It was fun to watch how King combined her fondness for Sherlock Holmes with her modern detective series. ( )

The Art of Detection - L.R.King
Audio performance by Alyssa Bresnahan and Robert Mackenzie
4 stars

This was a reread/listen for me. After I read L.R. King's recent Back to the Garden, I was remembering her earlier Kate Martinelli series. This was the final book of that series which I liked, but was, at the time, too violent for my tastes. I believe I liked this book more the second time around.

This may have been the first ‘book within a book’ that I’d read. The contemporary crime revolves around the discovery of a possibly unknown Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story. That story, included in the text, is of course its own mystery. Both mysteries are set in San Francisco; Holmes in the early 20th century; Matinelli in 2004. The Holmes story does not overlap with King’s Mary Russell series, although it is tempting to force a fit between them.

The contemporary murder victim is the owner of the newly discovered story. If authenticated, the story would command an astronomical price at auction. Serious suspension of disbelief is required. The story has Holmes investigating the murder of a gay man at the behest of his transvestite lover. No serious (real life) collector could ever believe that Conan Doyle could have written such a story. Setting that problem aside, it was an entertaining short story with some great historical California background. The contemporary story is a decent police procedural, but was more about an HEA for Martinelli and her female partner. This book won a Lamba award in 2006 and has a bit of 21st century California history, celebrating the first same sex marriages in the country. (Authorized by Gavin Newsom the San Francisco Mayor at the time, and our current governor. The book has an obvious social agenda.) ( )

I'm a huge fan of Laurie King's Mary Russell series and have always wanted to check out her other series. I thought "The Art of Detection" might be a good choice since it has a Sherlock Holmes angle and connects with the Russell series. I was wrong. Unfortunately, I never got caught up in the story. ( )

To be honest, I read this book because of the connection to Sherlock Holmes. I do Love Laurie R. Kings books. But, I do prefer her Mary Russell series. Some day I may get to her Kate Martinelli series also.

Now it's been some years since I read this book, but I remember that I found it quite interesting. Especially the finding of a lost Sherlock Holmes manuscript that could be written by Sherlock Holmes himself.

You can without problem read this book without having read the other books in this series (I know because I did that) and I think this book will appeal Sherlock Holmes fans. I do plan to re-read this book to see if I find this book better nowadays. ( )

Kate Martenelli, an 18-year veteran of the San Francisco Homicide Department, has worked on a number of odd cases in her career. This one might be the oddest.

It begins when she and her partner Al Hawkins are sent to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to see a body. The GGNRA is a crazy quilt of jurisdictions, but it looks like a body dump and not a murder scene, and the victim Philip Gilbert was a resident of San Francisco.

Their first stop is a visit to his home in San Francisco where they discover that he was a very devoted fan of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle. His home recreates Sherlock Holmes's rooms including gas lighting and bullet holes in the wall patterned to look like VR for Victoria Regina. Gilbert was a noted collector and also wrote books on Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle. It is possible that he was murdered over possession of a typed manuscript that may have been written by Conan Doyle while he was visiting San Franciso in the 1920s.

The manuscript is included in this book and tells the story of an investigation conducted by a nameless narrator. The story concerns a missing person, transvestites, prostitutes, a murder, and the 1920s version of "don't ask, don't tell." If it is authentic, it could be worth more than $1 million at auction.

As Kate and Al dig into Philip's life, they learn a lot about the obsessions of collectors and devotees of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle. They also learn that Gilbert had few friends beyond the nine other people who were part of his dinner club. They are all more than casual fans too and they are all potential suspects for his murder.

This was a great story. I liked Kate's relationship with her partner Lee and their daughter Nora. There was a great deal of contrast between gay life in San Francisco in 2004 as opposed to the 1920s. Though there are still some holdovers to old attitudes.

The narration was well done. I especially enjoyed Robert Ian Mackenzie's narration of the long-long and newly discovered story that is the centerpiece of this book. Alyssa Bresnahan did an excellent job with the characters in the contemporary story.

Now I want to go back and read the earlier Kate Martinelli stories. ( )