Customer Reviews

The Chalk Girl (A Mallory Novel)

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I laughed out loud reading the blurbs for this book. The New York Daily News said, "If it takes a psychopath to find a psychopath, she's the woman for the job." Psychopath is so widely misunderstood. Kathy Mallory is a sociopath. I love her.

In a hair-raising rat-filled Central Park opening, Coco, the beautiful little red-haired girl, in circumstances eerily similar to Kathy Mallory's, is chased down by two officers, until she is found and her story is heard.

The similarities end there. Most of Kathy's stories were lies - from her name on down through her age-- while most of Coco's are fanciful flights of imagination. Their personalities are a dichotomy as well, Kathy all hellion, while Coco appears all angel.

Coco has a syndrome called Williams syndrome, which puts stars in her eyes, makes her charm every one around her, and causes her to reach out for physical contact from people, any person near her, even pedophiles. It's kind of alarming how quickly she finds two pedophiles. When Dr. Slope meets her, he recognizes her right away as one of the Williams people and he lowers himself to her level so she can throw her arms around his neck. He is brought to tears when Kathy hands him a note telling him to check for rape. Williams people have an extraordinary empathy. While Dr. Slope is examining her, Coco tells him, "Rats cry too. Most people don't know that."

Coco has a weird relationship with rats.

A haunting passage near the end of novel has a 90-year-old Charles sitting in his backyard with his grandchildren, pulling petals off from daisies, saying, Kathy had a heart, Kathy didn't have a heart, for each petal, never having been able to decide this on his own.

But we know. We all know. Kathy's heart was as large as New York City.

This is a gorgeous story, every single page, as are most Mallory novels. While reading it, I felt the constant tingle of sadness. Many times I read a page twice - at competing odds. One part of me wanted to know how it turned out, the bigger part wanted me to reread every page so it would last longer. But sadly, eventually I had to reach the end and I nearly wept. Mallory novels always have that effect on me. How much longer for the next Mallory novel? How can I wait that long? What will I do with all that time?

Kathy Mallory has just reappeared from a cross-country trip taken without notice or permission from her police department. So when a little girl who can't stop talking about rats is found wandering alone in an area of Central Park where three bodies strung up in the trees are also found things are just crazy enough that they need Mallory.

Mallory and her partner Riker discover that the little girl was picked up by one of the people strung up in the trees who is an heir to a fortune from the Driscol foundation. The Driscol School is a prominent private school in New York with many friends in positions of power. The story just gets better.

I have never read a book by O Connell but you can be certain I will read others after reading this one. Mallory was an enjoyable character who seemed to be just one step ahead of those afraid of her ability to solve a crime. She has a sense of fairness and morality that developed as a child living on the streets. She seems to hold a grudge, when necessary, yet be able to overlook it when it seems in the best interest of those she sees as deserving. One of the questions in the book seemed to be, does she have a heart? The author shocked me by a simple paragraph.

" This summer afternoon would remain in his memory forever, a bookmark to a sad and curious passage that he must return to again and again. Weill into his nineties and long after the death of Kathy Mallory, on every fine, warm day, he would sit in a garden where he would only suffer daisies to be planted."

I like Mallory and I certainly don't want to think about any future death, I would like to read many more stories that involve this slightly crazy, unorthodox, but extremely effective detective. I like an author who can write prose that makes you want to keep reading, that doesn't make things obvious and the little girl found in Central Park is not the chalk girl, and one who has characters that have realistic flaws. I will be looking for more O'Connell books.

I am not a stranger to the Mallory series but it's been quite a while since I've read one of the books. This one, The Chalk Girl (A Mallory Novel), is quite good. As in past books, this one is psychologically astute, discussing how Mallory's past and present impacts her relationships with the characters she works with and those she comes into contact with through her work. Mallory was a wild child when she was young, a child foundling, taken in by the Markowitz family as a foster child and loved as though she was their own. Lou Markowitz was a cop and gave Mallory the desire to become a detective herself. Despite the love she received from the Markowitz's, Mallory's wildness never escaped her and she is distant and remote with others as though she suffers from attachment disorder.

The novel opens in Central Park with rats running all over the place. There is a young girl named Coco, all alone, who is obsessed with facts about rats and believes that they rain from the sky or fall from the trees. She is right about the trees. Rats have climbed the trees to get into the wrappings of bodies placed there by a murderer. There are three bodies found in trees initially, two alive and one dead. One of the living dies shortly after. Coco is a child with Williams syndrome, a rare syndrome that gives children faces like fairies, makes them want to touch others incessantly, and provides them with areas of brilliance and deficits. Coco says that her Uncle Red was 'delivered' to the park. We find out very early in the book that Uncle Red is not really her uncle but abducted her and is one of the victims of the murderer. Coco had been living with her grandmother who died. After Coco's grandmother died, she went outside the apartment to seek help and Uncle Red abducted her. It was a crime of opportunity.

Mallory has been on probation and at a desk job after disappearing from the job for three months. She had been traveling around the contiguous 48 states trying to find herself. She left her job with no words - no request for leave or formal absence. Finding Coco's abductor and working on the murders is Mallory's first foray into the street and the type of detective work she loves. She works with her partner, Riker, with whom she gets along well. This is rare for Mallory who has antagonized almost every one else she works with.

The murderer is called 'The Hunger Artist' because his victims have all been starving. Their ears are plugged with pieces of wax, their mouths covered with tape, and their eyes covered up. Who is he and why are these victims chosen?

Each short chapter begins with a piece of writing by Ernest Nadler from his school days. Some of the people mentioned in his writing are either victims of the murderer or related to them. How does he fit in with the big picture here?

This is as much a psychological study as it is a murder mystery. Mallory is a complex and difficult person to understand. Even her therapist, Charles Butler, who has worked with Mallory for years, finds her difficult to understand. He also harbors a secret love for her.

I found this book fascinating though at times I felt puzzled by what was going on as I haven't read all of the Mallory novels. I recommend that anyone interested in this book start with the first one in the series, Mallory's Oracle (Kathleen Mallory Novels).

Well, I was going to take lots of notes and quotes while I was reading Carol O'Connell's newest book, The Chalk Girl, so I could write a fabulous post telling you how much I love this character and author.

The notes and quotes didn't happen.....because I couldn't put the book down long enough!! But I can tell you that I do love O'Connell's 'Mallory' books.

As a child, Kathleen (Kathy) Mallory was found living alone on the streets of New York City by NYPD Lieutenant Lou Markowitz. She was taken in and raised by Markowitz and his wife (with some help from Lou's fellow cops and friends). She is streetwise, cunning, an expert thief and described as 'a baby sociopath.'

Following in Lou's footsteps, Mallory (she refuses to answer to Kathy) has joined the NYPD and is paired up with Markowitz's old partner. She is a brilliant detective, but her methods and her relationships with people are strictly on her terms. No one breaks through the walls she has erected. The term sociopath is still bandied about.

In The Chalk Girl, the 10th in the series, there may be a little chink in Mallory's armour. A small girl is found wandering alone in Central Park...with blood on her tee shirt. She says the blood fell from the sky while she was looking for her uncle who turned into a tree. There is something special about Coco. She has Williams Syndrome and can't really tell them exactly where she's from or who she is. But with help from psychologist Charles Butler, they are able to decode what she's trying to tell them. Coco seems to stir something in Mallory - one wounded child recognizing another.

When Mallory locates the uncle, the case leads to places no one could have ever predicted.

And that's the beauty of O'Connell's books. You just never have an idea where the plots will lead. They're inventive, intriguing, intelligent and will keep you guessing until the end. They might keep you up late too - the crimes are bizarre and gruesome - perfect fodder for crime thriller aficionados. Each chapter opens with an excerpt from what seems to be a journal of someone called Ernest Nadler. I'm glad I read everything on the page - these entries told a story on their own that eventually met Mallory's path.

The character of Mallory continues to intrigue me. Small details about her past and small glimpses past the barriers she has erected have been slowly inserted into each new entry in this series. We still really have no idea who Kathy Mallory really is. But I am inextricably hooked by this flawed protagonist.

I have all of Carol O'Connell's books, and the "Kathy Mallory" ones are my
absolute favorites. I ordered "The Chalk Girl" for my Kindle and read it the day it was downloaded. This is one of those books that is hard to put
down. As I was reading it I was so afraid that I wouldn't like the ending
because the "bad guy" seemed almost untouchable. However, Ms. O'Connell
took care of it...as usual. And, reading the little boy's diary throughout
the book was...well, scary, sad and enraging. She did such a gread job
with the storyline and characters in this book. Even though I wish she
had her books come out more frequently, I guess this way I can't compare the
new book with her latest one. And, so each new book becomes my favorite.

If you like a really well written mystery with a very unusual young female
police detective, read "The Chalk Girl". You won't be disappointed.

I've been waiting for the continuation of this series for a long time! and this was a great return. I couldn't stop reading.

Wonderful writing with great interconnecting plots and twists. Good people overwhelmed by evil. It is clear that even Kathy Mallory will not be able to offer hope - but will she be able at least to serve as Nemesis? A worthy addition to the Mallory canon harking back to the best of the early novels. Don't start this one until you have lots of time because you will not be able to put it down!

Most of the time, when I find my self desperate to somehow absorb or inhale a book, they're written by Carol O'Connell. Skipping to the end (which I cannot do) would never be enough - I want the whole journey, but I want it faster than I can read.

After "Find Me" ended, I thought the Mallory series was over. I didn't go looking for any articles or blog entries. I just mourned the ending of my favorite series of all time and moved on. When "The Chalk Girl" came up as a recommendation for me, there was no hesitation. I ordered it, then I impatiently waited for the shipment to show up. When it arrived, I tore into it, eager to see my old... well, "friend" is probably not the best word for Mallory. But she's back, still misunderstood, still usually right, still ruthless, still brilliant. Did we see a glimpse of some influence of the last page in "Find Me"?

My only wish before the series actually ends (because I'm hoping that it continues!) is that we see Charles find some happiness. I'm no 'shipper, and I don't see him and Kathy together. More than once there's been a look forward at Charles as an old man, with his children, grandchildren, etc., and I'd love to see the beginning of that for him. That's not a complaint, just a wish. I keep forgetting that the events of these books have only taken a couple-few years, since I've been reading them since the mid '90s.

For those who have read all of this most excellent series, Mallory's seemingly complete absence of the more "normal" human emotions has been frustrating as she has been protected by the many acquaintances who love her and her (now dead) adoptive parents so much. One of the great pleasures of this book is the list of little actions (often unnoticed by the other characters) that imply Mallory is more emotional than she seems. In the past her only touchstones with human behavior have seemingly been "would this action make my adoptive mother cry" and "the bad guys have to go down, by any means necessary." BTW, I hope Mallory doesn't read that I dared to call her "Kathy" in the title - she has creative and cold-blooded ways of extracting revenge when displeased.

I absolutely loved this book!

I just discovered this author a few weeks ago when I read the NY Times review on it. I was shocked that I have never heard of this author before. I did a lot of review research and most people said that I should start at the beginning of her series, I didnt want to read 8 or more books before this one so I started with STONE ANGEL 1997, WINTER HOUSE 2004, FIND ME 2006 and finally THE CHALK GIRL.

I fell in love with the characters (all of them) after finishing STONE ANGEL. It may help some people to understand Mallory better if they start at the beginning of the series but I got a very good background in those few books.

Mallory is such an unlikeable and sometimes unbelievable character but thats what makes her one of a kind and very interesting to read.

This was such an engrossing, interesting, yet sad story that I found myself reading pages over and over again to really understand what the author was trying to say to me.

If you are a Carol O'Connell fan, you will devour this book. Anyone else who loves a great story, complex characters and lots of twists and turns will love this story too.

Thank Ms. O'Connell for another fantastic read!