Rating: 
Summary: Mallory's world is *always* fascinating- a winner!
Review: *~*~*~*~*
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Mallory (don't call her "Kathy" if you want to live), is a unique detective hero. She's an NYPD "Special Crimes" Detective, who makes her own rules, takes no hostages, and can make you believe she'd kill for her own sense of justice.~ * ~ Mallory was taken in at age 10 ?? by an NYPD cop, who found her as a tough street kid, apparently a "throwaway". In earlier novels she is eerily without the type of "consicence" we recognize though we can sympathize with her ruthless pursuit of justice, especially in avenging her foster father's death. In the novel, "Stone Angel", we learned a little about how she came to live on the New York streets. In this story we learn more about her life on the streets, when a prostitute is found hanged at an arson scene. Riker, Mallory
s partner, a friend of Mallory's father, recognizes the victim as a woman who once gave sporadic shelter and comfort to Mallory as a child. Mallory has a score to settle with the victim, but she is no less driven to find the killer, terrorizing firefighters and rookie detectives,and walking right over supervising officers's command. This entry was wonderful for the haunting, yet strangely compelling back story of that illuminates the child Kathy's quest for a sense "home" and "comfort" with the prostitutes, drug dealers, and theives on the streets. Supporting cast Detective Riker, and genius consultant Charles Butler are written very well, and their dedication to a strange blend of love, healthy fear, and protectiveness of Mallory is just wonderful. I recommend "Stone Angel" as a companion to the story, together, they offer a wonderful portrait of our herione.
Rating: 
Summary: I'd Pay My Own Money...
Review: ...and bring my own cold drink and popcorn to see a catfight between Mallory and Eve Dallas. There is a fascinating synchronicity between Carol O'Connell's Kathleen Mallory and "J.D.Robb"'s Eve Dallas. Both are tough cops. Both are beautiful women. And both are the toughest so-and-so in their respective New York police forces. Both have close, personal relationships with computers. ;-) And both were feral children, their lives, psyches and emotions twisted and knotted by horrific acts of violence. Mallory and her partner, Riker, respond to a call in another area, helping out a squad that's short on manpower due to a recent mini-epidemic of a nasty flu. Arriving, they find a horribly-bungled crime scene, and a hanged woman, her hair cut off and used to gag her. And they know her. To Riker, she had been one of his best informants when she was a junkie prostitute. To Mallory, she was something else -- something more personal and, like so much of Mallory's past, something twisted up with pain, love, hate and emotion. Both Riker and Mallory want to take this case, for their own reasons -- but their lieutenant is going to buck it back to the precinct that originally caught it... until Mallory links it to another killing, done in the same manner, twenty years before, and still unsolved. Before the case is closed, more people will die, Mallory's friends (and the reader) will learn more of her past, how she survived on the streets of New York, on her own at age eight... how Detective Lou Markowitz and his wife Helen took in the feral child and, if not civilised her, at least tamed her somewhat. If you've never read any of Mallory's earlier adventures, be warned -- parts of this book are going to take you where the nasty things wriggle, just outside of the light. There are a lot of unpleasant people in this world, and cops meet most of them sooner or later. But Mallory is such a fascinating character -- and her relationships with the cops she works with and the people around her are so interesting -- that the pages seem to turn themselves, and, by the time you reach the end, emotionally, the feeling is as if you'd ridden a particularly good roller coaster. If you haven't met Mallory before this, do yourself a favour -- pick up her adventures, get to know her, enter her world, see it through her eyes. It may not be pretty, but it's absolutely enthralling.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtakingly spellbinding.
Review: A book that was hard to put down. This tightly written novel takes the reader deep into the psychological history of the protagonist, police detective Kathy Mallory. The tension is gripping, as the reader explores the twisted world of the street prostitute, the serial killer, and the tensions that exist within the relationships of the police investigators. Truly, although one suspects the outcome will be favourable for Mallory, the whodunit and whyhedunit are left to the last few pages. Highly recommended, as are the other books in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: O'Connell snatched by aliens?
Review: Either the author is now being impersonated by an alien pretender with weak plotting skills or her editor has been on a years-long vacation to Tierra del Fuego. Either way, this latest effort was just too poorly written for me to get much beyond page 137 -- and it was by force for most of those as I waited for the characters, the plot, SOMETHING to make it worth reading.
It was a big disappointment, since I loved the early Mallory books, but not a big surprise.
To help put this in context, I've probably churned through many hundreds of mysteries and I like the genre so much that I've never left one unread until now. Also, I've done some professional writing and coaching of same (not mysteries, though). That means I expect to be excited by the story and I've got an over-developed nose for clunky exposition and awkward passages that emerge stillborn on the page.
To me, hints of trouble first appeared a few books ago; maybe in Stone Angel or Judas Child, a couple of scenes just didn't work very well, as if they were rough first drafts that hadn't been edited. Missing were the flow and believability needed to carry the reader along, and some writing was just so confusing that it stalled the plot. But since I basically liked the characters, I hung in there, hoping things would get better or new editors would be hired.
The one before Crime School (Shell Game, I think), had a bit more of this distracted writing, unfortunately, so I have no one but myself to blame for wasting...or so on this dud. Sadly, I think Mallory and her crew have become so predictable and uninteresting and O'Connell's plotting skills have gone so deeply into another dimension that I won't come back for more next time. A pity.
For those who still love Mallory & Co., including the latest book, well, that's great. Chacon a son gout (This reads better with the accent marks!). Personally, I'll stick with my own selected crew of never-disappoint, only-get-better authors, like Michael Connelly, John Sandford, Dennis Lehane and Ridley Pearson (the Lou Boldt series).
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I am hooked on Carol O'Connell and the Mallory series. I was disappointed with this one, however. I thought it went too overboard with all the gore and could have used more of the "sentimental" character development of her previous novels. The grisly descriptions became repetitive and dull, as well as nauseating. I feel that it was being used to fill and push the edge -- the shock factor. I also thought some things were stretched to the implausible...the idea of this book group and some of Charles' deductive abilities were not believable. I knew it would be hard to continue with Mallory after the last novel, it's tricky to keep her the primary mystery. But I'm hoping O'Connell can do it.
Rating:
Summary: Look a little closer...
Review: I have heard that all children are sociopaths, with the worrisome question being why do some stay sociopaths into adulthood? O'Connell's series featuring Sgt. Kathleen Mallory combines excellent mystery writing with fascinating portrayals of Mallory, who believes herself to be a sociopath, and the few people she has allowed close to her. In Crime School we discover even more of Mallory's childhood, including life-threatening episodes and betrayal by someone dear to her. It's no wonder that she has cut herself off from the rest of humanity and attempted to eliminate all softness in herself. For those who are looking for some hope... all is not lost. Pay attention to which characters she allows to touch her.
Rating:
Summary: A little psychology with your mystery, hmmm...?
Review: I love O'Connell's ability to characterize! Some of the other reviewers seem a bit frustrated with this book. I too, wait for Mallory to 'let someone in', which she seems so unable to do. Of course, given her childhood background...I'd probably react to human kindness the way she does. Mallory's been an enigma from the first book. She's solving crimes, but sometimes it's a debate whether the crime is more interesting, or Mallory is?
A child forced to become an adult before she was ready, and who grows up in a precinct station in New York is hardly likely to be normal... A serial murderer is loose on the blonde wanta-be-actresses of New York. This case is tied to a cold case from 20 years ago...and the serial murderer is doing a lot to try to get the attention of the cops. Mallory's friends and her coworker, Riker, are concerned, because as more information comes out concerning the 20-year old case...the suspect seems to have a haunted background and childhood suspiciously like Mallory's and they can't quit drawing parallels to her life. Why did her mind bend towards dealing with a her hard life in a certain way that put her within accepted societal mores, while this serial murderer is definitely asocial? I really appreciate getting some new information concerning Mallory. She can keep being mysterious and aloof, but we, the readers, want to know more about what makes Mallory tick. Only big problem I had with the book, is tying in the actress angle with the first murder...maybe I missed something. Oh...and O'Connell introduces a new younger cop for Mallory to torture! Mallory's biggest parallel with the serial murderer is her inability to connect with those who care about her, including Charles, her very nonjudgemental friend who thinks he is too ugly for her...yet she doesn't even 'see' herself as beautiful. Wonder if this little dilemma will ever be resolved.
This reader hopes so...yet worries that it will be unsatisfying if Mallory ever normalizes her relationships... Karen Sadler
Rating:
Summary: Memorable
Review: I love the Kathy Mallory series, but this one tops the chart. Although I read it over a year ago, I can still recall every plot element. What's more, thinking about the last few pages of the book still makes me choke up. They don't get better than that.
Rating:
Summary: It's time for there to be some movement now.
Review: I really enjoyed reading Crime School, but this is the last Mallory novel I think I'm going to be able to read without her showing some signs of personal growth. I understand O'Connell's desire not to compromise this winning character, but she can't just remain a charming sociopath who happens to be on the right side of the law. For the last few books we've seen more and more of Mallory, exploring her limited nature in various ways. She's by turns magical and frightening and the things that made her that way are gradually being exposed. In Stone Angel we had a sense of her past, and I'm glad that she didn't melt into a big softie in Shell Game. I don't want her to turn into a character from a cozy, but I either want her to go darker and show she can't let somebody in or I want her to start to come to terms with herself. O'Connell has a significant challenge now. We're the real detectives where these books are concerned and it's going to be a delicate game from here on in to decide how much to reveal.
Rating: 
Summary: Vague characters in a predictable police drama
Review: I wonder if I'm not a masochist. I hated this ... from the first book and while other readers gave up on her after a couple of books, I kept plodding away. As despicable as I found the main character, the writing had a powerful spell over me as I found myself involved in Mallory's perverted and quirky world. STONE ANGEL was a turning point, and this book continues the revelations started in the earlier book. Part of what makes me continue reading the series is the hope that there is some spark of humanity in the woman, and there are indeed times that it looks like there is one there, but then there's the feeling that the character has coldly manipulated those around her to believe there's something that isn't there. If you are to tackle this series, you should start from the beginning, MALLORY'S ORACLE, and be prepared for a long arduous journey into the character's psyche. There is a feeling of development in this book, but there's also frustration because the development is slow in coming. And yet I feel now that there is something coming up in the series that will reward me for continuing my relationship with Mallory.
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