Night Work: A Kate Martinelli Mystery (Kate Martinelli Mysteries): 4 - Softcover

King, Laurie R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553578251 ISBN 13: 9780553578256

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 2000

Synopsis

Night Work

Kate and her partner, Al Hawkin, are called to a scene of carefully executed murder: the victim is a muscular man, handcuffed and strangled, a stun gun's faint burn on his chest and candy in his pocket. The likeliest person to want him dead, his often-abused wife, is meek and frail--and has an airtight alibi. Kate and Al are stumped, until a second body turns up--also zapped, cuffed, and strangled...and carrying a candy bar. This victim: a convicted rapist. As newspaper headlines speculate about vendetta killings, a third death draws Kate and Al into a network of pitiless destruction that reaches far beyond San Francisco, a modern-style hit list with shudderingly primal roots.

About this title

Review:

Kate Martinelli, heroine of Laurie R King's new thriller Night Work is a high-profile San Francisco homicide detective simply because she is the one out lesbian in the job; inevitably she spends much of her social life with other high-profile lesbians such as her own lover's ex, minister Roz, and is caught up in the tos and fros of the lesbian and gay political and artistic scene. When she finds herself investigating a series of vigilante killings of wife-beaters, rapists and child abusers, she has to ask herself serious questions about her loyalties, particularly when Roz is preaching powerful sermons about the vengefulness of God the Mother and pursuing what seems to be a case of bride-burning in the South Asian community. And are the killings the darker face of a series of feminist pranks against abusive man carried out by the guerilla group called the Ladies of Perpetual Disgruntlement? This is a serious-minded, but entertaining thriller about a conflict of duties and about some serious issues--when you know your cause is just, just how far do you go? Kate Martinelli is more than a poster-child lesbian cop; she is a sincere and passionate viewpoint character caught in intriguing puzzles and dilemmas. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

"King is a deft and literate writer whose work never fails to please....A superior novel."
-- The San Diego Union-Tribune

"A dense and suspenseful tale. Memorable."
-- Publishers Weekly

"A richly feminist book in which King demonstrates again her remarkable skills in sinking the reader into a special culture/community where her many-layered stories unfold."
-- Booknews from The Poisoned Pen

"King is very, very good at looking society in the face and reflecting on the way it is now."
-- The Boston Sunday Globe

"As with all Laurie King's books, the facts tell only the smallest part of the truth....King exposes the issue with intensity and passion. It's hard to turn away even if you wanted to."
-- Mystery News

Read all the novels by Edgar and Creasey award winner Laurie R. King!

Kate Martinelli Mysteries:

A Grave Talent
To Play The Fool
With Child

Mary Russell Mysteries:

The Beekeeper's Apprentice
A Monstrous Regiment Of Women
A Letter Of Mary
The Moor
O Jerusalem

And her stand-alone novel:

A Darker Place

Available from Bantam Books

And coming soon in hardcover:

Folly

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0553578251
• ISBN 13: 9780553578256
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 416