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With
Child (1996)
ISBN 978-0-553-57458-6 | UK (June 08) 978-1-84722-006-6Nominated for the Edgar and Orange awards
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.”
What they say
"Detective Kate Martinelli's personal and professional
lives are in upheaval. Her longtime female lover has moved
out; Kate is currently persona non grata with her colleagues;
and Jules Cameron, the stepdaughter of Kate's partner, Al,
wants Kate to find a homeless boy who seems to have disappeared
into thin air. Determined to take her mind off her troubles,
Kate sets off to find the boy, only to be caught in an ambush
that results in a gun battle and, for Kate, a disabling blow
to the head." (Booklist)
Inspector Kate Martinelli agrees to help [medievalist Jani
Cameron’s] preteen daughter Jules track down Dio, a homeless
boy she met in a San Francisco park over the summer. [When
Jules disappears,] Kate searches frantically for some clue
about her fate that will allow her closure and mourning; and
for that clue she can only turn, logically enough, to Dio—in
a beautifully nuanced transformation of the traditional roles
of detective, assistant, and victim. (Kirkus, starred review)
Links
See the page for A Grave Talent
For a bibliography and Laurie's suggestions to teacher and book groups, click here.
Pictures
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The Eel River below Kate and Lee's cabin |