. The characters are likable and relateable. One thing I really liked about this book is that while it was written in the early 90s, it still reads well in 2009. Neither the language, nor the characters themselves seem dated. No mention of "scrunchies" or particular clothing that would date the story needle...more
The first in the Kate Martinelli series. Quite good! My first Laurie R King novel was The Art of Detection, which is the last Kate Martinelli novel (as well as the beautiful confluence of this series and her Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novels). Going back to the beginning and reading about how Kate began her career as a homicide detective in San Francisco didn't disappoint. I didn't realize until after I'd finished that this was not only King's first Martinelli novel, but her first novel, perio...more
This was a good beginning to the Kate Martinelli series, and it kept me interested throughout. I found the case to be solved suspenseful, and the characters of Kate, Lee (her lesbian partner), Al Hawkin (her cop partner), and Vaun (the woman at the center of the case) believably and interestingly developed. I'm a great fan of King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, so I decided to try this series as well. I was impressed with King's attention to detail - she obviously does very thorough rese...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
After reading one of the later books, I decided to go back and start at the beginning of the series. Although this isn't necessary since each book seems to stand on its own, I am enjoying discovering some of the early happenings that contributed to the relationships between the characters. This one was great because it combined a serial killer story with some wonderful descriptions of some colorful characters. If you have an interest in art, you will especially enjoy one of the main characters w...more
I don't understand why the author waits till page 129 to out the main character. When she talks about her partner she painstakingly uses her name to avoid pronouns, even saying "the hands" at one point.
I also was underwhelmed by the writing. She goes into excessive detail about trivial, irrelevant information and then spends a paragraph on important things so you're left confused by what happened. It's like she's a murder mystery novelist who cant write action.
But it was absolute junk food for...more
I also was underwhelmed by the writing. She goes into excessive detail about trivial, irrelevant information and then spends a paragraph on important things so you're left confused by what happened. It's like she's a murder mystery novelist who cant write action.
But it was absolute junk food for...more
A great book! Quite different from the first Laurie King book I read, the Beekeeper's Apprentice. I could see echoes of her writing in this one though. The slightly formal way of laying things out, but it was easy to to fall into the more modern story this time. Kate is a somewhat familiar character, but not nearly as hardened as other female police characters. She still has her compassion though she tries to conceal it in her attempt to be tough. The story itself was interesting. I was able to...more
I always enjoy Laurie King's writings and am a huge fan of her Mary Russell series. I read my first Kate Martinelli mystery "The Art of Detection" because it had a tie to the Mary Russell book "Locked Rooms" and enjoyed it very much. In that book Martinelli was a vibrant character with an intriguing backstory about whom I wanted to learn more.
I picked this one up because it was the first Martinelli mystery and it did provide a lot of background on the character and her situation. Unfortunately a...more
I picked this one up because it was the first Martinelli mystery and it did provide a lot of background on the character and her situation. Unfortunately a...more
I am two decades behind on reading this book "A Grave Talent" (and now series) by Laurie King. Over a year ago, a friend introduced me to King's Mary Russell books and I was totally impressed. I never would have thought that I would accept, let alone enjoy, a book that had Holmes in a slowly evolving relationship with a young woman. Yet, "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" was cleverly written with a well crafted plot; the character development of Russell and Holmes was slowly and painstakingly crafte...more
Mystery novels often come in one of two flavors: those focused on the mystery and those that use they mystery to explore character. Agatha Christie is a good representative of the former, while P.D. James perhaps represents the latter. A Grave Talent falls definitely into the second category. The book starts off as a fairly typical "first type" mystery, but quickly shifts into an exploration of character, with the mystery elements being almost completely abandoned by about the middle of the book...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laurie R. King Vi...: A Grave Talent and To Play the Fool by Laurie R. King - VBC February 2013 | 53 | 95 | Mar 27, 2013 09:52am |
Edgar-winning mystery writer Laurie R. King writes series and standalone novels. Her official forum, the LRK Virtual Book Club, is here on Goodreads, so please check there to join in the book-discussing fun.
King's next novel The Bones of Paris, will be out in September 2013, seeing Touchstone's Harris Stuyvesant and Bennett Grey find the darkness beneath the light of 1929 Paris. In the Russell se...more
More about Laurie R. King...
King's next novel The Bones of Paris, will be out in September 2013, seeing Touchstone's Harris Stuyvesant and Bennett Grey find the darkness beneath the light of 1929 Paris. In the Russell se...more
Share This Book
2 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
Jun 28, 2008 08:35pm