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NYPD Detective Kathleen Mallory is back—to face her most terrifying obsession—the murder of her own mother....
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Everything seemed preposterous. I should have read earlier Mallory novels first, I suppose. I liked this better after I finished reading it. Fifty-fifty if I'll try another.
Stepping back, it appears that this was a wild west story with a shoot out at the wild west town (Owltown). But with the psychopath cop and the elderly southern belle murderess (not to mention the drunk veteran cop, the long nosed genius (both in love with Mallory), the new rookie cop who gets her first kill, and the autistic savant), the impression is a great story involving a more evolutionary (red in tooth and claw) view of the world. (In contrast with the more old fashioned moral universe of John Connolly.)
Stone Angel is the fourth book in Carol O'Connell's series about Kathleen Mallory, a New York City detective with one heck of a past. When she was just shy of 7 years old, Kathy Mallory heard her mother being killed by a mob. She ran away, eventually ending up in New York City, the foster daughter of Louis and Helen Markowitz. After the Markowitz's house burns down (in the previous book in the series, Killing Critics), Kathy sets out to Dayport, Louisiana, her hometown, to finally confront her demons - and the mob that killed her mother. Following Mallory is her long-time friend Charles Butler. Once Mallory and Charles are in Dayport, they begin to learn more and more about Mallory's childhood from Sherriff Tom Jessop, wealthy but show more eccentric Augusta Trebec, sculptor Henry Roth and the autistic savant Ira Wooley. However, there are many in Dayport who would like Kathy to leave town - or to get herself killed. Babe Laurie, one of the leaders of a cult, the New Church, is found dead and Mallory is arrested. Laurie's huge family, including the almost other-worldly Malcolm Laurie, does not want Mallory to discover why her mother really died.
Stone Angel is the best book in the Mallory series so far, and I'm guessing it might be the high point. I hope not, but it will be hard to go from here, I think. O'Connell keeps the mystery going while introducing a slew of interesting and potentially deadly characters. And Mallory is finally starting to become a bit more human - she even cries a few times. This book should not be read until the first three books in the series have been read; otherwise, there is just too much about Mallory, and even Charles Butler, that the reader will not fully understand. show less
Stone Angel is the best book in the Mallory series so far, and I'm guessing it might be the high point. I hope not, but it will be hard to go from here, I think. O'Connell keeps the mystery going while introducing a slew of interesting and potentially deadly characters. And Mallory is finally starting to become a bit more human - she even cries a few times. This book should not be read until the first three books in the series have been read; otherwise, there is just too much about Mallory, and even Charles Butler, that the reader will not fully understand. show less
This book is one of a series of books by Carol O'Connell about a beautiful, damaged, maverick, and almost sociopathic detective named Kathleen Mallory (who insists on being called simply "Mallory"), and the people that love her despite her flaws: Charles, an intelligent, rich, but ugly family friend; Lou, the cop that takes her in; and Riker, her adopted father's partner. The relationships that develop between these characters as they solve crimes together are the focus of the series.
This story (the fourth in the series), is when we learn the most about Mallory's past, as she goes back to her hometown. A very poignant scene has her re-uniting with her old dog who thinks his name is her two-toned whistle. Beautifully written story, with show more interesting characters. show less
This story (the fourth in the series), is when we learn the most about Mallory's past, as she goes back to her hometown. A very poignant scene has her re-uniting with her old dog who thinks his name is her two-toned whistle. Beautifully written story, with show more interesting characters. show less
One of my favorite series. This is where O'Connell really shone, with a protagonist and characters who were both sympathetic and adversarial. I'm looking forward to going back and re-reading all of her Kathleen Mallory stories. They are exceptional.
Mallory, that spooky, slightly psycopathic detective, goes looking for her past in a Louisiana cemetery.
Ths fourth in the Mallory series is a suberb stand-alone novel that ties together the first three books with intelligence and some great revelations.
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Author Information
19+ Works 8,800 Members
Author Carol O'Connell was born in 1947. She attended the California Institute or Arts/Chouinard and Arizona State University, where she studied art. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a freelance proofreader and copy editor as well as occasionally selling her paintings. At the age of 46, she wrote the first book in the Kathleen show more Mallory series and sold it to a British publisher. Her title The Chalk Girl made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Goldmann (45284)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Stone Angel
- Original title
- Stone Angel
- Alternate titles
- Flight of the Stone Angel
- Original publication date
- 1997
- People/Characters
- Kathy Mallory; Riker; Charles Butler; Augusta Trebec; Cassandra Shelley; Tom Jessop (show all 13); Henry Roth; Lilith Beaudare; Alma Furgueson; Darlene Wooley; Ira Wooley; Malcolm Laurie; Babe Laurie
- Important places
- Dayborn, Louisiana, USA (fictitious)
- First words
- In the idiot's philosophy, a cloud could never be just a cloud. Seeking portent, he read much into shapeshifting.
- Quotations
- "I would quit this minute if I had any sense." Smoke swirled around her as she spoke. "I should practice discipline and self-denial."
Lilith nodded.
Augusta continued. "Then, when I'm ninety years old and blind with cat... (show all)aracts, when I'm crippled with arthritis and my breasts have been hacked off for tumors - I'll be able to say, well thank God I don't have emphysema." - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He needed to hold her; that need was very strong. And now he was forming another intention to annoy her even more: Until the end of his life or hers, whenever she turned around, there he would be.
- Disambiguation notice
- Stone Angel (US); Flight of the Stone Angel (UK)
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Statistics
- Members
- 739
- Popularity
- 38,087
- Reviews
- 10
- Rating
- (4.13)
- Languages
- 8 — Chinese, simplified, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 34
- ASINs
- 10
