THE ART OF DETECTION

This Kate Martinelli police procedural, which involves a first-person narrative by Sherlock Holmes, cleverly combines King's two ongoing mystery series. Martinelli investigates a murder related to a newly discovered manuscript written by Arthur Conan Doyle on a visit to San Francisco. Alyssa Bresnahan excels in voicing Martinelli and the other female characters, but she's less successful with males, who often sound prepubescent. Robert Ian Mackenzie, who reads the Holmes sections, makes a plausible Sherlock. In fact, he so successfully lures listeners into the story-within-a-story that one often forgets about the "real" murder. Both of the interrelated stories are intriguing, though, and all in all, this is a satisfying production. R.E.K. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 06]