Dead Famous (Kathleen Mallory) [Mass Market Paperback]

Carol O'Connell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Kathleen Mallory | Publication Date: September 7, 2004

Jurors on a controversial trial are being killed off one by one, and only Detective Kathleen Mallory can figure out why. But the FBI has told her to lay off and leave it to the Feds. That's never stopped Mallory before.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

To summarize the plot of Dead Famous would be to spoil it, since O'Connell keeps revealing it layer by layer as you go along--a daring technique, and a rewarding one if you're a patient reader. Suffice it to say that the story involves a seemingly unstoppable serial killer; a beautiful hunchback with tragedy in her past; a radio shock-jock who helps the killer find his victims; an extremely mean house cat; a gloomy veteran cop drinking himself into oblivion; and, at the center of it all, NYPD detective Kathy Mallory, who returns here for her seventh outing. Mallory (don't call her Kathy) is one of the strangest, most intriguing series heroines in crime fiction: a former street waif who's brilliant and gorgeous, but also sociopathic, manipulative, and obsessive-compulsive.

No formulaic cop thriller, Dead Famous is instead a crime tale that focuses on its quirky, often outre characters. There isn't a lot of conventional suspense. Yet near the end, the story gathers tremendous narrative momentum and rises to a real tragic power. O'Connell's quirky writing style and approach aren't for everyone, but her fans--old and new--will find much to appreciate here. --Nicholas H. Allison --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

O'Connell's post-feminist detective Kathleen Mallory returns full-throttle for an eighth grisly urban crime saga. And O'Connell's prose-sharp, gritty and streetwise-is in top form. In her previous case (2002's Crime School), Mallory solved a very personal murder and faced the doubts of coworkers about her competence. Now she's in total control, overseeing the recuperation of old friend and partner Riker, victim of an arrest-related shooting (she sets up a bogus fund to send him disability payments) and staying two steps ahead of a belligerent FBI agent named Marvin Argus. Two other vivid characters figure prominently in the story (or three, counting New York City itself, which O'Connell gives a palpable neo-noir grit): Argus is hounding Johanna Apollo, who's fled Chicago in the wake of a high-profile murder of another FBI agent named Timothy Kidd. A hunchback with extra-long legs, porcelain skin and raven hair, Johanna is working long, difficult hours as a crime scene cleaner. In Chicago, she was Kidd's therapist, and maybe his lover... and maybe she killed him, too. O'Connell devilishly fills in the pieces of the puzzle so that the reader's perspective undergoes constant shifts. Shock jock Ian Zachary-more abrasive off the air than on, if possible-exhorts loyal listeners to locate the members of a jury that let a killer walk free. And with his encouragement (if not instruction), a serial killer calling himself The Reaper has been obligingly knocking off the jurors. The way these two cases fit together is ingenious; once again, O'Connell sets the standard in crime fiction.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (September 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425197972
• ISBN-13: 978-0425197974
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Satisfying Character Study, October 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Dead Famous: A Mallory Novel (Hardcover)

This novel continues the revelation of new aspects of the characters we have all grown to love. However, Carol O'Connell does not share a lot of new information about Kathleen Mallory with us in this novel. Instead, Mallory's partner Riker is the focus. He is on leave from his police work after an injury, and Mallory is attempting to ensure that leave is temporary.

The mystery plotline is almost secondary in this novel. It is overshadowed somewhat by the development of a romantic relationship between Riker and a cleaning woman with secrets of her own, which factor into Mallory's current investigation.

Carol O'Connell writes well, as always. She is an under-appreciated novelist who deserves more accolades for her work. Getting to know her characters is extremely gratifying.

However, if you have not read her Kathleen Mallory books before, you will not fully appreciate this book. Do yourself a favor and start at the beginning with Mallory's Oracle.

For those who have read all of the previous Mallory novels, this one is also high quality, although there may not be as much of Mallory as you might like.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not the usual, September 29, 2003

By 

Michael Shouse "dharmaking" (Omaha, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Famous: A Mallory Novel (Hardcover)

No need to re-cap the storyline; that's available elsewhere. But I feel a warning is necessary. A line on the cover labels this "A Mallory Novel." But you'll be half-way through the book before FAMOUS becomes a Mallory novel. It concentrates on her partner Riker and another character, Johanna Apollo for fully half the book; Mallory is barely a supporting character. If you can tolerate that, you'll enjoy FAMOUS. In addition to an intricate story, it offers new insight into Mallory's relationship to her partner, Riker. "Sociopath" Mallory is gradually learning how to be normal, as this novel shows. But she still has a long way to go, which is fortunate for those of us who love this non-standard issue heroine. Author O'Connell has created something truly unique here, and more readers should be aware of it. But FAMOUS is not the place for newcomers to start.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't ask for much more., December 4, 2004

By 

A. J Thompson "voyagersaus" (Western Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Famous: A Mallory Novel (Hardcover)

Twelve jurors declare an accused murderer innocent, much to the public's disbelief and disgust. Someone has taken it so personally that they're picking off all the members of that jury, one by one. Shock radio jock Ian Zachary has cashed in on the public's ghoulish interest with the case, earning his show some super ratings and the kind of publicity that you couldn't ever pay for. His ongoing game of "spot the juror" may get a lot of people killed as the killer tagged as "The Reaper" goes along his merry, murderous way - but in Zachary's own opinion, the public and everyone else is really only there to serve him, in any way that the egomaniac sees fit.

Not entirely sure whether the NYPD still has him in their employ or not, Detective Sgt. Riker spends the down hours managing a family business that gets him just as close to the evils that men and women can inflict on one another. His specialist cleaning business takes away some of the horror by removing all the blood and gore and getting the client's house or place of business looking again pretty much the way it did before someone decided to commit a murder in it.

Riker's former partner Kathy Mallory takes a personal offense in Riker's reluctance to return to the force; in particular as she disregards personal hurt once the obvious physical scars have healed. Four bullets to the chest may have taken Riker down, but Mallory refuses to let that take him out of her world. As the Reaper gets closer to eliminating the last of the twelve, Riker is drawn into the chase for very personal reasons. One of those jurors is someone who has become very dear to him.

"Dead Famous" is not the thriller that it might sound - the killer hunting down a jury who delivered a verdict he violently disagreed with. O'Connell's considerable talent is displayed here with the interaction of her characters and in particular the voice of Johanna Apollo, one of the jurors. Some of the drama veers close to the sob of melodrama but fortunately never crosses that line. It's disturbing to hear how O'Connell refers to the character of Apollo repeatedly as a "hunchback" (the character has a spinal deformity) but if she is attempting to harden the reader to her fictional world of New York, she succeeds. "Dead Famous" is the seventh novel in the Kathy Mallory series (also titled "The Jury Must Die" in other print editions), and features less of this female character as her lead in this book. The intensity never lets up in this read, and those emotional punches just keep coming out one after the other.