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Title: Night Work by Laurie R. King ISBN: 0-553-57825-1 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 28 November, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71 (34 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Return to the Police Procedural Style of the Early Books
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Complex, interesting but more a thriller than a mystery
Comment: I started to read Laurie King because I loved Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich but had run out of titles - a friend recommended her as another author I would like - and I think I do but this is the first of her books I have read and I don't think it was a good place to start.
The Kate Martinelli mysterys - of which this is one, seem to be very personal and there is a lot of history in them which would, I think, make more sense, if I had started with the first book in the series - which I think is called "A Grave Talent.". Either way all the crimes Martinelli is involved in seem to directly affect her, her partner or her friends.
So back to the story - Kate Martinelli is called in to investigate what seems to be the work of a serial killer. A man is found hand-cuffed, strangled and dumped - soon two other bodies appear. The only link seems to be that they have been involved with abusing women in some way (rape, murder, wife-beating). There are suspicions that this might be another step in the work of a women's vigilante group the 'Ladies' who have been humiliating these sort of men in the past - are they now murdering them?
It is certainly hard to find any sympathy with the victims of these crimes and Martinelli and her partner Al Hawkins are troubled by this - its an interesting dilemma in itself - but made far more personal when Kate meets two of the victims, a young husband suspected of a crime of murdering his wife, and a convicted child-molester who survives an attempt on his life.
As I said in the beginning, this seems more of a thriller than a mystery - perhaps because I am not used to mysteries I didn't feel that it would be easy to figure out given the clues available although there were plenty of suspects. I did enjoy King's writing, she has a nice easy style and the story really flows along.
Rating: 2
Summary: not really a mystery; not really a character study
Comment: I found the book quite unsatisfying for two reasons: First, the guilty party is revealed within a few pages of the start,so there is no mystery. This means the reason to read on is either to learn more about the the characters, or about the modus operandi of the killer. It is the authors obligation to provide one or the other. Here we learn neither, despite perservering through some lukewarm action, and some dreadful social interactions. For example, how on earth are these victims lured to their death. Failing to provide this information means the author is not confined by any rules of logic, and in so doing cheats the reader. Second, the dialogue is flat and forced. Do we really neat to create a lesbian relationship that suffers from the same irresponsible cliche behavior attributed to male detectives? I don t think this is a step forward. All in all, I ended the book feeling incredibly ripped off.
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Title: To Play the Fool by Laurie R. King ISBN: 0553574558 Publisher: Crime Line Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: A Grave Talent by Laurie R. King ISBN: 0553573993 Publisher: Crime Line Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: A Darker Place by Laurie R. King ISBN: 0553578243 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 December, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Justice Hall by Laurie R. King ISBN: 0553581112 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Folly by LAURIE R. KING ISBN: 0553381512 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 28 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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