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A Grave Talent

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Language
  
English

Pages
  
310 pp

OCLC
  
27034919

Author
  
Laurie R. King

Followed by
  
To Play the Fool

3.9/5
Goodreads

Series
  
Kate Martinelli series

ISBN
  
0-312-08804-3

Originally published
  
15 January 1993

Genre
  
Mystery

Country
  
United States of America

A Grave Talent t0gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcQ4skUTcZV6R0dPsn

Media type
  
Print (hardback & paperback)

Awards
  
Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author

Similar
  
Laurie R King books, Kate Martinelli mystery books, Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author winners

A Grave Talent (1993) is the first book in Laurie R. King's Kate Martinelli series. Concerning the search for the murderer of several young girls, it won the 1994 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. It is followed by To Play the Fool.

Contents

Plot summary

The strangulation of four children in the vicinity of San Francisco leads the police force to appoint inspectors Al Hawkin and Kate ("Casey") Martinelli to discover the criminal. Suspicion falls on renowned artist Vaun Adams, convicted of murdering a young girl years before.

When someone attempts to murder Vaun herself, the police are forced to conclude that someone else must be behind the murders, and they discover that Vaun's ex-boyfriend, maniacally egotistical Andy Lewis, must be the perpetrator.

Hawkin convinces a reluctant Kate to set the trap for Lewis in her home by letting Vaun recover there. He arrives and declares that he will kill Kate and her lover Lee and leave Vaun to take the blame. Lee alerts the police to his presence, but the sniper who kills Lewis does not do so in time to prevent him from shooting and permanently disabling her.

Characters in A Grave Talent

  • Kate Martinelli is a member of the San Francisco Police Department. She is extremely reserved.
  • Lee Cooper is Kate's lover. A psychologist, she is nearly Kate's opposite in personality. At the end of the book, she is recovering from a bullet wound.
  • Al Hawkin is Kate's partner at work. He falls in love with one of the witnesses in their case.
  • Vaun Adams is a highly talented artist targeted by her psychopathic ex-boyfriend from high school. Instead of using more modern techniques, she prefers a realistic method and is thus criticized. Kate and Lee take her in while she is recovering from Lewis's first attempt to kill her.
  • Andy Lewis murders several girls and disposes of the bodies near Vaun Adams's house in order to frame her for the murders. When this does not work, he attempts to kill Vaun but fails. He tries again after she has temporarily moved into Kate and Lee's home. Although a police sniper eventually kills him, he does shoot Lee.

    • Awards and nominations

    A Grave Talent won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1994.

    Release details

    1993, USA, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-08804-3, Pub date 1993, Hardback

    References

    A Grave Talent Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA