From Publishers Weekly
The second installment in her series featuring San Francisco police detective Kate Martinelli, King's latest mystery concerns the murder of a homeless man in Golden Gate Park. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
San Francisco detective Kate Martinelli strays from the stereotypical path of policewoman. As an openly lesbian and much-publicized heroine, Kate returns to her job facing a difficult case: street person Brother Erasmus, suspect in the murder of a homeless man, communicates entirely by way of literary quotations. The author presents her homeless characters with honesty and compassion, much in the way she describes the relationship between Kate and her lover or her police partner, Al. A fitting and well-done sequel to the award-winning A Grave Talent (LJ 1/93).Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
King's latest once again features gay San Francisco cop Kate Martinelli, this time juggling her lover Lee's paraplegia--the result of Lee's involvement in an earlier case of Kate's--with the frustrating investigation of the death of a homeless man in Golden Gate Park. The key suspect in the murder seems to be the enigmatically charismatic Brother Erasmus, a gentle giant of a man who speaks in quotations and whose calm dignity is a beacon for San Francisco's down-and-outs. Kate's interest is piqued when she learns that Erasmus considers himself a Holy Fool, part of an obscure, semireligious order. In her efforts to learn more about the man and his background, Kate travels from the ivy towers of academe to the squalor of San Francisco's dingiest districts. King's sometimes pedantic prose worked better in The Beekeeper's Apprentice , but an inventive plot and strong characters make this story well worth reading. Emily Melton


Book Description
Celebrated author Laurie R. King dazzles mystery lovers once again in this, her second Kate Martinelli mystery. The story unfolds as a band of homeless people cremate a beloved dog in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. When it comes to incidents like this, the authorities are willing to overlook a few broken
regulations. But three weeks later, after the dog's owner gets the same fiery send-off, the SFPD knows it has a serious problem on its hands. Other than the fact that they're dealing with a particularly grisly homicide, Inspector Kate Martinelli and her partner, Al Hawkin, have little else to go on. They have a homeless victim without a positive ID, a group of witnesses who have little love for the cops, and a possible suspect, known only as Brother Erasmus. Kate
learns that Erasmus is well-acquainted with the park's homeless and with the rarefied atmosphere of Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union, yet he remains an enigma to all. It's apparent that he is by no means crazy--but he is a fool. Kate begins the frustrating task of interrogating a man who communicates only
through quotations. Trying to learn something of his history leads her along a twisting road to a disbanded cult, long-buried secrets, the thirst for spirituality, and the hunger for bloody vengeance.


From the Inside Flap
Celebrated author Laurie R. King dazzles mystery lovers once again in this, her second Kate Martinelli mystery. The story unfolds as a band of homeless people cremate a beloved dog in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. When it comes to incidents like this, the authorities are willing to overlook a few broken
regulations. But three weeks later, after the dog's owner gets the same fiery send-off, the SFPD knows it has a serious problem on its hands. Other than the fact that they're dealing with a particularly grisly homicide, Inspector Kate Martinelli and her partner, Al Hawkin, have little else to go on. They have a homeless victim without a positive ID, a group of witnesses who have little love for the cops, and a possible suspect, known only as Brother Erasmus. Kate
learns that Erasmus is well-acquainted with the park's homeless and with the rarefied atmosphere of Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union, yet he remains an enigma to all. It's apparent that he is by no means crazy--but he is a fool.  Kate begins the frustrating task of interrogating a man who communicates only
through quotations. Trying to learn something of his history leads her along a twisting road to a disbanded cult, long-buried secrets, the thirst for spirituality, and the hunger for bloody vengeance.

ANNOTATION

The Edgar Award-winning author of "A Grave Talent" and the much-praised "To Play the Fool" returns with the third Kate Martinelli mystery. Kate, a quietly lesbian homicide detective in San Francisco, is plunged into moral turmoil when her partner's stepdaughter is kidnapped while in Kate's care.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In Laurie R. King's Edgar-winning first novel, A Grave Talent, San Francisco homicide detective Kate Martinelli finds one of her cases has become, to her horror, tragically entangled with her personal life. In this third book of King's extraordinary series, Kate is involved in a nightmare that begins in her off-duty life and turns into a crime for which she feels herself responsible. As the story opens, Kate is alone, angry and bewildered, in the house she shares with her life partner, Lee. Lee, slowly - so slowly - recovering from the effects of the gunshot that crippled her in A Grave Talent, decides that she must spend time on her own, a move that Kate can only see as rejection. Lonely, Kate befriends the bright, quirky, twelve-year-old Jules. When the girl's parents go on a trip, Kate agrees to care for her. Rashly Kate decides to drive with Jules to northern Washington, to "drop in" on the farm where Lee is staying with an aunt. During the trip, in a rural area where a serial killer has been victimizing young girls, Jules disappears.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

PW called this Kate Martinelli mystery, set in the Pacific Northwest, "absorbing [and] compelling." (May)

BookList - Emily Melton