Rating: 
Summary: A compelling audio selection
Review: As an avid reader of audiobooks, I am always on the lookout for new titles that can hold my attention while I am doing other things. This is certainly one of them! This unabridged reading was fantastic and stimulating. The narrator did a good job of increasing the level of suspense throughout. For all you Mallory fans- consider this one.
Rating:
Summary: Savored every page of this book
Review: Carol O'Connell's writing is wonderful, with vivid descriptions and delicious sentences and metaphors. Despite that, I found the plot (plots?) choppy, and the book overall schizophrenic. The book shifts focus too many times, from Riker and Johanna, to Mallory, to psychological descriptions on various characters' craziness. It began with a creepy-seeming emphasis on Johanna's physical characteristics, but the creepy tone was dropped almost immediately and her deformity was not important, so I'm not at all sure why it was even in there. The end - or the last half or third - was pretty drawn out and really bounced around a lot. It'd be interesting to try to outline this book, using color-coding to note the focus and tone - I think that would show how disjointed it is. It almost seems like parts were written by different authors, or like O'Connell was experiencing very different moods as she wrote it, and never went back to try to reconcile the different sections. Read it anyway, because I think Riker's development in this book may be important to the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but choppy
Review: Carol O'Connell's writing is wonderful, with vivid descriptions and delicious sentences and metaphors. Despite that, I found the plot (plots?) choppy, and the book overall schizophrenic. The book shifts focus too many times, from Riker and Johanna, to Mallory, to psychological descriptions on various characters' craziness. It began with a creepy-seeming emphasis on Johanna's physical characteristics, but the creepy tone was dropped almost immediately and her deformity was not important, so I'm not at all sure why it was even in there. The end - or the last half or third - was pretty drawn out and really bounced around a lot. It'd be interesting to try to outline this book, using color-coding to note the focus and tone - I think that would show how disjointed it is. It almost seems like parts were written by different authors, or like O'Connell was experiencing very different moods as she wrote it, and never went back to try to reconcile the different sections. Read it anyway, because I think Riker's development in this book may be important to the next book.
Rating:
Summary: Dead Right!
Review: I just "discovered" Carol O'Connell and right off the mark she is on my top 10 list of mystrey writers. If you love Elizabeth George, P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Ray Bradbury - great stories with 3-D characters in complete worlds with believable dialog and understandable motivation - then do yourself a favor and hook yourself up with Dead Famous. I can't wait to see this adapted for TV (as long as Will Smith has NOTHING to do with the project!) Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: O'Connor does it again!
Review: I never know what to expect from O'Connor's mysteries, except for one fact. They are not like anything I've ever read before. I think part of the reason I love her work, is because I studied neuroscience for six years, specifically on the brain. Her mysteries are psychological mysteries, ones that deal with people on both the good and bad sides, whose flaws are almost too obvious. Yet, each person within her books has psychological short-comings...even the so-called normal ones (and those are few). This book center around Riker, Mallory's sidekick and mentor, who is undergoing massive trauma due to a near-death experience. He refuses to recognize his needs (sounds like Mallory), so Mallory tries a little shock treatment on him...which backfires on her. O'Connor characters are the best things about her books. They are rich and they are deep, her characters have flaws, but most of them (not the criminals) have tangible good points about them. In this book, Riker meets a woman who helps to restore his damage psyche who is physically imperfect, and I think O'Connor dealt with this problem of being visually imperfect in a society that demands perfection with just the right touch. The plot is very convoluted to say the least. O'Connor tends to have several intertwining plots going on a once, and I guess some people will find it very difficult to keep these plots separate in their minds. Me, I have come to expect this from O'Connor, and I enjoy trying to make sense of all of the twists. As usual, I cannot wait until the next Mallory book! Karen Sadler
Rating:
Summary: Savored every page of this book
Review: I was thrilled to find a new Kathy Mallory novel in the bookstore late last year. I immediately grabbed it and gave it to my husband. "This is a Christmas present for me!" And so it was. Couldn't put this one down at all -- I love the intricacies and characters in all of the Kathy Mallory novels. This one, in particular, kept me guessing until the end, and actually made me cry. Excellent, excellent book. When is the next one coming out? Can't wait!
Rating:
Summary: Savored every page of this book
Review: I was thrilled to find a new Kathy Mallory novel in the bookstore late last year. I immediately grabbed it and gave it to my husband. "This is a Christmas present for me!" And so it was. Couldn't put this one down at all -- I love the intricacies and characters in all of the Kathy Mallory novels. This one, in particular, kept me guessing until the end, and actually made me cry. Excellent, excellent book. When is the next one coming out? Can't wait!
Rating:
Summary: Calling all Riker fans
Review: If you wondered about riker and wanted to know the deal this is the book for you.It is the usual can't put it down until I am done Though this one will make you cry but in the end you welcome Riker into the family even more
Rating:
Summary: great police procedural
Review: It has been many months since New York homicide detective P. Riker was shot in the chest four times by a psychopath who was found not guilty of homicide in a trial in which Riker was the key witness. Although he has healed physically, the psychological trauma prevents him from going back to work. He currently runs his brother's business Ned's Crime Scene Cleaners where he meets the Hunchback Joanna Apollo. Joanna is a psychiatrist who was on the jury that found shock jock radio host Ian Zachary not guilty in a Chicago homicide case. Now a serial killer known as the Reaper is murdering the Zachary jury members. Zachary, who relocated to New York, eggs on his listeners to find out where the remaining jurors live. Joanna comes to New York to stop the killings but she doesn't count on Riker's growing feelings for her or the complicated plan, Kathy Mallory, Riker's partner, puts in motion to bring him past the crisis point. Mallory, Riker and Apollo become pawns in a game they may not survive. Kathy Mallory is one of crime fiction's most unusual heroine's a sociopath who work in the NYPD and is able to stay within the law (usually) to solve a case. There are several sub-plots that tie into the main story line in a complex but realistic fashion. The heroine meets her match in Joanna, a woman and a doctor who not only understands her but also is able to stay one step ahead of her. A Carol O'Connell police procedural is always great and DEAD FAMOUS provides proof of that axiom. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Unsatisfying
Review: Kathleen Mallory is a splendid, complex character any writer would love to develop stories around. I would _love_ to read more about her. Think of the possibilities! Kathy with a girl friend her own age, with a boyfriend, confounded by things she doesn't understand, progressing in her journey to humanity. This book has the possibilities, the hint of such a story: Kathleen the sociopath vs another sociopath. Unfortunately, we get only glimpses of what might have been. In fact, we get little more than glimpses of Kathleen. This is the kind of story an editor loves, the kind of writing literature professors use as examples of fine prose. O'Connell's writing is top notch, as always, written with beautiful form. Unfortunately, it's like she's playing to those who admire the way you tell a story, rather than the story. So she neglects the substance for the style. The story is complex, as is usual for the Mallory series, but spends far more time on secondary characters, and FAR too much time on their various neuroses and phsychological defects. This entire book is about psychological problems. It seems, at times, that we go from exploring one person's traumas to another's insanity, and spend a lot of time with one character or other talking about or thinking about this. The actual mystery, the supposed major plot line, is secondary. And not all that important, anyway. This book is about psychological trauma and insanity, not murder. It starts out with Ryker traumatized and broken, and Mallory unhappy, and pretty much ends up that way. Along the journey a mystery clears itself up with little help from Mallory or Ryker and not very much suspense of tension - and certainly very little action. The ending is telegraphed, drawn out, anti-climactic, and wholly unsatisfying. I read O'Connell's previous Mallory novels cover to cover, loving the emotional elements of a fine and beautiful character. This one I put down for days at a time, bored. If you're a literature student and want to admire fine writing, get this book. If you want entertainment, however, look elsewhere. O'Connell's intent here appears to be on something other than satisfying her readers.
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