Tue 14 Nov 2017
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: CAROL O’CONNELL – Mallory’s Oracle.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[8] Comments
CAROL O’CONNELL – Mallory’s Oracle. Kathleen Mallory #1. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1994. Jove, paperback, 1995.
O’Connell is a painter turned novelist, and this is her first. Putnam thinks it’s going to be a good one. They paid a lot of money for it, and it’s already been published in England and sold to several other countries.
Kathleen Mallory was a street kid and she was taken in at the age of 12 by a NYPD cop and his wife. Now she’s a Sergeant in the same department, and her father in all the real sense of the word has been murdered at the same time as the latest victim is killed by a serial killer who preys on old women.
The Department places her on compassionate leave, but compassion is not a word she understands very well. She’s beautiful, a crack shot and a computer whiz, and underneath a thin veneer is a tough and nearly as amoral as the child she used to be. Mercy is another word that has little relevance to her as she begins tracking her prey.
O’Connell may be this year’s Minette Walters, and this could easily be an Edgar winner for either First or Best Novel. Yes, I thought it was that good. It’s a powerfully written book, and often beautifully so. An Example: “She lay still in the body and quiet.”
And watch for the passage about the insane pigeon — surely none of the more unlikely subjects upon which to base a memorable paragraph, but there it was. The third person narrative is mostly from Mallory’s viewpoint, though there are several illuminating shifts.
The plot is convoluted, with maybe one or two too many threads to the skein, but the book’s strengths lie in O’Connell’s prose and the vivid characterizations of Mallory and a number of others. It isn’t a perfect book, but it’s a very, very strong one, and I think the field has another star here, folks.
The Kathleen Mallory series —
1. Mallory’s Oracle (1994)
— 1995 Anthony Award — First Novel (Nominee)
— 1995 Dilys Award — Mystery Novel (Nominee)
— 1995 Edgar Allan Poe Award — First Novel (Nominee)
2. The Man Who Lied to Women (1995) aka The Man Who Cast Two Shadows
3. Killing Critics (1995)
4. Flight of the Stone Angel (1997) aka Stone Angel
5. Shell Game (1999)
6. Crime School (2002)
7. The Jury Must Die (2003) aka Dead Famous
8. Winter House (2004)
9. Find Me (2006) aka Shark Music
10. The Chalk Girl (2012)
11. It Happens in the Dark (2012)
12. Blind Sight (2016)
November 15th, 2017 at 8:42 am
I read it at the time. I liked it, sort of, not nearly as much as Barry, and I haven’t continued with the series.
November 15th, 2017 at 9:57 am
There was a LOT of buzz about this first book from O’Connell when it came out, all very favorable, including this review of Barry’s. I didn’t buy it in hardcover, but I did pick it up in paperback. i never read it, though, and like you, never continued with the rest of the series. So much so, that I didn’t realize that there have been so many in the series. The author never became as popular as a Michael Connelly, say, but good for her that she stayed around for so long.
November 15th, 2017 at 12:12 pm
Really liked this debut, they held my interest for the next two or three. Then I lost interest…
November 15th, 2017 at 4:21 pm
This is one of my favorite characters. I started with Crime School and still consider it the best in the series. However I found these books to be darkly emotional. Mallory’s life is the thread the books survive on and the closer you let yourself get to Mallory the harder it is survive the books.
I prefer light witty mysteries/thrillers such as Ross Thomas, Vince Kohler, Norbert Davis, etc. Somehow I fell into this well written gut-wrenching series. I am currently behind three books because facing the emotional beating I take from the books makes starting a new book a challenge despite the rewards of an absorbing captivating character and book series.
November 17th, 2017 at 5:23 pm
A summary that makes the books seem both offputting and captivating, Michael. The next time I see one in a used book store, I’m going to grab it up!
November 17th, 2017 at 8:34 pm
A good example of the heart tugging emotion I think happens in CRIME SCHOOL. Mallory is abandoned on the streets of New York at an early age (I think it was seven or eight but not sure) with just part of a phone number. As this young child she would cold call variations of the number and if a woman answered she would asked them if they were her mommy. O’Connell writing is hard and cynical and things like identifying with the woman on the phone hearing that little girl’s voice and then have that hard-ass little girl hang up on them can hit the reader hard. Mallory never feels sorry for herself but instead becomes a hard cold person who refuses to let anyone near her.
November 17th, 2017 at 9:38 pm
On the basis of what you say, Michael, I think that O’Connell must have a solid core of readers who follow her book to book, but there’s not enough of them to keep the accolades coming in that she received at the beginning of her career.
November 18th, 2017 at 5:32 am
This all encouraged me to start my next Mallory book CHALK GIRL. I had forgotten the magic of her prose, so witty that the cruelest act could be touched with humor. Her pace is swift and is an asset to the story. The focus in on the characters and not the plot but the story is strong and carries you along.
But the writing drains you. It is not unusual for me to have to stop reading because the sadness is overwhelming. This is not light reading for the plane or a book to read at the beach on a summer’s day. I have not read the book reviewed here – the first book. I also have not read the eighth – WINTER HOUSE.
It helps to read them in order but I am hooked reading them out of order. CHALK GIRL takes place months after Mallory had disappeared at the end of FIND ME. Where she went remains unknown as Mallory rarely reveals anything about herself and everyone is too terrified of her to ask.
While an American her early books were sold in Europe first and became very successful. The book was wildly anticipated when it finally reached the U.S. It is why some of her early books have two different titles.