American Quartet (Fiona Fitzgerald Mysteries) [Paperback]

Warren Adler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Fiona Fitzgerald Mysteries | Publication Date: July 19, 2004

In this first book of the Fiona series, Fiona FitzGerald, a senator's daughter turned Washington, D.C., homicide detective, pursues a serial killer in the nation's capitol with a bizarre MO. In her search to solve the crimes, she uncovers the disturbing sexual and homicidal obsessions of a socially prominent but failed Washington politician.

American Quartet was on The New York Times list of top ten crime novels of the year. Try the other Fiona mysteries: American Sextet, Senator Love, Immaculate Deception, and The Ties That Bind.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Fiona FitzGerald, daughter of Senator FitzGerald and a Sergeant in the Homicide Division of the Metropolitan Washington Police Department, finds herself confronted with three gruesome slayings. Gradually, she senses a disturbing linkage. Fiona pursues her quarry through the political and diplomatic jungle, then back in time to a trio of presidential murders, convinced that a brilliant – and evil – intelligence is moving to make a trio of murders into a quartet.

Set among the rich and mighty of the nation's capital, American Quartet ingeniously links past and present in a novel of transcendent suspense and authenticity. Critically acclaimed for its inventive and intriguing plot, American Quartet, the first novel of the Fiona series, was selected by the New York Times as one of the ten best crime novels of the year. Five successive Fiona Fitzgerald mysteries have followed: American Sextet, Senator Love, Immaculate Deception, The Witch of Watergate, and The Ties That Bind.

From the Back Cover

In this first book of the Fiona FitzGerald series, four seemingly unconnected D.C. murders stimulate Fiona's sense of history as she delves into our country's dark past. In her search to solve the crimes, she uncovers the disturbing sexual and homicidal obsessions of a socially prominent but failed Washington politician.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: Stonehouse Press (July 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931304572
• ISBN-13: 978-1931304573
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Warren Adler is a world-renowned novelist, short story writer and playwright. His 32 novels and story collections have been translated into more than 25 languages and two of his novels, The War of the Roses and Random Hearts, have been made into enormously popular movies, shown continually throughout the world.

Three short stories from his acclaimed collection, The Sunset Gang, have been adapted as a trilogy and shown repeatedly on the Public Television network.

Mr. Adler's blogs appear regularly in the Huffington Post and other sites throughout the world and his short stories appear in numerous anthologies.

Mr. Adler is a pioneer in electronic publishing. He was one of the first authors to acquire his complete backlist and to convert his entire library to digital publishing formats.

A product of the New York public school system, Mr. Adler graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School and New York University, where he majored in English literature. In 2009, he was honored by being chosen "Alumni of the Year" at NYU's School of Arts and Science. He has taught novel writing at honors seminars at NYU.

After graduating from New York University with a degree in English literature, Mr. Adler worked for the New York Daily News before becoming Editor of the Queens Post, a prize winning weekly newspaper on Long Island. His column, "Pepper on the Side," became a staple of a number of newspapers in the country.

During the Korean War, after basic training, he was recruited by Armed Forces Press Service to serve in the Pentagon as the only Washington Correspondent for the service. His Washington by-line went all over the world and was published in every publication put out by the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one that got me hooked., September 25, 2001

By 

Jennifer Case - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Quartet (Hardcover)

This is the book that got me hooked on the stories of Fiona FitzGerald, Warren Adler's woman D.C. homicide detective. There is not much mystery here since the killer is made known early in the book. However, it's a great story that uses bits of Washingtonian history into its well-constructed plot. I highly recommend it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Two thumbs in all directions, November 17, 2010

By 

Andy "Andy" (Bronx, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Quartet (Fiona Fitzgerald Mysteries) (Paperback)

I have a mixed opinion on American Quartet, which I downloaded as an ebook from SonyStore. I couldn't put it down. I liked the lead a lot, policewoman Fiona, her grit, doubts, self-anger, insightful brilliance and humanity. If she weren't an invention I'd take her on a date. Writer Warren Adler returns to her over and over.

But Fiona's (almost) the only likeable character and only true human. Pretty much everyone else has no depth and they certainly have no redeeming value. All the other leads are men, self-involved Fiona-using men, and I wouldn't have missed any of them if the writer had offed them all: her boss, her lover, her two partners, the politicians. Maybe you think a book like this just is what it is, but look at "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" or my beach book last summer "The Thorn Birds". Even brief characters can have a life to them.

The book was first published almost 30 years ago, and it shows it in the clumsy way the story depicts the many black characters and race relations. It feels pre-Roots. It feels like a blaxploitation movie. It's certainly pre-Cosby. Anyway its handling is crude and false.

It's also odd to see the one-woman-on-the-force set-up. There's value in seeing the hatred and humiliation the early policewomen had to live with and endure back in the day. But still.

But fortunately the story still works because it has Fiona. It's fun and moves along at a good clip. I look forward to reading the rest.

The full list of Fiona FitzGerald mysteries:
AMERICAN QUARTET (March 1982)
AMERICAN SEXTET (December 1982)
IMMACULATE DECEPTION (February 1991)
SENATOR LOVE (August 1991)
THE WITCH OF WATERGATE (August 1992)
THE TIES THAT BIND (May 1994)
DEATH OF A WASHINGTON MADAME (Sept 2005)

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre novel about assassination..., May 13, 2004

By 

Peter LaPrade (worcester ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Quartet (Fiona Fitzgerald Mysteries) (Paperback)

"American Quartet" is the first of the Fiona Fitzgerald mysteries, and while Fiona is a great character, this is not a good novel. The Quartet in question are the 4 Presidents that were assassinated. Apparently, someone is copying their murders, and it is up to Fiona to stop him before he gets to the fourth, and biggest killing in the Quartet. Over-the-top, with villain who ejaculates with holding a gun.