Little Girl Blue: A Novel of Crime [Hardcover]

David Cray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2001

Everything changes for Lieutenant Julia Brennan, NYPD, on a frigid January morning in Central Park. The commander of a Manhattan North homicide squad, she inspects the body of an unidentified young girl. Naked, her skin blue from the cold, her feet cut and scraped in desperate flight, the grim sight of the dead child in an instant turns Julia Brennan's priorities upside down. Julia Brennan is tough-minded and hard-boiled, like the story this taut, chilling novel unfolds. Yet she suddenly finds herself willing to risk her promotion and, if necessary, her entire career to give a woefully lost child a name and to apprehend the parties responsible for an appalling crime. Her search takes her into the world of pedophiles and foreign adoption agencies that sell children into slavery—a world where, Julia begins to realize, someone has the jump on her, and is killing the very suspects she is hunting. Striking a devil's bargain with an undercover cop from the Sex Crimes Unit, a man who himself becomes a prime candidate for the killer, Julia follows a tortuous path until, alone and dismayed, she sees that she has made a terrible, terrible mistake. Now she faces her greatest fear. For Lieutenant Julia Brennan is also the mother of a young daughter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his third novel the pseudonymous Cray continues to explore the underbelly of New York City, but instead of the judicial system, as in 2000's Bad Lawyer, he takes a riveting look into the sordid world of child prostitution and pornography. NYPD Lieut. Julia Brennan of Manhattan North Homicide is the divorced mother of a teenaged daughter, Corry, and the affectionate niece of the aging Robert Reid, a popular Daily News columnist. When a young girl's frozen naked body is found in wintry Central Park, Brennan's squad investigates the death. An adept plotter, Cray knows how to build a gripping police procedural as the cops first locate the building the girl came from, then uncover a child prostitution and pornography business, as well as international adoption abuses. For Brennan, a tough, ambitious, rule-abiding police officer, the case becomes personal, due to her overwhelming grief for the victim and her growing attraction to Peter Foley, a loose cannon undercover Sex Crimes Unit cop. A lesser talent would have built suspense by having the killer kidnap Brennan, Corry, Uncle Bob or any combination. It doesn't happen here, although they're threatened and there's the obligatory chase. Cray's book is as driven by a cast of well-drawn characters both hard-working, fallible good guys and repugnant pimps, pornographers and their customers as by the rich, fast-moving plot. If a writer can produce a readable book about this odious subject, Cray has done it. The dark, atmospheric jacket sets just the right somber tone. (Jan. 1)Forecast: With rights sold to Britain, Germany, France and Japan, expect this to do as well as last year's Bad Lawyer.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Facing head-on the issues of what the job does to cops, this novel focuses on what happens when a tough-as-nails female police officer confronts a child's death. A little girl, eight to nine years old, is discovered, naked and brutally murdered, in Central Park. Lieutenant Julia Brennan, supervisor of C Squad, Manhattan North Homicide, is called to the scene and instantly dubs the body "little girl blue," the first step in an involvement with the case that threatens her hard-won professionalism. Brennan and her team's investigation uncovers disturbing evidence of how children, through slavery and pedophilia, are victimized for huge profits. When Brennan's own teenage daughter is stalked as a warning to Brennan to keep away from the profit-making machine, tension skyrockets. Cray (first seen last year's Bad Lawyer) is deft with procedure, a cunning plotter, and especially skilled at showing the cracks behind a professional facade. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1 edition (December 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078670943X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786709434
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,476,646 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:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling story of unspeakable crimes., December 5, 2001

By 

David Montgomery (mysteryinkonline.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Girl Blue: A Novel of Crime (Hardcover)

The small, nude body of a young girl is found one wintry night in New York City's Central Park. Her feet are cut and bloody and she is curled in a fetal position. It looks as if she ran as far as she could before collapsing in exhaustion, finally giving in to the bitter cold. Any cop would be troubled by Little Girl Blue, but Lieutenant Julia Brennan is moved as a mother, as well as an enforcer of the law. She has a young daughter of her own and cannot escape from the haunting image that pierces her mind.

The subtitle of "Little Girl Blue" is "a novel of crime," a very apt description. At the heart of this suspenseful, at times painful book are the most despicable of crimes, those committed against children. Lieutenant Brennan uncovers a child pornography and prostitution ring that lies hidden in the upper reaches of Manhattan society, sheltered for years by the wealth of those who participate in it. As soon as Brennan gets the scent of these perverted criminals, though, their days are at an end.

Although it features troubling subject matter, "Little Girl Blue" is written with such empathy and tactful restraint that it never strays into offense, something authors who have tackled similar stories have failed to do. It is appropriately tense, especially during the last twenty pages, but the mystery here tacks a backseat to the characters. The author explores his characters as people who think and feel in realistic ways, not as the cookie cutter puppets lesser writers use to populate their stories.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full-Tilt Boogie, December 28, 2001

By 

Sherrie Martin "sherchez" (Roanoke, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Girl Blue: A Novel of Crime (Hardcover)

Lt. Julia Brennan is a hardened NYPD homicide detective who's seen it all when she catches the case of a small, naked girl found dead in Central Park. The sight of the tiny corpse, blue with cold, affects Julia like no other has, and she vows to find the killer, no matter what.

Working with Peter Foley, an undercover cop with the Sex Crimes Unit, Julia is appalled at the breadth and depth of perversity she discovers is flourishing in her city. Peter not only poses as a pedophile, but maintains a Web site designed to attract these bottom-feeders. Julia finds herself attracted to Peter, but wonders how wallowing in the dark sewers of depravity as he does could fail to affect him in ways she doesn't want to contemplate. As the investigation leads to foreign adoption agencies selling children into slavery, many of the potential suspects turn up dead. And Peter knew who and where each of them was. Can Julia trust him?

This is a chilling novel dealing intelligently with an ugly subject, tautly written with crisp dialogue and dazzling continuity flowing along at full-tilt boogie speed, absolutely compelling reading. I haven't figured out who David Cray is a pseudonym for, though I have a couple of guesses, but what a master of the crime novel.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tight, Tense, and Gritty....., January 19, 2002

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Girl Blue: A Novel of Crime (Hardcover)

NYPD Homicide Detective, Lieutenant Julia Brennan, thought she was hardened and unshakable. She had seen it all, the very worst elements of society, and the carnage they so often left behind. But this crime scene was different, and it had a profound effect on her. A little girl, no more than eight or nine, naked, and frozen, lying in Central Park. Her tiny blue body was curled in a fetal position, and her bare feet cut and scraped from running. Who was this "Little Girl Blue", where had she come from, and why had no one reported seeing a naked child fleeing down the streets of the upper east side? Against all her better judgement and police training, this case becomes personal, and Lieutenant Brennan finds herself investigating a part of New York City's underground that she didn't know even existed...the lucrative world of pedophiles, child pornography, and slavery. As the case progresses, she finds herself drawn into this world, and willing to risk everything to get to the truth, and bring Little Girl Blue's killers to justice..... David Cray is back with a dark police procedural that's tense, compelling, and full of riveting, suspenseful, and gritty scenes. His writing is engaging, crisp, and intelligent with a great ear for dialogue, and his well drawn characters are original and believable. But it's Mr Cray's atmospheric portrait of New York and its underbelly that makes this novel stand out, and his indepth research and attention to detail adds real credibility to the plot, and brings the story and characters to life. Little Girl Blue is a disturbing and realistic, fast paced, page turner that grabs you from page one, and doesn't let go. David Cray never disappoints. This is a novel that should definitely be at the very top of every mystery/thriller fan's "must read" list.