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Killing critics  Cover Image Book Book

Killing critics / Carol O'Connell.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780399141683
  • ISBN: 0399141685
  • Physical Description: 308 p. ; 24 cm. | text
  • Publisher: New York : G.P. Putnam's Sons, c1996.
Subject: Mallory, Kathleen (Fictitious character) > Fiction
Policewomen > New York (State) > New York > Fiction
Genre: Mystery fiction

Available copies

  • 2 of 3 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Fort St. James Public Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 3 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Fort St. James Public Library OCO (Kathleen Mallory #3) (Text) 35196000023015 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -

  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 1996 April
    ~ The murder of artist Dean Starr, an inoffensive mediocrity stabbed at a reception at Avril Koozeman's trendy gallery, would be no big deal to anyone--other than fans of the more outr varieties of performance art (the body, labeled with a card reading ``DEAD,'' fools dozens of visitors before a jaundiced rent-a-cop realizes how accurate the label is)--if the performance-art angle, coupled with a much more explicit clue, didn't point the finger at an unsolved 12-year-old case. Back in the glory days of Inspector Louis Markowitz, up-and-coming artist Peter Ariel and ballet hopeful Aubry Gilette had been hacked to death with an axe and their bodies scrambled together in an even more ghoulish aesthetic exercise. Markowitz is dead now, but his adopted daughter, Sgt. Kathy Mallory, is determined to reopen the case, and nothing--not the intransigence of art critic J.L. Quinn; or the antics of columnist Andrew Bliss, who camps out on Bloomingdale's roof with a bullhorn as a fashion-advisor terrorist; or the pretensions of critic-turned-Public Works Committee head Emma Sue Hollaran, liposucked within an inch of her life; or the opposition of her corrupt boss, Chief Harry Blakely--is going to stop her. Mallory displays such diverse skills--the former street kid is a computer genius who dominates press conferences, never sleeps, dresses in a trice, and offers to deck an aging ballet teacher--that she's in danger of becoming a Wild Child paragon. But it's hard to resist a third case (The Man Who Cast Two Shadows, 1995, etc.) that's as blazingly original as her first two. (First printing of 50,000; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
  • Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 1996 April #3
    O'Connell's driven and sharp-edged NYPD detective Kathleen Mallory revisits a 12-year-old double murder case first investigated by her beloved adoptive father, whose death was central to her notable debut in Mallory's Oracle (1994). The murder of a second-rate performance artist in mid-performance has many associations to the earlier, grisly and still unsolved homicides, which also touched the art world. Many of the same characters are involved in both killings: J.L. Quinn, the elegantly icy critic whose niece was one of the first victims; Avril Koozeman, whose galleries were murder scenes then and now; and Emma Sue Halloran, once a critic, now a culturecrat who forces hideous art into new buildings. Mallory and her partner, Sergeant Riker, must find keys to the new killing by prying memories from these witnesses. Hampering their efforts is the desire of the police brass to keep the old case closed. O'Connell's narrative force and character development are irresistible. Although the intense and private Mallory offers little to love until late in the story, her fierce determination draws the reader into her quest. Wacky artsy types and a flawed but sympathetic Riker leaven the heavy dose of misanthropy. O'Connell also delivers a cynical, funny lesson in art marketing, which sounds here less like culture than a pretentious pyramid scheme. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo; author tour. (June) Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information.

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