Hancock Park

by Katherine V. Forrest

Overview

LAPD Detective Kate Delafield has a new, iron-willed female lieutenant—a tough new partner who may turn out to be a much-needed ally. She also has a dangerous new case.

A reclusive old man has been brutally slain at the La Brea Tar Pits. The unusual investigation could uncover the truth of humanity’s ancient past, and at the same time expose the corruption and violence of the present. And everyone involved—from an alluring scientist with a dark secret to a treacherous CIA officer with his own agenda—is suspect.

With more at stake than just a pile of bones, Kate has to gather together the pieces of a timeless puzzle, and make sure they all fit—before a remorseless killer decides to make her a part of history…

A Kate Delafield Mystery Series Book 7.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935226703
Publisher:	Spinsters Ink Books
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Series:	A Kate Delafield Mystery Series , #8
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	218
Sales rank:	1,032,012
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	17 Years

About the Author

Katherine V. Forrest is the groundbreaking author of Curious Wine, the Kate Delafield mystery series and the Daughters science-fiction series. She’s also known as a prolific editor with anthology and non-fiction credits in her own name as well as the editor of hundreds of novels. Dozens of lesbian writers count her among their mentors. Selected as the 2009 recipient of the Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement award, winner of five Lambda Literary Awards and the GCLS 2009 Trailblazer Award, she is widely credited as a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing. Katherine lives with her partner Jo in the Southern California desert. In addition to writing and editing, Katherine is also the Supervising Editor of Spinsters Ink.

Editorial Reviews

In Forrest's not quite noir, somewhat flat legal drama, the fifth in her Kate Delafield series (Amateur City, etc.), the seasoned LAPD detective investigates a murder in the affluent low-crime enclave of Hancock Park. Dysfunctional family values are scrutinized in the press and in a heated courtroom scrimmage, where the slip of a word or facial tic can arm a clever defense attorney. When the corpse of middle-aged matron Victoria Talbot turns up in her stately, suspiciously spick-and-span home, most of the evidence points to her unrepentant and loathsome ex-husband, entrepreneur Douglas Talbot. Kate and faithful partner Detective Joe Cameron structure the developing leads into a damning picture of guilt. The coldly competent deputy DA presents the circumstantial case against Talbot, whose harassment of his ex-wife long after the divorce speaks volumes. But a last-minute bombshell la Perry Mason adds an unexpected twist. The author's realistic rendering of courtroom hijinks and her sympathetic, ultra-professional, strong yet vulnerable protagonist help salvage a less than exciting story line. Some of the more intriguing characters get short shrift, leeching color from the whole, but loyal fans won't be disappointed. (May 4) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Kate Delafield (Sleeping Bones, 1999, etc.) goes up against a high-priced lawyer determined to get his client acquitted by attacking her police work. LAPD detectives never have a nice day. Testifying in court against Douglas Talbot, accused of killing the ex-wife who divorced him when she finally got sick of his abusive behavior, Kate can't help flashing back to the traumatic morning when she was called to Victoria Talbot's house. While she's reciting her testimony and bracing for the punishing cross-examination she expects from Gregory Quantrill, Talbot's hired gun, she recalls how quickly the evidence against Talbot has mounted: his three children hate him, and his only alibi comes courtesy of the illegal Guatemalan housekeeper he'd taken as his lover. When Kate returns home the evening after refusing to help her homophobic brother track down his runaway lesbian daughter, she finds that her own lover, attorney Aimee Grant, has responded by moving out. And as the trial grinds toward a verdict the author dexterously keeps in doubt, Kate's nagged by details that don't add up, no matter whose side you're on: Why was Vicki's house so spotless? Why had someone thrown out the fresh-cut flowers from her table? Why had she been shot two times at least five minutes apart?A skillfully extended short story saddled with the additional problem that very few criminal trials whose defendants aren't OJ are all about the cops, even when they're as engaging as Kate.

Kirkus Reviews