Synopsis
NYPD Detective Sergeant Kathleen Mallory is drawn into a baffling world of peril and illusion when she investigates the brutal murder of a young woman, whose body is found wearing a jacket labeled "Kathleen Mallory." By the author of Mallory's Oracle. 35,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.
Reviews
O'Connell's second novel (after Mallory's Oracle) brings back NYPD Sergeant Kathy Mallory, plunging this tough-minded yet soulful heroine into another convoluted case. When a woman killed in Central Park is mistakenly identified as Mallory, the former street urchin and computer whiz sets herself up as bait by moving into the apartment building that houses her three main suspects. Using a computer and the building's electronic bulletin board to psych out the killer, she stirs up more than she bargained for?including someone who wants her dead. Other elements in the intelligent plot include a crime of passion, a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game and a boy who may be telekinetic and whose stepmothers keep dying. The dialogue is crisp, the prose supple, but the overall tone is dour, sometimes, in fact, mournful. Not enough of the story is told from Mallory's point of view, however, and O'Connell tends to evoke her mysterious behavior through description rather than through action. As a result, Mallory?who with her bitter youth, street smarts and rough edges carries echoes of Andrew Vachss's Burke?remains an enigma, a major absence at the center of the plot. BOMC and QPB selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
TITLR HO'Connell, Carol. After the unprecedented press hype, instant best-seller status, and critical raves garnered by O'Connell's first novel, Mallory's Oracle , it's hard to believe the budding author could produce, scarcely a year later, another book that's just as intense, powerful, and affecting. But it looks like she has. Tough, callous, unrepentant Kathleen Mallory, ragged street urchin turned computer-whiz cop, once again plays the heroine in a story that pits her against a clever (but not clever enough) murderer. Mallory takes a personal interest in the case when the evening news reports that one Kathleen Mallory has been murdered on New York's Upper West Side. Of course, it's not Mallory at all but a case of mistaken identity--the victim was wearing Mallory's blazer. The single-minded cop uses a combination of intuition, intrigue, and some not-quite-legal computer tricks to pursue the killer. But Mallory's old friend Charles Butler, the gentle giant genius, argues that Mallory should use more orthodox methods of simple logic and deductive reasoning, and the two inevitably clash. The plot is highly original and intensely gripping, especially since O'Connell reveals a few more tantalizing tidbits about Mallory's formative years, but it's the characters--Charles, Riker, Coffey, and Mallory herself--who make this story unique. Three cheers for O'Connell, who has now moved from neophyte writer to established literary superstar.
Few mysteries embody the intensity of O'Connell's second Kathy Mallory title. Mallory, a street urchin fostered by a now-dead New York cop and his wife, follows in her father's footsteps as a primo detective. Taken off suspension to cover the murder of a woman at first identified as Mallory herself, she pits her uncanny intelligence and formidable computer skills against a compulsive and evasive adversary. Moments of wry humor invade the author's incisive prose, tempering an admirable female protagonist sure to gather a following. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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