Stone Angel

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Summary: The stone angel was porly written
Review: This was a poor attempt at any kind of writting. I was upset that they used the same title as the great margaret lawarance. it made me quite upset. the book was overly poor and i was quite disappointed.

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Summary: greatest book i've read this year... or last year.
Review: this is a wonderfully developed novel with great characters and subtle clues, a book to savor. I read it the day i received it, couldn't put it down, and when i was finished i re-read it slowly, thoughtfully, picking up on some small things i'd missed the first time in my frantic haste to devour it. i then went back and re-read o'connell's first three novels in much the same way. masterpieces, all!

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Summary: The best one yet!
Review: I couldn't wait for this book to hit the market. A great read. It takes up where KILLING CRITICS left off. Mallory has left NY to return to La and find her mother's killers. Carol O'Connell has developed this character from the beginning to become the most striking and arresting one in all of fictiondom. Charles Butler, the sheriff, the old lady who owns the dilapidated house, the idiot savant and the others are believable and necessary figures in Mallory's universe. The storyline moves , the plot is tight and the denouement is the only one that is possible. I love Mallory . Miss O'Connell, bring on the next chapter of this amazing creature

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Summary: If you have enjoyed her previous books, read this one!
Review: This was a great book. I enjoyed it more then "Killing Critics", O'Connell's previous book. In "Stone Angel", we learn about Mallory's life before she came to New York. Charles is back as is Riker. O'Connell also introduces new characters that are just as fascinating as Mallory. The ending has some unexpected twists that leave you shaking your head in astonishment as you did not expect it! I highly recommend it

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Summary: Mystery Magic. Best mystery novel of 1997!
Review: Fifty pages from the closing of STONE ANGEL I did not want the book to end. I did not want to leave Mallory or Charles or Riker or Tom or Augusta and other characters. Thirty pages from the end Carol O'Connell had me squirming in my seat with tension and anxiety. At the end I was drained and need a rest from these people...unfortunately I will get that rest while I wait for Mallory and troup to return. This is Carol O'Connell's four mystery-novel and her fourth Mallory character study. What a startling person Mallory is. As a child of ten she was arrested in NYC. The arresting officer and his wife take her into their home and raise her rather than let he be taken by the system. What a break for all of us. Mallory grows into a beautiful and extremely intelligent detective and gives us, through the talent of Carol O'Connell, some tremendous history. In the book store where I work part time, I have sold some seven hundered plus copies of MALLORY'S ORACLE (O'Connell's first). I've only had a handful say they did not enjoy the book. They are no longer allowed in the store. Each succeeding book (THE MAN WHO CAST TWO SHADOWS, KILLING CRITICS, and now STONE ANGEL), has been better and better written than the preceding one. Halfway through STONE ANGEL I wondered how I could possible induce my customers to purchase all four at once. After careful consideration I do believe I can just work with the first and STONE ANGEL. The reader will return for the middle two. STONE ANGEL is one of two of the best novels I have read so far this year and there have been some very good book printed. However, STONE ANGEL top the list because it has all those wondrous things a book can have and be to the reader. Great characters that you can love for themselves and for the interplay with each other. Evil characters that you can trul despise. Wounded characters that you can anguish over. STONE ANGEL is a mystery that is presented shrouded in magic and love. This is a book you will not put down except to rest your heart and brain and replenish your soul. There is a scene near the closing that places Augusta and Charles bareback atop a horse racing away from danger and to aid Mallory. I was with them atop that horse and it was some ride. Saddle up folks!

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Summary: The best of the Mallory series.
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I read it, cover to cover, in one night. I loved the way the characters in the story all changed and grew a little, including Mallory herself. It was great to finally see a more human side to her. The parts with Charles were precious. The character Lilith was fantastically written, also. I really hope there's another Mallory book in the works. I can't bear to wait for the next one. This is one of the few books I have bought in hardcover in a long time. It was well worth the price

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Summary: Another wonderful song in the key of Mallory.
Review: Once again Carol O'Connell has given us a glimpse of the world of Kathy Mallory, only this time it is through the eyes of those who love her. Since Mallory refuses to define herself, it is up to her colleagues, friends, former childmates and pets to reveal to us what motivates her and why she is worth their love and protection. This is Carol O'Connells best book yet. I bought it yesterday and read it last night in one sitting alternately weeping and laughing at the travails of those who are committed to Mallory whether she likes it or not. It would be easy for a character like Mallory to be the focus of every book because it could take books and years to find out the simplest things about her. Instead, Carol O'Connell has given us a group of individuals who tell us their stories while also telling us Mallory's. This book brought me great joy.

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Summary: The Best of the Kathy Mallory series
Review: Kathy Mallory is back in the most riveting, complex novel of the series. Sociopathic New York Detective Mallory takes on the bayous of Lousiana as she returns to her hometown to set some things straight. The mystery is not as important as the story and O'Connell introduces several new, very interesting characters - specifically Sheriff Tom Jessop and Augusta Trebec. The interactions and the actions are fascinating and the plot twists and turns enough to mesmerize. Mallory is not the whole story in this novel, which is a turn for the better. In addition, we finally see a little bit of human reaction and emotion. Mallory may be made of stone, but the surface chips slightly here. This is a keep-you-up-at-night book; O'Connell keeps getting better and better. You must read this one but be forewarned, it makes more sense if you've read the other three Mallory novels first. Let's all hope that O'Connell continues to humanize Mallory more and more (but not too much, she's at her most interesting when she's in her total sociopath mode) and can find a way to bring Tom Jessop into future books - the surface stereotype small town southern sheriff with much more than meets the eye! Mallory is the most interesting hero(ine) introduced in many years and O'Connell characterizes her perfectly. Steve Isenhowe

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Summary: This author writes a compelling & insightful detective novel
Review: Kathy Mallory leaves New York City, minus her weapon and her police shield, to return to her hometown to perform a little vigilante justice when her repressed memories of the stoning death of her mother in Louisiana resurfaces in her conscious mind. Within hours of her return home, all hell breaks loose. The town's idiot savant has had his hands broken and a deputy suffers a stroke. A man is murdered; the victim is a man who played a role in Mallory's mother's death. Mallory is arrested and placed in jail. She plays a psychological game of wits with the town sheriff, who wants s justice for what happened to Mallory's mother, not the cold-blooded revenge Kathy has in mind. ...... After looking for months for his business partner and unrequited love, Charles finally catches up with Kathy, but before he can help her, she breaks out of jail. The jailbreak leaves the sheriff looking foolish as he fears what havoc Mallory will reap in her quest to find a way to break the conspiracy of silence that envelops the town. Little does he know that she has planned her sadistic little scheme down to the last intricate detail. Nor does he realize that before she is through she and the accomplices she enlists in her diabolical plot will come very close to dispensing justice outside the parameters of the law. ....... STONE ANGEL is an insightful glimpse into the female protagonist's past; a way of learning the forces that turned her into the anti-heroine she has become. Anyone who has not read the earlier books in this series will not fully appreciate how brilliantly the author has developed a sense of caring and liking for a character who is a sociopath. Carol O'Connell is master of characterization and a storyteller par excellence. ......Harriet Klausner

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Summary: A bit of a disappointment.......
Review: After reading the previous three books in this series, I'm afraid this story was a bit of a disappointment but maybe that's because I hold O'Connell to too high a standard and certainly any Mallory book is well worth reading. However, I found some of the town's characters to be a little far fetched not to mention stereotypical and the mystery surrounding Mallory's youthful years which ended on the streets of NYC had a few holes (so much was made of Mallory only having this telephone number and we never found out who it belonged to although we know it was a female and can assume it was Augusta and why didn't her mother just tell her to run to either of their closest neighbors since surely Augusta or the scupltor would have helped?, etc.). The resolution to this story was not as crisp as all the others and I felt that so much more could have been done with the revelation of Mallory's past; but don't get me wrong, the murder mystery of both past and present was well crafted.