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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not your traditional police procedural!,
By
This review is from: Mallory's Oracle (Kathleen Mallory Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
Sometimes, police procedurals are a dime a dozen. As fun as it is to get into the minutiae of a fictional cop's life, it can be a little formulaic after awhile. The characters get a little cookie cutter. You know each of them: the alcoholic but good-hearted cop, the green rookie, and the hardened police captain.
Mallory's Oracle tries to make you think that it's just another procedural. And if you start to believe that, if you fall for that ruse, you will be wildly surprised. In a genre ruled by plot, character-driven mysteries really surprise us when they come along. Now, I know that I'm a decade behind on this one - the book came out in '94, I think. But, for me, discovering Carol O'Conner is like coming across Elizabeth George and Laurie R. King for the first time. It's taking characters we know - the New York cop, the British Inspector, the consulting detective - and delving deep into their soul to see what makes them tick. That's what happens in Mallory's Oracle. We dive deep into the soul of Kathleen Mallory. She is a deep, interesting, unpredictable, and enigmatic character. I really liked her "partner" Charles and the forays into the world of magic and mediums were great. She doesn't hand you the story on a silver platter - she makes you work for it. But trust me, it's worth the effort. This is a great start to what looks to be a great series.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT intoduction to a series I can't wait to read,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Mallory's Oracle (Kathleen Mallory Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
This reader was immediately sucked into this fast paced murder mystery. There were many suspects presented in this serial killer storyline and the suspense was well plotted. However, the characters in this book were the real gems. They almost became flesh and blood before my eyes as the author painted such loving images of not altogether loveable characters. First off, Kathy Mallory is a tough as nails young cop trying to avenge her sort of adopted father's death - Markowitz - and oh by the way, she was a runaway who was "found" on the streets by him when she was around 11. Her terrible and traumatic background is hinted at but never revealed. Mallory is unconditionally loved by Markowitz and his wife and even though both of these characters are dead as we read this book, the reader can see them as relevant characters and we feel her loss. Then there's Markowitz' band of poker buddies (The Rabbi, the Lawyer and the Doctor) who are three dimensional characters as well. Last but not least, there's her two sidekicks of Charles Butler (a modern day Ichobod Crane figure) and another cop named Riker(a drunkard with redeeming qualities). Sure her characters are flawed, but they all have principals that they hold true to and all of them can be admired. Kudos to the author for her skill in presenting such intriguing characters that seem so real. As soon as I finished this book I immediately picked up the next one in this series (The Man Who Cast Two Shadows).
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hunh?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mallory's Oracle (Kathleen Mallory Novels) (Mass Market Paperback)
"Mallory's Oracle" is a dense, wordy novel that covers a lot of characters and plot threads (insider trading, seances, street life, magic tricks, computers, police procedurals). So much so that I was unable to keep track of what was happening. Many of the characters (Coffey, Riker, the old ladies and the "bad guys") are not fully fleshed out. The other characters, with the exception of Charles, Markowitz, Helen and the Rabbi (and two of them are dead) are unsympathic and humorless. The author tried to pull all the plot elements together in the end, but it got very convoluted. O'Connell has a talent for writing, but reading this morass of a novel was not an enjoyable experience.
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