Five novels, a novella, and a cameo in the novel Lockdown follow the career of Homicide Inspector Kate Martinelli of the San Francisco Police Department.
We meet Kate (A Grave Talent) during her first homicide case, investigating an infamous murderer who is also a world-rank artist—a female Rembrandt. After the artist Vaun Adams, Kate encounters Brother Erasmus, the Holy Fool; a homeless teenager named Dio; Roz Hall, the pastor of a gay church; and… Sherlock Holmes. That’s right: one of Kate’s murder investigations brings to light a manuscript that claims to have been written by Holmes himself, during his 1924 visit to San Francisco.
The Martinelli novels have won the Edgar, Creasey, and Lambda awards, and were nominated for Edgar, Macavity, Anthony, and Orange awards.
Click on any book cover to learn more.
Beginnings
A Kate Martinelli Novella
(2019)
Kate Martinelli is happily working her way through her fifties when her teenage daughter Nora happens to ask a question about Kate’s long-dead sister. Patty died at the wheel of a car, joy-riding through the night in their rural California town, case closed.
But is it? Kate think she knows what happened that night—thinks she understands how that long-ago death shaped her life as a cop. But as soon as she starts asking questions of her own, everything about her beginnings comes into doubt.
Wife Lee Cooper and semi-retired partner Al Hawkin lend a hand—but it’s up to Kate to fit the pieces together, and create a story that may change her own future.
The Art of Detection
(2006)
With the help of her partner, Al Hawkin, Kate must do her best to follow the convoluted mind of a killer, one who may have trained at the feet of the greatest mind of all times.
Night Work
(2000)
Feminism in San Francisco is like nowhere else. Here we begin with applying tasers and tattoos to abusers, and then we bring in Kali to clean up?
With Child
(1996)
(Edgar Award nominee; Orange Award nominee)
Kate’s SFPD partner is getting married, and Kate agrees to take his new step-daughter during the honeymoon. Only the girl, already caught up in a missing persons case, goes missing herself.
To Play the Fool
(1995)
A holy fool, in San Francisco? What is this remnant of another world doing among the homeless, and why does he converse only in quotations?
A Grave Talent
(1993)
(Edgar Award winner; Creasey winner)
New SFPD homicide inspector Kate Martinelli faces a hard case with layers of secrets. But then, Kate is a woman who understands secrets. First in the series.