Laurie King has deep roots in California, where she was born, studied, lives, and works. She holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in theological studies, and religious thought is a continuing theme in her stories. This may seem like an unusual background for a writer of mystery fiction but the connection becomes obvious as the reader gets to know her characters.

King writes two very different series featuring strong, intelligent women, as well as "stand-alone" novels that include male protagonists. She has explained that the variety helps to keep her ideas fresh and allows her to explore many different paths that restricting herself to one time period and one cast of characters might not.

A Grave Talent was her debut novel, and garnered wide praise. It features Kate Martinelli, a homicide detective in San Francisco, and a lesbian. King explains that she started out to write about a character who is an outsider in her chosen field, police work, and that making her a lesbian became something of a natural progression. But Kate is first and foremost a thoughtful and thorough cop.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice is the first in King's extremely popular Mary Russell series. In 1915, orphaned and adrift, Mary meets Sherlock Holmes on the Sussex Downs, and becomes his apprentice and friend. As the series develops, she eventually becomes his wife, despite the marked difference in their ages and circumstances. She is the antithesis of Doyle's famous detective - young, female, Twentieth Century, feminist, theologian, half American - and yet she shares both his view of the world and his approach to dealing with it.

Mary Russell Novels

The Beekeeper's Apprentice (1994)
A Monstrous Regiment of Women (1995)
A Letter of Mary (1997)
The Moor (1998)
O Jerusalem (1999)
Justice Hall (2002)

Kate Martinelli Novels

A Grave Talent (1993)
To Play the Fool (1995)
With Child (1996)
Night Work (2000)

Non-Series Novels

A Darker Place (1999)
Folly (2001)
Keeping Watch (coming in March, 2003)

For more information on Laurie R. King,
visit her web site
http://www.laurierking.com