With Child
Laurie R. King
Adrift in mist-shrouded San Francisco mornings and alcohol-fogged nights, homicide detective Kate Martinelli can’t escape the void left by her departed lover, who has gone off to rethink their relationship. But when twelve-year-old Jules Cameron comes to Kate for a professional consultation, Kate’s not sure she’s that desperate for distraction.
Jules is worried about her friend Dio, a homeless boy she met in a park. Dio has disappeared without a word of farewell, and Jules wants Kate to find him Reluctant as she is, Kate can’t say no–and soon she finds herself forming a friendship with the bright, quirky girl. But the search for Dio will prove to be much more than both bargained for–and it’s only the beginning.
When Jules disappears while taking a trip with Kate, a desperate search begins…and Kate knows all too well the odds of finding the child alive…
The serving was over and the nonresident recipients were reluctantly scattering for their beds in doorways and Dumpsters when Kate blew into the Haight-Love Shelter. Grace Kokumah stood with her hands in the pockets of her sagging purple cardigan and watched without expression as Kate came to a halt next to the thin and already-yellowing Christmas tree and dropped her burden with a clatter before beginning to strip off the astronaut helmet, the dripping and voluminous orange neck-to-ankle waterproof jumpsuit, and the padded gloves. When Kate had popped open the snaps on her leather jacket and run a hand through her brief hair, the woman shook her beads.
‘The city’s finest, a vision to behold.’
‘Do you want the buckets or don’t you?’ Kate growled.
‘Where did you find them?’ She studied the waist-high stack, no doubt wondering instead how Kate had managed to transport them without being lifted up, cycle and all, by their wind resistance and dropped into the San Francisco Bay.
‘Stole them from the morgue; they use them for the scraps. Joke! That was a joke!’ she said to the horrified young people at Grace’s back. ‘Macabre cop humor, you’ve heard of that. The cleaners buy soap in them, nothing worse than that. Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.’
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Details
| ISBN | 553574582 |
| Genre | Mystery |
| Publication Date | 31-Mar-97 |
| Publisher | Bantam |
| Format | Mass Market Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 320 |
| Series | Kate Martinelli Mystery |
| # in Series | 3 |
| Notes | I can’t think of any moments in recent mysteries that equal the sheer physical and emotional terror of Kate Martinelli’s discovery–about halfway through this third book in Laurie R. King’s excellent series, now available in paperback–that the 12-year-old girl she is looking after has disappeared. Kate, a just-out lesbian, is under fire for that and other reasons at the San Francisco Police Department, and the missing girl is the daughter of the woman whom Kate’s work partner has just married. Kate’s relationship with her life partner, Lee, is in serious trouble, and she has strong feelings about wanting children of her own. The motel from which the girl has vanished is in the middle of a notorious serial killer’s terrortory. As she does in her equally smart and visceral series about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary), King balances all the elements perfectly, and keeps us involved every inch of the way. Her other Martinelli books are A Grave Talent and To Play the Fool. |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| BookID | 14717 |
