Kate Martinelli is Laurie King's contemporary, San Francisco detective. She's been pushed into the background in recent years by King's more recent creation, the stunning Mary Russell who, as a young woman, befriends and marries the aged Sherlock Holmes. In this adorable novel, Martinelli is faced with the unsettling murder of a man who was a passionate collector of Sherlockiana; one of the central hints is a beautifully-composed lost story that might be the work of Conan Doyle himself.