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Laurie R. King - Page 3
Laurie R. King
To Play The FoolTo Play The Fool
A Grave TalentA Grave Talent


Paperback - HarperCollins (1997)
To Play The Fool
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Homicide detective Kate Martinelli and Al Hawkin are back to investigate the death of a man whose cremated remains are found in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Implicated in the death is Erasmus, a wandering soul and latter-day Shakespearean Fool. Reluctant to take on another high-profile case, Kate is too intrigued to walk away. As she begins to untangle the web of secrecy Erasmus has woven around his former life, she starts to doubt his guilt. But Erasmus will say nothing to point the investigation away from himself, and Kate must not only prove one man's innocence, she must also nail the real killer.
A compassionate and complex novel To Play the Fool is rich in characterisation and highly original, more than living up to the promise of Laurie King's acclaimed debut, A Grave Talent.
'Beautifully written, with clearly defined and engaging characters... To Play the Fool is quite wonderful' Boston Globe
'Original... subtle and sympathetic...' T.J.Binyon, Evening Standard


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Paperback - Null
A Grave Talent
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
A Grave Talent was voted as (joint) Best First Novel of 1995 by Val McDermid
Kate Martinelli, a recently promoted Homicide detective, and Alonzo Hawkin, a world-weary cop trying to make a new life in San Francisco, could not be more different but are thrown together to solve a brutal crime - the murders of three young girls.
Their search takes them to a rural colony, close to the place where the bodies were found. Here they meet the enigmatic artist Vaun, who is hiding a terrible secret from her past and her real identity.
As Martinelli and Hawkin get nearer to a solution, they realise the crimes may not be the sexually motivated killings they had seemed. There is a coldly calculating and tortuous mind at work which they must outmanoeuvre if they are to prevent further carnage and the destruction of a shining talent.
'The tension between the detectives and the excellent characterisation make this an enjoyable mystery' Sunday Times
'Unusually sensitive and densely imagined' Kirkus Reviews


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