Mallory's Oracle

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful and Intriguing
Review: Mallory's Oracle was a thrilling, edge of seat work of mystery chock full of suspense and amazement. The use of a female detective that was both assertive and domineering in stature was an excellent additive for the novel. Detective Mallory was a character set apart from all others with intelligence, control and a sixth sense for intricate mysteries. Her unfortunate childhood and chance encounter with the man and woman who take her in, add greatly to the development of the storyline. Her hard life enables her to be the tough, woman of steel that everyone around her perceives her to be without question. This facet also allows for her to continue on her journey to solve the mystery without the emotional baggage that women are constantly accused of carrying. Mallory defies all the stereotypes of women that are so commonly accepted by society. I congratulate Carol O'Connell on her description and complex development of the many characters and suspects. She set the scene for multiple storylines that all converge into the same solution. This had to be a difficult task managing for each person's individual lifestyle to eventually connect to the larger plot. The novel itself was an easy read, with very few dull scenes. This author definitely portrayed a fictional mystery with finesse and charisma.

Rating:
Summary: Painful Read
Review: I had trouble maintaining interest in this novel at all. Mallory's Oracle is the story of Kathleen Mallory's investigation of her adopted father's (Lewis Markowitz) murder. Markowitz' murder comes in the middle of a search for a serial killer that murders elderly women. Kathleen is a New York policewoman, whose specialty is computers. Mallory is a smart, tough woman who seems to be an emotional shell of a person. Mallory is the adoptive daughter of Lewis and Helen Markowitz. Lewis was a policeman that caught Kathleen, at the age of ten, living off the streets and stealing. Markowitz and his wife raise Mallory and try to take the street out of her. After her father's murder Mallory is aided in her search for a serial killer by Charles Butler, a former close friend of her father. The book is full of eccentric characters that add the only interesting moments in the book.
Mallory is not a character that I really liked. Throughout the book she was too hard, too smart, too pretty. She was just too much. I was unable to identify with the Mallory at all. She is not the kind of person I would have to my house for fear she might make off with the silverware. Kathleen has no morals. Her early street influence seems too powerful to overcome. Mallory is a thief that happens to work for the cops. The story also has several stories that are left hanging at the end of the book. Large parts of the story left me asking, "What the heck was that?" Overall, this is a book I would avoid at all costs. I painfully dragged through each and every page.

Rating:
Summary: Mallory a REAL person?
Review: Mallory is an above average human who is a police detective that stumbles onto a murder case and decides to help solve it. The character of Mallory is very underdeveloped and far too practical. Every event in this story seems to "magically" fall into place and just fit together like a painting that has color by number illustrations. The events leading up to the conclusion just do not seem real in the exact same way that Mallory is anything other than a character that could be transformed into a real life persona. The events of the story appear to happen far too unrealistically.
In addiction to my unwillingness to suspend my disbelief of the obvious forced intention of the novel, I have to also comment on the writer's style. The writer defies all of the established conditions that readers typically find in murder mysteries. O'Connell used far too many plot twists and turns that throw the reader completely off (and make the reader not want to finish the story)track of the "who dunnit plot." As a person who enjoys a good murder mystery, I am made to not care about who did it in the end because of the various plots changes.

Rating:
Summary: Not for High School Students.
Review: Mallory's Oracle is a pretty good mystery novel, however I would not recommend it to my High School students who would try to take Mallory as a role model. She is almost too perfect and inhuman. Mallory does not seem like the type of person to enjoy her life at all. She is also a computer wiz and I think it would discourage students to think they can get to the top by luck the way Mallory does. Everything seems to play into her hands and that is not the real world for most people, although it does seem to work for some. That doesn't stop Mallory's Oracle from being a good book because it is an intersting novel. Mallory just seems to have so much "good luck" that the reader knows what is going to happen at the end.

Rating:
Summary: Same Ole, Same Ole
Review: I am usually very interested in mystery novels because of the suspense that awaits you as you hurriedly turn the pages to solve the murder, kidnapping, etc., but I can honestly say that I was very disappointed in "Mallory's Oracle" for several reasons.

First, the author uses the same old tactic that can be seen in any number of mystery novels where the mystery is unraveled in one section of the last chapter by the villain to someone who has finally figured out who the villain is. How boring is that? Mystery novels are a lot more effective when the reader is able to solve the mystery for himself/herself throught the events that took place in the novel. O'Connell's cliche confession weakens the novel.

Second, there are too many burnt bridges in the story meaning that the author uses so many angles to throw the reader off the trail of the actual villain that a lot of events are left completely open-ended. There are way too many details that go unexplained and it adds to this novel being a poor read.

As you can see, I do have plenty of bad things to say about the novel, so many that I will end here, but I must admit that it was a page-turner. I credit this, though, to the facft that it was a mystery novel and I was anxious to find out who the villain was. Sorry to say, I was disappointed in the book's cliche ending. So, in closing, if you are looking for a good mystery, try James Patterson.

Rating:
Summary: A New View of Women Characters
Review: Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell is an adventurous novel full of suspense. O'Connell captures the reader's attention from the moment the first line is read. Mallory's character is different from that of your conventional woman character. Mallory is persistent, head-strong, and fierce. When she discovers her father's death, no one is surprised that she decides to take over his murder case, since the person who killed him is the same serial killer that he was in pursuit of . Mallory's personality is cold yet understandable. She has experienced a lot in life so her personality as well as her demeanor reflects it. In addition to all that has happened, she has to deal with the recent death of her father. In most novels, the female protagonist is usually a passive or rebellious individual. She is usually shunned by the other characters and she is in pursuit of happiness or self-gratification. Kathryn Mallory is nothing like the average. She knows what she wants and will not stop until she acheives her goal. She is a woman in a male field of work and she does her part well.

O'Connell also develops the other characters using adequate character or physical traits. I really enjoyed this novel. Because of the suspense and action, the novel was definitely a page-turner. Once you get into the plots and subplots, you as a reader feel obligated to finish the book to discover the killer. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys mystery novel or action movies.

Rating:
Summary: Anecdote of an Oracle
Review: The author, Carol O'Connell, brings about much intrigue coupled with a great deal of unexpected events happening in this excellent novel. This was the author's clever way of bringing about many scenes and interesting sub-characters. Subsequently, the story line theme gravitationally pulls the readership circuitously along a suspenseful and anticipatory journey. Overall, I also found this book as a great murder mystery thriller that will capture and hold the reader's full attention without hesitation. O'Connell, also imparts the notion of one having a relationship, such as the one that once existed between Dr. Edward Slope and Louis Markowitz. Slope ruminates about the fact that he and Markowitz would never get a chance to play poker again, feeling remorse and grief. This situation is a suggestion of the obvious friendship that had once occurred between Slope and Markowitz. However, this scenario is quite the contrary to the type of relationship that O'Connell depicted between Kathleen Mallory and the corpse of her father Markowitz. Mallory showed no signs of outward emotion and appeared to be all business. It is possible that Mallory was unable to express or show any form of sympathy or altruism for anyone due to her childhood experience. As noted by Detective Sergeant Riker, of Special Crimes Section, Mallory at age ten or eleven had been a street kid and was taken in by Louis and Helen Markowitz.
Finally, I was able to determine that "Mallory's Oracle," story is fascinating, enticing, and satisfying. Because of the approach that O'Connell used to animate her characters, I qualify "Mallory's Oracle," account as an astonishing novel.

Rating:
Summary: Mallory¿s Oracle
Review: Kathleen Mallory is characterized as a strong, stoic cop in the book Mallory's Oracle. In it she is hell-bound on solving the murder of her adoptive father and fellow cop, Louis Markowitz. The novel follows her throughout the case as Mallory tries to put all the pieces together not only to solve the case of her father's murder, but to also stop the "Invisible Man" murders of Gramercy Park.
Mallory is an interesting character and has a unique makeup. She is a "damaged" child in that Louis found her on the streets one night-the night of his wife's birthday-he felt compelled to bring her home instead of doing paperwork at Juvenile Hall. His wife, Helen, fell in love with her and would not give the child up. Mallory was endlessly devoted to Helen and strove to do anything to please her. The main problem that the couple had in raising Mallory is that she had a warped sense of right and wrong. With a kind of childlike innocence, Mallory stole gifts for the Markowitz family that she believed would be helpful. One Christmas she hacked into the savings and loans and had twenty thousand dollars wired to their checking account. Mallory could not understand why this gift made Helen cry. Helen's tears then became the marker for right and wrong-Mallory avoided anything that would knowingly make Helen cry.
Louis introduced Mallory into the electronic world when he enrolled her in a computer course. Later, when he started bringing her into the station with him, she began to take an interest in police work, which led her to her career as an agent in the Special Crimes sector. The death of her father caused Mallory to come out from behind the safety of her computer screens. She then focused her many on piecing together this murder mystery.
As a believable character, Mallory has potential but there are many aspects of her personality that were stressed far too much. To be a female in a male dominated occupation, she had to be strong; she had to be more than capable and competent to be successful. Mallory was all this and more. She was drawn to be extremely harsh and uncaring, almost unimaginably so. Mallory did not fall victim to "normal" emotions such as tears at her father's death. Nor did she feel remorseful for intentionally using people to gain information. Mallory used her intellect, her beauty, and any other weapon within her grasp to suit her needs. In adulthood, Mallory retained her that same "Robinhood" view of right and wrong. This is Mallory's weakest flaw but also ended up being her greatest asset in that it helped her see the duplicity of others.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Thought
Review: Carol O'Connell's Mallory's Oracle is a genre that I would not ordinarily read. I found it to be interesting in plot, but I could have done without the police lingo. I understand that the lingo makes the story more believable, but for someone who knows nothing about the language police use it can be challenging. I felt like I needed a dictionary to understand some of the words in the book. It just seems like the book could have been done differently and still get the same point across. I admire O'Connell's strong female character Mallory and her stubborn as a bull attitude, but there were spots in the storyline that seemed too far-fetched. Mallory is presented as caring about her dead foster mother and her murdered foster father, yet after when she sees him lying in a pool of blood she sheds no tears, she does not even seem moved once the funeral is over and she is by herself. It seems that while O'Connell was creating a strong heroine she neglected to give her the human characteristic of grief. All and all it was a good read, not nearly as boring as I had expected it to be. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the story overall and did not expect things to happen the way they did. If you like mystery and suspense or police drama, this is the book for you; but even if you do not like these types of books, you may still like Mallory's Oracle.

Rating:
Summary: A Few Bumps Along the Way
Review: Mallory's oracle is a whirlwind adventure from beginning to end with only a few minor snags in between. Carol O'Connell takes women to a level men fear with her main character, but Kathleen Mallory is not the only individual with a twisted personality. O'Connell captivates the reader by taking them into the mind of each character, not just the mind of the protagonist. The reader knows what the other characters in the novel feel and think, without giving a hint to their next act. The twists and turns in the story do not give way to the ending. However, there are a few snags along the way. The characters tend to digress which can make the reading either engaging or tiresome. For me, I was bored with the past recollections. I think that the majority of the digressions are tedious, although they do give the reader a better understanding of the motives of the characters. Another hindrance in the story, is the way O'Connell jumps from character to character, leading to several plots within a plot. If the reader does not pay attention, the casual story line can become confusing, but don't let that discourage you! Overall, the book is quite intriguing, particularly Mallory. She is a woman in an unconventional field who exudes power and strength with an intensity that intimidates men. Mallory is unapproachable and likes it that way. At times, she even appears artificial because she is too unrealistic. In the next few books, Mallory's behavior appears even more erratic and seemingly wild, but she gets her man or woman in the end.