The New York Times–bestselling author discusses her crime-solving hacker heroine, "surely one of the genre's oddest and most interesting creations" (Chicago Tribune). When the NYPD detective and sociopath known simply as Mallory made her series debut, John Sandford called her "one of the most interesting new characters to come along in years." A homeless wild child who was taken in by a New York City cop and grew up to follow in his footsteps, she possesses a skill set—including a talent for computer hacking—that allows her to track down her prey like no one else. In this insightful essay, author Carol O'Connell shares fascinating insights about her origins, her psychology, and her strikingly different sense of right and wrong. "Mallory is not your usual plucky and generally wholesome mystery solver. Jane Marple would probably cross the street to avoid making eye contact with her." —The Washington Post Book...

**Before Lisbeth Salander, there was Kathy Mallory. The astonishing new Mallory novel from the *New York Times*-bestselling author. ** The little girl appeared in Central Park: red-haired, blue-eyed, smiling, perfect-except for the blood on her shoulder. It fell from the sky, she said, while she was looking for her uncle, who turned into a tree. *Poor child,* people thought. And then they found the body in the tree. For Mallory, newly returned to the Special Crimes Unit after three months' lost time, there is something about the girl that she understands. Mallory is damaged, they say, but she can tell a kindred spirit. And this one will lead her to a story of extraordinary crimes: murders stretching back fifteen years, blackmail and complicity and a particular cruelty that only someone with Mallory's history could fully recognize. In the next few weeks, she will deal with them all . . . in her own way.

A Kathy Mallory thriller-filled with knife edge suspense and a masterful plotlineThe reviews called it 'A Play to Die For' after the woman was found dead in the front row. It didn't seem so funny the next night, when another body was found - this time the playwright's, with his throat slashed.Detective Kathy Mallory takes over, but no matter what she asks, no one seems to be giving her a straight answer. The only person - if 'person' is the right word - who seems to be clear is the ghostwriter. Every night, an unseen backstage hand chalks up line changes and messages on a blackboard. And the ghostwriter is now writing Mallory into the play itself, a play about a long-ago massacre that may not be at all fictional. 'MALLORY,' the blackboard reads, 'TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT. NOTHING PERSONAL.' If Mallory can't find out who's responsible, heads will roll. Unfortunately, one of them might be her own...From BooklistThis latest addition to the popular Mallory series, launched in 1995 with Mallory’s Oracle, seems almost like a send-up of the tough detective novel, so over the top are Mallory’s appearances and other people’s reactions to her. Kathy Mallory is an NYPD detective whose beauty and insight overwhelm everyone. As does her rudeness: Mallory’s way of ordering people around more befits a traffic cop than a detective. This one has a Broadway background: two deaths occur in two nights in the audience of a play; the second one is that of the playwright. O’Connell resurrects the Phantom of the Opera device of having notes delivered to the actors; here, someone writes threats and directions on a backstage blackboard. This does intensify the suspense but in a somewhat formulaic way. Not at the level of some other Mallory mysteries but necessary reading for devoted fans. --Connie Fletcher ReviewPraise for *It Happens in the Dark“Dazzling.”—Publishers Weekly“Fans won’t want to miss another solid mystery from O’Connell”—Library Journal“NYPD Special Crimes Detective Kathy Mallory is one of the most intriguing characters in crime fiction today.”—New York Daily News*Praise for the Kathy Mallory series by Carol O'Connell“The Chalk Girl is an event – any Mallory book is. She is as fine a fictional creation as the crime genre offers.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times“Like every mother’s child, every author’s detective is exceptional. But Carol O’Connell takes it way over the top with the mythic scale of her mad-genius New York City cop, Kathy Mallory.” – Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review“O’Connell’s awesome ability to weave a taut, complex plot works with Mallory’s equally awesome detective skills as she unearths each crystalline facet of crimes both past and present.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)“A remarkable series. O’Connell delivers shock after shock, held together by exquisitely detailed police and forensic procedure and by the riveting, punishing figure of Mallory herself.” – Booklist (starred review)“O’Connell offers more than a suspenseful tale; she portrays a complex world of dark and light, corruption and love. Another must-read in a compelling and rich crime series.” – Library Journal (starred review)“My new favorite in a long line of mysteries by Carol O’Connell that I have greatly admired and enjoyed. Mallory is one of the great characters ever in detective fiction. She’s tall, beautiful, scary smart and…just plain scary. A great read, filled with O’Connell’s command of humor, pathos and drama.” – San Jose Mercury News“O’Connell’s writing is electric, her plots multilayered, and her cast of characters fascinating.” – Sacramento Bee“Wow, my vote for the most terrifying and gripping January read. It will chill you to the bone with a plot rising right out of the Brothers Grimm.” – Barbara Peters, Poisoned Pen“Mallory is one of the most fascinating characters in crime fiction. Before Lisbeth Salander, there was Mallory.” – Joanne Sinchuk, Murder on the Beach

Amazon.com ReviewTo summarize the plot of Dead Famous would be to spoil it, since O'Connell keeps revealing it layer by layer as you go along--a daring technique, and a rewarding one if you're a patient reader. Suffice it to say that the story involves a seemingly unstoppable serial killer; a beautiful hunchback with tragedy in her past; a radio shock-jock who helps the killer find his victims; an extremely mean house cat; a gloomy veteran cop drinking himself into oblivion; and, at the center of it all, NYPD detective Kathy Mallory, who returns here for her seventh outing. Mallory (_don't_ call her Kathy) is one of the strangest, most intriguing series heroines in crime fiction: a former street waif who's brilliant and gorgeous, but also sociopathic, manipulative, and obsessive-compulsive.No formulaic cop thriller, Dead Famous is instead a crime tale that focuses on its quirky, often outre characters. There isn't a lot of conventional suspense. Yet near the end, the story gathers tremendous narrative momentum and rises to a real tragic power. O'Connell's quirky writing style and approach aren't for everyone, but her fans--old and new--will find much to appreciate here. --Nicholas H. AllisonFrom Publishers WeeklyO'Connell's post-feminist detective Kathleen Mallory returns full-throttle for an eighth grisly urban crime saga. And O'Connell's prose-sharp, gritty and streetwise-is in top form. In her previous case (2002's Crime School), Mallory solved a very personal murder and faced the doubts of coworkers about her competence. Now she's in total control, overseeing the recuperation of old friend and partner Riker, victim of an arrest-related shooting (she sets up a bogus fund to send him disability payments) and staying two steps ahead of a belligerent FBI agent named Marvin Argus. Two other vivid characters figure prominently in the story (or three, counting New York City itself, which O'Connell gives a palpable neo-noir grit): Argus is hounding Johanna Apollo, who's fled Chicago in the wake of a high-profile murder of another FBI agent named Timothy Kidd. A hunchback with extra-long legs, porcelain skin and raven hair, Johanna is working long, difficult hours as a crime scene cleaner. In Chicago, she was Kidd's therapist, and maybe his lover... and maybe she killed him, too. O'Connell devilishly fills in the pieces of the puzzle so that the reader's perspective undergoes constant shifts. Shock jock Ian Zachary-more abrasive off the air than on, if possible-exhorts loyal listeners to locate the members of a jury that let a killer walk free. And with his encouragement (if not instruction), a serial killer calling himself The Reaper has been obligingly knocking off the jurors. The way these two cases fit together is ingenious; once again, O'Connell sets the standard in crime fiction.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Andrew Bliss, art critic pens the phrase "art terrorism" to describe the murder of artist Dean Starr. No one suspects he knows anything about a crime committed in a gallery 12 years earlier. Detective Kathy Mallory wants to reopen the case and a number of people in high places start to get nervous.

Product DescriptionThe young stranger came to town just past twelve noon. Within an hour, the idiot had been assaulted, hands bloodied and broken; Deputy Travis suffered a major stroke at the wheel of his patrol car; and Babe Laurie was found murdered. The young stranger who had preceded all of these events was sitting in a jail cell...That stranger is Kathy Mallory. Having left her detective's badge back in New York, she has made her way to Dayborn, a small town in the wetlands of Louisiana. There, seventeen years earlier, an unspeakably brutal act had changed her life forever. Now she is back to take a very personal revenge... About the AuthorBorn in 1947, Carol O'Connell studied at the California Institute of Arts/Chouinard and the Arizona State University. She lives now in New York City.

The past comes back to haunt, in the new novel featuring Kathleen Mallory – “the strongest new detective of the decade” (Kirkus Reviews). Carol O’Connell’s novels continue to draw extraordinary praise for her “unforgettable protagonist” (The Miami Herald), “thoroughly original characters” (People), “gifted storytelling” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), and “prose so stunning it takes your breath away” (Mostly Murder), all combining to produce some of the “most stylishly innovative and witty mysteries in years” (San Francisco Chronicle). At their heart is NYPD sergeant Kathleen Mallory, a wild child turned policewoman possessed of a ferocious intelligence and a unique inner compass of right and wrong – which has drawn her now to a place far from home. In a small town in Louisiana, Mallory steps off a train. Within an hour, one man has been assaulted, another has had a heart attack, a third has been murdered, and Mallory is in jail, although she has had nothing to do with any of these events. She is there for an entirely different purpose. Seventeen years ago, Mallory’s mother died in this town, stoned to death by a mob, and the six-year-old Mallory vanished, to reappear later on the streets of New York. Now she has returned to find out who killed her mother, and what happened to the body, vanished as well, its only trace a winged angel in the local cemetery. Her search will take her through a dark and murky past, and into the company of people who have much to warn her about and even more to hide, but for Mallory there is no stopping – even if what she discovers is something better left buried in the grave. Filled with the rich prose, resonant characters, and knife-edge suspense that have won her so many admirers, Stone Angel is Carol O’Connell’s most remarkable novel yet. Carol O’Connell is also the author of Mallory’s Oracle, The Man Who Cast Two Shadows, and Killing Critics. She lives in New York City.

When a known serial killer is found with shears sticking out of his chest and an ice pick in his hand, Kathy Mallory and her NYPD Special Crimes partner Detective Sgt. Riker are called in to investigate. One of the occupants of Winter House, the scene of the crime, is 70-year-old Nedda Winter, who immediately confesses to the killing, claiming; it was self-defence. Murder solved, case closed. It s even poetic justice. However Nedda Winter is in fact the most famous lost child in NYPD historv, missing for almost sixty years, thought to he kidnapped following the massacre of her family… with an ice pick. As Mallory and her official and unofficial partners, Riker and Charles Butler, delve into the familys history, a remarkable story begins to emerge – one of murderous greed and family horror, abandonment and loss, revenge and twisted love – a ghost story peopled by all-too-real flesh and blood. But Winter House doesn’t give up its dead so easily, and Mallory will have to reopen the original investigation in order to try and stop the murderer from finishing what they started. Intricate plotting, resonant characters and incisive prose make Winter House O’Connell’s most powerful and most astonishing novel to date.

In Shell Game, O’Connell raises the standard once again. It is fall in New York City. On live television, the re-creation of a legendary magic trick goes horribly awry – a terrible accident, everyone agrees. But two people know it is not. One is an aged magician in a private hospital in the northern corner of New York state. What a worthy performance, he thinks, murdering a man while a million people watch. The other is Kathleen Mallory. Once a feral child, loose on the city streets, she is now a New York City policewoman, and not much changed: a tall young woman with green gunslinger eyes and a ferocious inner compass of right and wrong. For her, the death is too dramatic, too showy, and she is convinced that there will be another one – this perp loves spectacle. But even she cannot predict the spectacular chain of events that has already been set in motion, or the profoundly disturbing consequences it will have for those she holds most dear. For misdirection is the heart of magic. The lady never really gets sawed in half, does she? So why is there so much blood? Filled with the rich prose, resonant characters, and knife-edge suspense that have won her so many admirers, Shell Game is Carol O’Connell’s most remarkable novel yet.

From one of the most acclaimed crime writers in America comes her most astonishing novel: a story of love, loss, death-and discovery. Over the course of eight novels, Carol O'Connell and her protagonist, New York detective Kathy Mallory, have carved out a unique place for themselves. But all that has been prelude to the remarkable story told in Find Me. A mutilated body is found lying on the ground in Chicago, a dead hand pointing down Adams Street, also known as Route 66, a road of many names. And now of many deaths. A silent caravan of cars, dozens of them, drives down that road, each passenger bearing a photograph, but none of them the same. They are the parents of missing children, some recently disappeared, some gone a decade or more-all brought together by word that childrens' grave sites are being discovered along the Mother Road. Kathy Mallory drives with them. The child she seeks, though, is not like the others'. It is herself-the feral child adopted off the streets, her father a blank, her mother dead and full of mysteries. During the next few extraordinary days, Mallory will find herself hunting a killer like none she has ever known, and will undergo a series of revelations not only of stunning intensity- but stunning effect.

On a hot August afternoon, in an East Side apartment, a woman is found hanged. Carefully placed red candles and an enormous quantity of dead flies suggest some kind of bizarre ritual. By some cruel miracle, the victim lives, but remains in a coma… Mallory does not recognise her immediately. The blue eyes are undisguised by mascara and purple shadow. The former bleached straw hair has turned a more natural shade of blond. Even the nose is different. And there are no track marks on her arms. Fifteen years have passed since Kathy Mallory lived on the streets of New York, succoured by hookers and thieving to survive. Now she has traded in her plastic pellet gun for a.357 revolver and a police badge. No one is allowed to call her Kathy anymore. Just Mallory. Once upon a time, a junkie whore and police informer, known simply as Sparrow, had cared for a young street urchin when she was lost and alone. Now Mallory finds that she is staring her bitter past in the face, as she pursues a case which also has its origin in an unsolved murder committed years ago… ‘Mallory is one of the most original and intriguing detectives you’ll ever meet’ – Carl Hiaasen

‘Mallory’s progress is enthralling…beautifully observed in fine, controlled prose’ – MAIL ON SUNDAY Fifteen years after Inspector Louis Markowitz adopted the wild child, no one in New York’s Special Crimes section knew much about Kathy Mallory’s origins. They only knew that the young cop with the soul of a thief could bewitch the most complex computer systems, could slip into the minds of killers with disturbing ease. In Central Park, a woman dies, while a witness watches, believing the brutal murder to be a prelude to a kiss. Mallory goes hunting the killer, armed with under-the-skin knowledge of the man’s mind and the bare clue of a lie. Mallory holds on to one truth: everybody lies, and some lies can get you killed. And she knows that, to trap the killer, she must put her own life at risk, for this killer has taken a personal interest in her… ‘Carol O’Connell is a gifted writer with a style as quick and arresting as Kathy Mallory herself’ – RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON