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Title details for To Play the Fool by Laurie R. King - Available

To Play the Fool

#2 in series

by Laurie R. King
Alyssa Bresnahan
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available

THE SECOND BOOK IN THE KATE MARTINELLI MYSTERY SERIES
When a band of homeless people cremate a beloved dog in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the authorities are willing to overlook a few broken regulations. But three weeks later, when the dog's owner gets the same fiery send-off, the SFPD has a real headache on its hands. The autopsy suggests homicide, but Inspector Kate Martinelli and her partner, Al Hawkin, have little else to go on: a homeless victim with no positive ID, a group of witnesses with little love for the cops, and a possible suspect, known only as Brother Erasmus, who proves both articulate and impossible to understand.
Erasmus, has a genius for blending with his surroundings, yet he stands out wherever he goes. He is by no means crazy-but he is a Fool. Kate begins the frustrating task of interrogating a man who communicates only through quotations. In Laurie R. King's To Play the Fool, trying to learn something of his history leads Kate along a twisting road to a disbanded cult, long-buried secrets, the thirst for spirituality, and the hunger for bloody vengeance.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Kate Martinelli

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 10, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427251473
      • File size: 266045 KB
      • Duration: 09:14:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 30, 1995
      Like the holy fools whose purposes frame her latest modern mystery, King practices her own magic here, conjuring up, after a slowish start, an indelibly affecting narrative from unexpected material. The murder and botched cremation of a homeless man in Golden Gate Park draws police detective Kate Martinelli, introduced in the 1993 Edgar-winning A Grave Talent, into the world of San Francisco's homeless, whose views of reality differ radically from those of the police. Foremost in this cast is Brother Erasmus, a widely respected monk-like figure, part minister and part mime, who speaks only in quotations. Frustrated in trying to interview Erasmus, Kate gradually connects him to the ``cultivated lunacy'' of a modern Fools' movement which, begun in late-1960s England, disintegrated 15 years later in violence and death. As Erasmus becomes the focus of Kate's official suspicion and personal interest, she enlists, among others, the dean of the Graduate Theological Union at UC-Berkeley and her own invalid female lover, a psychotherapist, to help uncover Erasmus's identity and tragic past. The murder of a homeless woman, whose fitful, articulate intelligence is deftly captured here, brings fresh urgency to the case. The solution makes sure, inevitable sense in both the mundane and spiritual realms that King so thoroughly charts in this moving tale.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The Kate Martinelli mystery series continues with the discovery of multiple cremations conducted by the homeless in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The key suspect responsible for the deaths is Brother Erasmus, who speaks only in quotations and riddles. Alyssa Bresnahan's portrayal of Kate Martinelli, Brother Erasmus, and the other central characters lacks the bravado and diversity so necessary for this eerie and thought-provoking mystery. Unfortunately, the blasé narration reduces the performance to a mediocre "reading." B.J.P. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 29, 1996
      The second installment in her series featuring San Francisco police detective Kate Martinelli, King's latest mystery concerns the murder of a homeless man in Golden Gate Park.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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