num_pages: 342
description: This gripping debut of the Kate Martinelli mystery series won the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery, generating wide critical acclaim and moving Laurie R. King into the upper tier of the genre. As "A Grave Talent" begins, the unthinkable has happened in a small community outside of San Francisco. A string of shocking murders has occurred, each victim an innocent child. For Detective Kate Martinelli, just promoted to Homicide and paired with a seasoned cop who's less than thrilled to be handed a green partner, it's going to be a difficult case. Then the detectives receive what appears to be a case-breaking lead: it seems that one of the residents of this odd, close-knit colony is Vaun Adams, arguably the century's greatest painter of women, a man, as it turns out, with a sinister secret. For behind the brushes and canvases also stands a notorious felon once convicted of strangling a little girl. What really happened on that day of savage violence eighteen years ago? To bring a murderer to justice, Kate must delve into the artist's dark past -- even if she knows it means losing everything she holds dear.
language: English
title: A Grave Talent
titlecomplete: A Grave Talent  (Kate Martinelli, #1)
characters: Al Hawkin, Kate Martinelli, Vaun Adams
genres: LGBT, Mystery, Lesbian, Suspense, Queer, Thriller, Audiobook, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime
ratings_count: 7471
places: San Francisco, California
series: Kate Martinelli
awards: awardedAt: 757411200000
name: Anthony Award
category: Best First Novel, awardedAt: 788947200000
name: CWA New Blood Dagger, awardedAt: 757411200000
name: Edgar Award
category: Best First Novel
publisher: Crimeline