The Art of Detection, Laurie R. King, 2006I couldn’t finish it. This doesn’t happen very often. Honest. And I’m a huge fan of Ms. King’s Mary Russell series. I read The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and have been waiting to read the rest until I have them all so there are no gaps in my enjoyment. But I thought I’d check out the Kate Martinelli series and what better place to start than with a Holmes-related story.I just couldn’t hang with it. For my taste, the setup took too long, with way too much detail about practically everything, which bogged down the pace. After 100 pages I set it aside to finish my Connelly project. When I came back to it, I read another 40 pages and gave up. My apologies to Ms. King. I really wanted to like it. If it’s any consolation, I’m raring to go on the Mary Russell books.So, a few months later I decided to give the Casey Martinelli series one more go, this time starting at the beginning with A Grave Talent. This moved at a much more satisfactory pace, but I didn’t find myself itching to get back to it. In fact, I found myself doing other things to avoid reading it. When at page 140 out of 340 I thought I had figured out the big reveal, I skipped to the back and read a chapter or so to confirm it. I was half right. I’d figured out who the murderer was, just not who he was posing as. So, I figured no need to keep reading Martinelli. I’ll stick with the Mary Russell series. Of course, YMMV.