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June 30, 2011

The Art Of Detection & A Grave Talent

The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King, 2006

I couldn't finish it. This doesn't happen very often. Honest. And I'm a huge fan of Ms. King's Mary Russell series. I read The Beekeeper's Apprentice and have been waiting to read the rest until I have them all so there are no gaps in my enjoyment. But I thought I'd check out the Kate Martinelli series and what better place to start than with a Holmes-related story.

I just couldn't hang with it. For my taste, the setup took too long, with way too much detail about practically everything, which bogged down the pace. After 100 pages I set it aside to finish my Connelly project. When I came back to it, I read another 40 pages and gave up. My apologies to Ms. King. I really wanted to like it. If it's any consolation, I'm raring to go on the Mary Russell books.

So, a few months later I decided to give the Casey Martinelli series one more go, this time starting at the beginning with A Grave Talent. This moved at a much more satisfactory pace, but I didn't find myself itching to get back to it. In fact, I found myself doing other things to avoid reading it. When at page 140 out of 340 I thought I had figured out the big reveal, I skipped to the back and read a chapter or so to confirm it. I was half right. I'd figured out who the murderer was, just not who he was posing as. So, I figured no need to keep reading Martinelli. I'll stick with the Mary Russell series. Of course, YMMV.

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