This is a book from a series. I had not read the earlier books in the series. I believe that is why I had to rate it so low. The author spends far too much time trying to catch the reader up on the back story and doesn't get into the real page-turning events until halfway through the book.

Also, much of the emotional impact revolves around the detective Kate Martinelli's relationship with her lover who is absent for most of the action in this book. Thus, her character isn't developed well enough in the back story to get an idea of why the reader should care about the relationship or to understand why it's having such an impact on Kate.

The writing style was undecisive, jumping from point of view to omniscient and then to another point of view. Confusing and annoying.

All that said, the story itself was good. I suspect fans of the series will get more out of it than I did.

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great book!!! again laurie king at her best. kate martinelli is a wonderful character

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From back of book:

Adrift in mist-shrouded San Francisco mornings and alcohol-fogged nights, homicide detective Kate Martinelli can't escape the void left by her departed lover, who has gone off to rethink their relationship. But when twelve-year-old Jules Cameron comes to Kate for a professional consultation, Kate's not sure she's that desperate for distraction.

Jules is worried about her friend Dio, a homeless boy she met in a park. Dio has disappeared without a word of farewell, and Jules wants Kate to find him Reluctant as she is, Kate can't say no--and soon she finds herself forming a friendship with the bright, quirky girl. But the search for Dio will prove to be much more than both bargained for--and it's only the beginning.

When Jules disappears while taking a trip with Kate, a desperate search begins...and Kate knows all too well the odds of finding the child alive...

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Ms. King keeps the emotional and suspensful tension wound up tightly in this installment of Detective Kate Martinelli's ongoing adventures in crime-solving and love. There's a lot going on here, but King's brisk writing manages to balance vivid detail with a crisp, clear narrative. Her cranky, faithful heroine is easy to feel for as she struggles to piece her life back together without her absent lover. Kate's experiences in the present as she tries to hold down the empty fort are interposed with flashbacks to the events leading up to her lover's departure to convalesce on her own after being greviously wounded in a previous adventure. Kate, however, isn't allowed to mope around on her own for long before a young friend of hers drags her out of her cave, desperate for help over the disappearance of a tragic young homeless boy. In the course of searching for the missing child on behalf of his only friend, Kate may end up finding herself more friendless than she's ever been before.

One detail that struck me was how, when one of Kate's dearest friends reveals that instead they are a vicious and back-stabbing enemy, the final resolution of this conflict is left quite ambiguous. Sadly, I think an ambiguous tailing off probably reflects real life pretty well, but since this is after all fiction, I'm left wondering what sort of details will be filled in later on. Will this foe persist into the future, will a final confrontation/resolution occur, or could that particular story line be allowed to drop? Given Ms. King's refreshing precision, I doubt the latter...

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