A Grave Talent (Inscribed First Edition, First Printing)

King, Laurie R.

ISBN 10: 0312088043 / ISBN 13: 9780312088040

Published by St. Martin's Press, 1993

About this Item

Inscribed First Edition, First Printing of the Edgar Award winning first mystery by Laurie R. King. Vaun Adams is one of the world's greatest painters (no abstract splotches, please) -- but is she also a serial child killer? Inscribed by Laurie R. King to a previous owner on the dedication page. This is the First State of the First Edition with a Hebrew phrase typeset upside down on the dedication page. In inscribing the book, King wrote her note under the phrase, upside down, highlighting the famed First State point for this title. 310 pages. Has light edge wear, minimal sign of previous use.

Seller Inventory # 016472

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Grave Talent (Inscribed First Edition, First Printing)
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312088043
• ISBN 13: 9780312088040
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

Assigned, along with her new partner, to the murders of three little girls, homicide detective Casey Martinelli closes in on a colony of mismatched people living in the wooded hills near the city. A first novel.

Reviews

Although it gets off to an uncertain start, this first mystery boasts an appealing female detective and a few good shocks delivered close to the end. Three children's bodies are found near a reclusive community of eccentrics not too many miles from San Francisco. Young cop Casey Martinelli and her embittered, tyrannical partner Alonzo Hawkins think they've identified the perfect suspect in Vaun Adams, the community's resident artist, who once was convicted of murdering a child and who is secretive even by the standards of her weird neighbors. Adams is a strong, enigmatic creation: haunted, gothic and broadly dysfunctional, with a dark past that may contain the lurking killer. But the plot exhibits cracks--a tenuous piece of deduction conveniently dictates that the murder suspects can come only from the community--and King stumbles several times in developing her detectives' characters. She is coy about revealing the gender of Casey's lover (most readers will spot the "surprise" a mile off), and she lets Hawkins' initially gruff manner dissipate within a dozen pages. If King plans a series, she will need to flesh out her protagonists.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An omniscient narrator endows this amazing first novel with intelligence, intrigue, and intricacy. The serial murders of three kindergarten-aged girls test the uncomfortable relationship between a crusty San Francisco detective and his new female partner, both known for their independence. Eventually, unforeseen complications involving a remarkable artist's past and an evil stalker's secretive present force the pair into confrontation, and they learn to trust. This work exhibits strong psychological undertones, compelling urgency, and dramatic action. A necessary purchase and a writer to watch.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.