Night Work (The New Kate Martinelli Novel) [Import] [Paperback]

LAURIE KING (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: HARPERCOLLINS; New Ed edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006510809
• ISBN-13: 978-0006510802
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,572,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times bestselling crime writer Laurie R. King writes both series and standalone novels.

In the Mary Russell series (first entry: The Beekeeper's Apprentice), fifteen-year-old Russell meets Sherlock Holmes on the Sussex Downs in 1915, becoming his apprentice, then his partner. The series follows their amiably contentious partnership into the 1920s as they challenge each other to ever greater feats of detection.

The Kate Martinelli series, starting with A Grave Talent, concerns a San Francisco homicide inspector, her SFPD partner, and her life partner. In the course of the series, Kate encounters a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, a manifestation of the goddess Kali and an eighty-year-old manuscript concerning'Sherlock Holmes.

King also has written stand-alone novels--the historical thriller Touchstone, A Darker Place, two loosely linked novels'Folly and Keeping Watch--and a science fiction novel, Califia's Daughters, under the pseudonym Leigh Richards.

King grew up reading her way through libraries like a termite through balsa before going on to become a mother, builder, world traveler, and theologian.

She has now settled into a genteel life of crime, back in her native northern California. She has a secondary residence in cyberspace, where she enjoys meeting readers in her Virtual Book Club and on her blog.

King has won the Edgar and Creasey awards (for A Grave Talent), the Nero (for A Monstrous Regiment of Women) and the MacCavity (for Folly); her nominations include the Agatha, the Orange, the Barry, and two more Edgars. She was also given an honorary doctorate from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Check out King's website, http://laurierking.com/, and follow the links to her blog and Virtual Book Club, featuring monthly discussions of her work, with regular visits from the author herself. And for regular LRK updates, follow the link to sign up for her email newsletter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Return to the Police Procedural Style of the Early Books, February 9, 2000

By 

Krista (COLLEGE PARK, MD, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Night Work: A Kate Martinelli Mystery (Hardcover)

Stop! If you haven't read the first three Kate Martinelli Mysteries. They MUST be read in order.

For those of you still with me, this mystery returns to the police procedural style of the first two Kate books: A Grave Talent and To Play the Fool. Yes, Lee and all of Kate's friends are still around, and some of them even get a lot of page time. However, this book doesn't have pages and pages of personal angst like With Child.

The mystery itself is wonderful and all the clues are given along the way. As the publisher provided summary suggests, this book focuses on political anti-violence against women activities and cyber hit lists. Very contemporary. Very detailed.

Kate's private life also gets some attention so all the lose ends from With Child are tied together.

Overall, this was a wonderfully fulfilling book. Don't plan on reading it in small chunks. You'll want to read straight through to the end.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laurie King Does it Again!, April 2, 2000

By 

bett (Wilmington, North Carolina United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Work: A Kate Martinelli Mystery (Hardcover)

Even though I love Laurie King's Sherlock & Mary series, I have long been looking forward to a new Kate Martinelli story from her. As a woman, I relate to many of the issues woven into her story, and she makes me think about Life, just as relationships and events in my own life do. Like all my favorite series, this one had me completely involved in Kate's life, as well as the lives of those around her; and I wanted to know, "What happened next! "

Night Work did not disappoint me at all. I am able to say to all Laurie King fans; "It's a good 'un from beginning to end!" And let's face it, she's one of the best writers of mystery novels ever. This new book is as excellently written as all her others, which is high praise indeed. King takes us deeper into the lives of Kate, her partner Lee, her work partner Al, their friends and family, and other interesting people along the way. These people interact believably, their characters become clearer to us, and some of them grow personally in ways that we can relate to and learn from.

For me a good novel is a good novel, and the genre chosen as its setting is largely irrelevant. I like books that interest, excite, and move me; as well as making me think about the important issues in life, both those which transcend the particular and those especially important to our lives today. Laurie King's books meet all my criteria for a good novel - actually, a very good novel, indeed - and I look forward to many more from her.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's good to have Kate Martinelli back., April 14, 2000

By 

Lewis Martin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Work: A Kate Martinelli Mystery (Hardcover)

Like a lot of her fans, I have been waiting for Laurie King to even up the balance between her two detectives. Now that she's got the score back to 5-4 (Mary Russell leads by one), we can give her a free choice of which one she writes for next.

I have read all the books in both series, and this one does not fall short in any way. "Night Work" is exciting, emotionally involving, and intellectually stimulating. What more can you ask from a novel? With "Night Work", Laurie King retains her place on my top shelf of thriller writers alongside Elmore Leonard and Robert Parker. Reservations? Just a couple of minor ones. I did feel that outside of the inner circle of both Kate's partners and their households, the characters were not as vivid as in the earlier novels in this series. People like the Mehta family and Roz Hall were not given much space for development. And the ending was a bit pat for me as well. As with "A Darker Place", (published immediately prior to "Night Work"), I felt that the middle was more exciting than the end.

But Laurie King is such an overachiever. Not many writers would be able to produce two such different series, and she shows no sign yet of falling below her own high standards.