Stone Angel

Rating:
Summary: Stone Angel is an incredible read!
Review: After becoming fully gripped in the Kathleen Mallory series, I was blown away by Stone Angel. In this book we learn about Mallory as a child, and the horrific event that (almost) destroyed her soul. But as you will see in the interactions with Ira and Charles, Mallory is much stronger and emotionally developed than previously indicated. This one will deserve a second, and a third, read to fully appreciate the writing efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Stone Angel is an incredible read!
Review: After becoming fully gripped in the Kathleen Mallory series, I was blown away by Stone Angel. In this book we learn about Mallory as a child, and the horrific event that (almost) destroyed her soul. But as you will see in the interactions with Ira and Charles, Mallory is much stronger and emotionally developed than previously indicated. This one will deserve a second, and a third, read to fully appreciate the writing efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Stone Angel
Review: After racing through the three previous books in the series (Mallory's Oracle, The Man Who Lied to Women, & Killing Critics,) I could hardly wait to start Stone Angel. Kathy Mallory is a fascinating character and the hints about her past in the rest of the series really whetted my appetite for the truth promised in the fourth book. Unfortunately, Mallory is only a supporting player in this one. Charles Butler (in jeans on a big white horse!), Riker, and some interesting locals have center stage, here. The Louisiana setting is intriguing,with all kinds of colorful characters from an elderly ecoterrorist to an Elmer Gantry-style evangelist, but the final solution to the mystery is more sordid than satisfying. Anyone who enjoyed the other Mallory books will want to read this, but be warned - it is slow going! All the right ingredients are here, but without a more active role for the main character, this literary gumbo ends up having all the flavor of dishwater. Author O'Connell seems unable to get past the charm of the young Kathy (who was actually more interesting as a wild child in New York City than as the happy doctor's daughter she used to be before her life went bad)in order to show any kind of catharsis in the adult. I would read more of her books on the strength of the rest of the Mallory series, but I would not recommend Stone Angel to anyone who was not already in love with Mallory.

Rating:
Summary: Stone Angel
Review: After racing through the three previous books in the series (Mallory's Oracle, The Man Who Lied to Women, & Killing Critics,) I could hardly wait to start Stone Angel. Kathy Mallory is a fascinating character and the hints about her past in the rest of the series really whetted my appetite for the truth promised in the fourth book. Unfortunately, Mallory is only a supporting player in this one. Charles Butler (in jeans on a big white horse!), Riker, and some interesting locals have center stage, here. The Louisiana setting is intriguing,with all kinds of colorful characters from an elderly ecoterrorist to an Elmer Gantry-style evangelist, but the final solution to the mystery is more sordid than satisfying. Anyone who enjoyed the other Mallory books will want to read this, but be warned - it is slow going! All the right ingredients are here, but without a more active role for the main character, this literary gumbo ends up having all the flavor of dishwater. Author O'Connell seems unable to get past the charm of the young Kathy (who was actually more interesting as a wild child in New York City than as the happy doctor's daughter she used to be before her life went bad)in order to show any kind of catharsis in the adult. I would read more of her books on the strength of the rest of the Mallory series, but I would not recommend Stone Angel to anyone who was not already in love with Mallory.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of a disappointment.......
Review: After reading the previous three books in this series, I'm afraid this story was a bit of a disappointment but maybe that's because I hold O'Connell to too high a standard and certainly any Mallory book is well worth reading. However, I found some of the town's characters to be a little far fetched not to mention stereotypical and the mystery surrounding Mallory's youthful years which ended on the streets of NYC had a few holes (so much was made of Mallory only having this telephone number and we never found out who it belonged to although we know it was a female and can assume it was Augusta and why didn't her mother just tell her to run to either of their closest neighbors since surely Augusta or the scupltor would have helped?, etc.). The resolution to this story was not as crisp as all the others and I felt that so much more could have been done with the revelation of Mallory's past; but don't get me wrong, the murder mystery of both past and present was well crafted.

Rating:
Summary: Mallory:a much needed jolt for the mystery genre
Review: After years of reading mysterys populated with angst-ridden, upper-crust British detectives or moralizing female forensic scientists, Carol O'Connell's Kathy Mallory comes as a brisk, rousing slap in the face. In the fourth Mallory novel, Stone Angel, O'Connell thrusts us on a dark, twisted journey into NYPD Police Sergeant Kathy Mallory's past. As relentless and ruthless as Mallory herself, O'Connelly drags the reader towards the increasingly horrific truth about the death of Mallory's mother... a truth that begins to explain the howling emptiness that resides within Kathy Mallory. O'Connell has undoubtedly created the finest mystery detective to hit the book shelves in recent memory. The exquisitely detailed Mallory is as sharp and cutting as shards of glass. The fact that we somehow care about this women is evidence of O'Connell's mastery of writing. If there's a mystery reader on your gift list, give them all four of the Mallory novels ...it will be the best present they receive this year.

Rating:
Summary: Mallory is an intriguing, original and disturbing creation
Review: Against a richly realised Southern Gothic background, a strange and exotic story works itself out. By the end of this novel, I was breathless with excitement, moved almost to tears by Mallory's tragedy and the damage that has resulted from it, and emotionally drained. You won't read another crime novel quite like this all year.

Rating:
Summary: Heart Pounding!
Review: Before reading the Stone Angel you must read the first two books in the Mallory series! This book was slow in places but more than made up for it in the end. We see a small crack in Kathy's hard shell, and a toughening up of Charles. The ending of the book was so well written it had my heart pounding, my pulse racing, and a feeling of looking over my shoulder as I tried to help by pushing them along. A great way to come full circle. I can't wait to see how Mallory develops after this! .

Rating:
Summary: Heart Pounding!
Review: Before reading the Stone Angel you must read the first two books in the Mallory series! This book was slow in places but more than made up for it in the end. We see a small crack in Kathy's hard shell, and a toughening up of Charles. The ending of the book was so well written it had my heart pounding, my pulse racing, and a feeling of looking over my shoulder as I tried to help by pushing them along. A great way to come full circle. I can't wait to see how Mallory develops after this! .

Rating:
Summary: Mystery Magic. Best mystery novel of 1997!
Review: Fifty pages from the closing of STONE ANGEL I did not want the book to end. I did not want to leave Mallory or Charles or Riker or Tom or Augusta and other characters. Thirty pages from the end Carol O'Connell had me squirming in my seat with tension and anxiety. At the end I was drained and need a rest from these people...unfortunately I will get that rest while I wait for Mallory and troup to return. This is Carol O'Connell's four mystery-novel and her fourth Mallory character study. What a startling person Mallory is. As a child of ten she was arrested in NYC. The arresting officer and his wife take her into their home and raise her rather than let he be taken by the system. What a break for all of us. Mallory grows into a beautiful and extremely intelligent detective and gives us, through the talent of Carol O'Connell, some tremendous history. In the book store where I work part time, I have sold some seven hundered plus copies of MALLORY'S ORACLE (O'Connell's first). I've only had a handful say they did not enjoy the book. They are no longer allowed in the store. Each succeeding book (THE MAN WHO CAST TWO SHADOWS, KILLING CRITICS, and now STONE ANGEL), has been better and better written than the preceding one. Halfway through STONE ANGEL I wondered how I could possible induce my customers to purchase all four at once. After careful consideration I do believe I can just work with the first and STONE ANGEL. The reader will return for the middle two. STONE ANGEL is one of two of the best novels I have read so far this year and there have been some very good book printed. However, STONE ANGEL top the list because it has all those wondrous things a book can have and be to the reader. Great characters that you can love for themselves and for the interplay with each other. Evil characters that you can trul despise. Wounded characters that you can anguish over. STONE ANGEL is a mystery that is presented shrouded in magic and love. This is a book you will not put down except to rest your heart and brain and replenish your soul. There is a scene near the closing that places Augusta and Charles bareback atop a horse racing away from danger and to aid Mallory. I was with them atop that horse and it was some ride. Saddle up folks!