The Art of Deception

The Art of Deception by Laurie R. King

Category: Mystery Grade: C+

With a couple of exceptions, all of Laurie King's fall in to one of two series. The one I read her for is the "Mary Russell" series in which Russell is a young women who, late in his life (around 1900), marries Sherlock Holmes and solves crimes with him. These are really terrific books. The other King series, which I usually don't read, is the Kate Martinelli series -- a current-day San Francisco cop. The Art of Deception, a Martinelli book, caught my eye because the center of the mystery is a supposedly recently discovered Arthur Conan Doyle manuscript that seems to be a lost Sherlock Holmes story. The murdered man and most of the suspects are part of a dinner group of Sherlock fanatics.

I should have stuck to my instincts on King books. Mirroring her overall writing, this is really two books in one since, as Martinelli reads the lost Holmes story, we get to read it too. While the Holmes story is actually pretty good, there's not enough to it to save what is, otherwise, a pretty standard police procedural novel. Like most series books, there's a fair amount about Martinelli's personal life but its not particularly interesting. The murder isn't very interesting, the search for the murder isn't very interesting and the book's ending is especially weak.

While I highly recommend most of King's "Mary Russell" books, there are definitely far more interesting detective novels out there. Skip this one.