Play Book Tag discussion

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.)