Review by Booklist Review
First-time author O'Connell is off to a flying start. Putnam has paid a whopping $800,000 for American rights to this novel and another one. (In a reversal of the normal pattern, New Yorker O'Connell sold her novel to a British publisher before selling it here.) She's getting a megabucks advance, along with plenty of prepub publicity, and the book will benefit from a 50,000 first printing, a national ad campaign, and selection as a featured title of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Is the hype justified? The answer is a resounding yes. O'Connell's writing is stunning in its luminosity, originality, simplicity, and power. Her plot is ingenious, inventive, and enigmatic, and her characters sparkle with originality and charm. Heroine Kathleen Mallory was a wild street urchin-orphan who was adopted by cop Louis Markowitz and his wife, Helen. Tamed by their love, Mallory grows up to become a cop like her adopted father. But not for her the everyday cop world of boring surveillance, gritty street crime, and dead stiffs. Her bastion is megabytes and motherboards, and with her dazzling talent for computers, there's not a network, mailbox, or bulletin board she can't crack. But when Louis is murdered during the investigation of a serial killer, Mallory leaves the safety of her electronic world to single-mindedly seek out and systematically destroy the killer. There may not be enough superlatives to describe O'Connell's book, but there's no doubt it belongs on the shelves of every library. One of the top reads of the year. ~--Emily Melton
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Serial killing, insider trading, the occult and the vices of wealthy Manhattan widows are the themes that collide in this heavy-handed first novel starring an unusual policewoman. Kathleen Mallory was an 11-year-old thief living on the streets of New York City when Detective Louis Markowitz rescued her and raised her in his home. The novel opens a decade later when Markowitz, a widower, is found dead beside the third in a series of Gramercy Park dowagers slashed and murdered in broad daylight. Mallory, whose early criminal instincts and keen intelligence have been loosely channeled into computer science, is forced to take a leave from the department and decides to seek vengeance on her own. O'Connell peoples her tale with colorful characters, both Mallory's allies and suspects, but there is little nuance to any of them. Particularly lacking in dimension is the heroine herself, who proceeds through the plot with a robot-like, if intense, predictability; the voices of Markowitz's friends repeatedly refer to Mallory's brilliance and appeal, but little in her actions suggests notable insight or charm. The broadly stroked narrative of this much-publicized debut has commercial potential, but the absence of subtlety or consistency suggests a short shelf life. 50,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The investigation of a series of murders of wealthy, elderly women from the Gramercy Park area intensifies when Louis Markowitz, the head of the NYPD Special Crimes Section, is found dead with the third victim. Kathleen Mallory, his adopted daughter and a policewoman assigned to office duty, is beautiful, intelligent, fiercely independent, and obsessed with finding the killer. Mallory's computer skills supplement the street-survival savvy she learned before her adoption and the ``wall'' of clues and case details left by Markowitz. All of this leads her to seances, magic acts, dysfunctional families, insider trading, and, eventually, the knowledge her father had at his death. Mallory is the major, but not the only, complex and successfully realized character to emerge in this skillfull debut, which has the international publishing world's attention. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/ 94; BOMC and Quality Paperback Book Club selections.]-V. Louise Saylor, Eastern Washington Univ. Lib., Cheney (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This is a break-the-mold detective story, an incredible debut for O'Connell and a blessing to female detective fans everywhere. Sgt. Kathleen Mallory, a computer hacker for the NYPD, started life as a wild child on New York City's streets. She was adopted by police detective Louis Markowitz and his wife, Helen, but the happy years with them have merely laid a civilized veneer over what is still a semi-savage product of the urban jungle. At the book's opening, Mallory is an orphan again: Helen Markowitz died years before and Detective Markowitz has just been felled by a serial killer. Mallory buries him and then, while on compassionate leave, methodically tracks the killer. One of this book's key pleasures is the high level of intelligence and unpredictability exhibited by all the main characters, whether it's Mallory, the killer, the chief of police, the old ladies who get their kicks from séances and playing the stock market, or Charles Butler, Mallory's unwitting new detective partner, father figure, and potential love interest. Mallory isn't the only one struggling to adjust to civilized society: There's a millionaire with an IQ of 187 who can't figure out how to get food out of cans; a young girl, who has just inherited a fortune, has to panhandle for subway fare. The heart of the book is made up of magical illusions, theatrical performances that pass for reality, emotional and media-related distortions. Nothing in this world of wealthy dowagers on Gramercy Park is what it seems. It is up to Mallory, Butler, and even Detective Markowitz's ghostly presence to sift through the illusions and the stock reports until the real killer is identified and caught. A publishers' feeding frenzy netted O'Connell $800,000 for this book and the sequel--which means, fortunately, that it won't be long before we hear from Mallory again. (First printing of 50,000; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection; Quality Paperback Book Club selection)
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