I enjoyed this story, incorporating Laurie R. King's two series in a plausible way and yet not letting the Holmes aspect take over Martinelli's tale. The characters are well composed, with as much attention on the supporting cast as with the main characters.

The use of the two narrators to follow what are essentially two separate stories seemed a bit odd at first, but it made sense after the first few minutes (an audiobook within an audiobook, as it were). Alyssa Bresnahan's narration won me over from the start - she injects a dash of wry humour into her reading that gives life to the story. A highly enjoyable and intelligent story to listen to.

An author with great character development whose books I always look forward to finding has combined the best of both of her two series in this book. Although there is no Mary Russell, this story-within-a-story has the current day police detective character, Kate Martinelli, involved in a plot about Sherlock Holmes. And yes, some of the people in the book are gay - it seems more important that I said "people" - her characters are so well drawn that they become 3-D, and the memory of her books is like something that happened to people you met.

I was intrigued by the idea of a story within a story, but quickly got bogged down in what is really three stories: two detective pieces and a pedantic homage to gay San Francisco. It's hard to believe that this clunker was written by the same author as the Mary Russell novels. Kate Martinelli is no Milo Sturgis, and Laurie King doesn't come close to Jonathan Kellerman in creating believable and symapthetic characters- gay or straight- in a contemporary story. It's too bad because the concept of exploring the world of fanatical Sherlock Holmes devotees through the mystery of a "missing" Conan Doyle manuscript had lots of potential. As it turned out, this book is a waste of time.

This was not what I expected, even though I knew that the main character was a lesbian homicide detective in San Fransisco. The story was pure pablum, a story about gays supposedly written by Arthur Conan Doyle, discovered by a gay Sherlockian murder victim. This was nothing more than an agenda pushing vehicle for the gay and lesbian community, ending in a celebration of legalized same sex marriages in San Francisco. Don't bother! And to think I bought it because of the terrific 'Beekeeper's Apprentice'!

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook, so much that I was sorry when it was over. I've read and listened to other books by Laurie King and knew I would enjoy it, but this one really stood out for me. Much of that was due to the narrator, who made the book come alive. The people in it stayed with me long after I finished listening.