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Carol O'Connell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not as good as Stone Angel, but still excellent.. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

O'Connell has succeeded again in creating an intricate masterpiece where the subplots mirror the main plot, the characters are unique, and Mallory is slowly cracking showing she just might not be the total sociopath you thought she was. In this book, Mallory is searching for her father on Route 66, visiting monuments, restaurants, gas stations etc... that her father had talked about in a pile of letters for her. Meanwhile, a serial killer is out on the loose murdering the parents of the children that he has already killed. Mallory then must solve both cases at the same time.

The depiction of Ariel Finn was so graphic and heroic that I was actually brought to tears imagining the scene in my mind. O'Connell shines in the details; everything is palpable and just so odd we can really can see these things happening in real life. From a disturbed little girl humming Jack the Ripper to an old priest receiving calls with someone whispering "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned", O'Connell has created a thrilling but yet ultimately satisfying end to an amazing series.

Editorial Review:

On Route 66, as word travels that children's grave sites are being discovered along the road, the parents of missing children form a silent caravan. They are being shepherded by NYPD Detective Kathleen Mallory, who seeks a killer like none she has ever known-and a child unlike the others: herself.

Case of Lies (Nina Reilly)

Perri O'Shaughnessy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

No one writes legal suspense like Perri O’Shaughnessy. Blending powerful human drama with legal thrills, mystery, humor, and unforgettable characters, the New York Times bestselling author has created a uniquely entertaining series of novels centered around lawyer and single mother Nina Reilly. Now, in a masterful new novel, Nina’s investigation into an unsolved murder takes her on a dark journey strewn with old crimes, bitter truths, and heart-stopping danger.

For Nina Reilly, the mountain town of Lake Tahoe is home. It’s where she forged a successful career as a tough, resourceful attorney–and raised her teenage son, Bob, alone. Back from a stint in Monterey, where her love life took a tumble, Nina has returned to her Tahoe law office with her old friends Sandy Whitefeather and Sandy’s son, Wish. It isn’t long before she has a new client whose wife was shot and killed during a casino-district robbery two years before. The police have no suspects, and the robbery victims, three students, lied about their identities and are hiding outside California and the reach of the court.Two of the witnesses have fled to a village not far from the home of Bob’s father, Kurt Scott, in Germany. As Nina tries to unravel the mystery of one violent Tahoe night, a harrowing journey begins–one that takes her from the dark underworld of Tahoe’s casinos to the halls of a prestigious East Coast university to Europe and an emotional reunion with Kurt.

As old feelings are rekindled, Nina’s case turns violent. Everyone has something to hide–the brilliant but unstable mathematics student who has made an astonishing discovery, the owner of a motel where the shooting took place, and the shooter, who has turned the whole case into a gigantic lie.

Filled with all the rich drama, stunning surprises, and ingenious twists we have come to expect from this incomparable storyteller, Case of Lies will grab you from the very first page and never let you go as it speeds to its incredible conclusion.

Keeper of the Keys

Perri O'Shaughnessy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For ambitious, troubled architect Ray Jackson, the nightmare begins one sultry California night when his wife disappears. No phone call, no ransom note, no body, reveals whether Leigh is dead or alive.

Then, suddenly, a woman shows up on Ray’s doorstep demanding answers: Kathleen, an old friend of Leigh’s. Ray wants answers, too, but his questions seem strange and shady to Kat. Suspected by his wife’s friend and by the police, Ray launches a desperate and alarming search of his own. Using a collection of keys he has held on to since he was a boy–keys to homes he and his mother once lived in–Ray quietly yet boldly enters each house, one by one, hoping to unlock the secrets of his own past. As past and present collide, as a chilling mystery begins to unravel, Ray is suddenly confronted with the most agonizing decision of his life–to face his own violence-laden past, acting to prevent another horrendous act of violence, or not. His choice will leave nothing and no one the same.


From the Hardcover edition.

Unlucky in Law (Nina Reilly)

Perri O'Shaughnessy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nina Reilly takes on the most dangerous and difficult case of her career in New York Times bestselling author Perri O’Shaughnessy’s latest thriller. An ingenious blend of forensic science, history, and gripping suspense, Unlucky in Law pits the tough but compassionate attorney against the most unbeatable adversary of all: the law.

Nina has just received a last-minute call from her old boss and mentor in Monterey County, California, where she is enjoying the breathtaking scenery and spending time with her boyfriend, P.I. Paul van Wagoner. Klaus Pohlmann is in desperate straits and begs Nina to take over a seemingly unwinnable case: A luckless two-time felon named Stefan Wyatt has robbed a grave and made off with the long-buried bones of a Russian émigré. When he is caught and arrested, further devastating evidence found in the grave suggests that Stefan is guilty of a far more deadly crime.

A young woman, a classmate of Stefan’s, has been killed, and he is accused of her murder. Now, as a result of California’s Third Strike law, Wyatt is looking at twenty-five years to life whether he’s convicted of grand theft or murder. Either way, he’s in big trouble.
With her client’s blood DNA found in the dead woman’s apartment, Nina faces an uphill battle. Suspecting that her hapless client has been set up, Nina brings in a brilliant forensic pathologist who comes up with a startling theory about the case that could rewrite a crucial page of European history. As the evidence mounts against Nina’s client, Paul launches his own investigation into the shadowy past of the two-decades-old skeleton. But long-held secrets nearly get him killed and reveal a more insidious evil at work—and an extraordinary story dating back to tsarist Russia and the Romanov court. As Wyatt edges closer to the unluckiest verdict of his young life, Nina makes an astounding discovery that just might save her client—or expose a killer who could bury them all.

Brilliantly imagined and compulsively readable, Unlucky in Law is a beguiling mix of wrenching drama and gripping action. And it is Perri O’Shaughnessy’s most accomplished novel to date.


From the Hardcover edition.

Obstruction of Justice

Perri O'Shaughnessy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Lightning strikes twice.

Two people have died in Lake Tahoe in shocking accidents.  In a nearly empty parking lot, a hit-and-run driver kills probation officer Anna Meade Hallowell.  High up on a jagged mountain, wife abuser Ray de Beers gets what he deserves: he's struck by lightning.  Attorney Nina Reilly, hiking on a rare day off from her one-woman law practice, sees him die.  So does her date, Tahoe deputy DA Collier Hallowell.  Still shaken from his wife's violent death, Hallowell is hit hard by the accident.  It's a bad end to a first date...  and the start of a case that will test Nina's ethics and her heart.

Nina is certain de Beers's death is an act of God.  But his aging father wants to exhume the body to rule out foul play.  De Beers's frantic wife and teenage twins hire Nina to stop the disinterment.  What gets unearthed are secrets that raise new questions about Anna Hallowell's death, an indictment against one twin for murder, and a damning piece of evidence that can convict the boy .  .  .  unless Nina obstructs justice by hiding it.  No good lawyer will take that kind of risk.  But a brilliant lawyer, one with a passion for truth, just might .  .  .  .

Acts of Malice

Perri O'Shaughnessy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nobody in the exploding field of legal thrillers catches the day-to-day life of a working lawyer better than the O'Shaughnessy sisters--lawyer Pamela and writer Mary, who collaborate under the joint byline of Perri. This is the fifth in their series about lawyer Nina Reilly. O'Shaughnessy expertly balances Reilly's life between the working half and the private half (raising her 16-year-old son as a single mother and finding the time and place for romance). The fact that both parts take place in the heavenly venue of Lake Tahoe only adds to the reading pleasure.

Acts of Malice begins with a jolt: the manager of one of the area's largest ski resorts is charged with the murder of his brother, and hires Nina to defend him. But this will not be an easy case for Nina since the prosecutor, Collier Hallowell, is the man who shook up her life so violently by walking out on her a year before. Also, Nina and her immediate circle find themselves in danger from the very client that they are defending.

Other examples of the O'Shaughnessy expertise include Breach of Promise and Motion to Suppress. --Dick Adler

Breach of Promise

Perri O'Shaughnessy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Fans who have been eagerly awaiting the next installment in the Nina Reilly series won't be disappointed by Perri O'Shaughnessy's latest, Breach of Promise. The creator of Invasion of Privacy and Obstruction of Justice has crafted a tale of love and murder gone awry in the material age.

Palimony--birds do it, bees do it, Liberace's heirs do it, and so do Mike and Lindy Markov. When Mike falls for Rachel, a young and beautiful vice president at Markov Enterprises, he tells Lindy (his companion and business partner of many years) that their relationship is over, leaving her, in effect, to go soak her head in one of the Markov Super Spas they've invented and sold to countless arthritics. Desperate to retain her fair share of their $250 million fortune, Lindy hires Nina to pursue a palimony suit against Mike, tempting her with an enormous percentage if they win their case.

O'Shaughnessy thus leads into the deceptively simple, deeply disturbing philosophical conundrum around which she weaves her tale of intrigue: What would you--what would anyone--do for money? As Nina pursues her case, O'Shaughnessy tests the boundaries of traditional courtroom-drama fiction by playing with the conventions of narrative form, but she remains true to the genre's ethic of devious surprises and fast-paced action.

Granted, Nina is a lawyer rather than a private investigator, and her smooth style bears little resemblance to, say, the sardonic goofiness of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone, but she may strike a chord with fans of Sara Paretsky's Chicago sleuth, V.I. Warshawski. Both Nina and V.I. cling stubbornly to their independence and sense of fairness as they wage battle against institutionalized forces of greed; and both O'Shaughnessy and Paretsky use engaging characters, tight plotting, and clever dialogue to lure their readers into wrestling with legal and moral dilemmas. --Kelly Flynn

Mallory's Oracle (Kathleen Mallory Novels)

Carol O'Connell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 68 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

One of the best books I have ever read. Hands down. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Kathy Mallory is one of the most brilliantly drawn characters of her decade. Child and adult, beauty and emotional disaster. She shuts off her emotions as she circles her adoptive father's body and examines the crime scene. She is at once the 11 year old street urchin and the accomplished detective.

Of course she will win. She is too brilliant not to.

Kathy Mallory is one of the best detectives in modern fiction.

Whew, I finished the darn thing! 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have never failed to read a book to the end. Although this is the second worst book I've ever read, I did finish reading it. Actually skipped and skimmed a lot. Boring. No interesting characters. Unresolved plot diversions.

The book reads like something written by an eighth-grade English teacher who was hired mainly as an assistant coach for the girl's volleyball team. The language is incredibly bad--". . . crumbling raw ground beef into a bowl." How can you possibly crumble raw ground beef? Why would you need to do so?

Attempts at literary usages leave you scratching your head, wondering how anyone could write such an absurd phrase--"Perhaps she did have the unrepentant-till-pigs-fly soul of a thief . . . ."; ". . . her stomach gnawed at her like a separate animal with teeth to bite her from inside." ; "She heard a snap of bone when she hit the hard cement which hates old bones and breaks them when it can." ; "The woman turned to him with fire alarms in her eyes and in her voice."

Praise for this work from some well-known mystery writers puts me in mind of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes."

Editorial Review:

Escaping from the streets of New York when a kind police sergeant takes her in, Kathleen Mallory grows up to become a proud member of the NYPD and embarks on a dangerous case to find her father's murderer. Reprint. AB. K.

Judas Child

Carol O'Connell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 87 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Readers familiar with Mallory, the intriguing and original heroine of O'Connell's four previous suspense novels, will recognize familiar themes of loss and abandonment in the brilliant, enigmatic forensic psychologist Ali Cray, whose scarred face only hints at the emotional residue of a childhood trauma. Ali ties the mysterious disappearance of two young girls to the rape and murder long ago of Susan Kendall, the twin sister of a small-town New York policeman, Rouge. Realizing that the priest who was convicted of Susan Kendall's murder is probably innocent, Rouge has a personal as well as professional reason for joining Ali in tracking down Susan's killer before he completes the ritual murder of at least one of the missing girls.

The protagonists of Judas Child are direct literary descendants of Mallory, the author's earlier creation; like her, their childhood suffering illuminates their adult character and motivation. But while Mallory can only react to the past, Rouge and Ali find in each other a mirror that lights up the dark corners of their past and frees them of the survivor guilt both suffer. O'Connell's same penetrating psychological insight animates the novel's other characters: Dr. Mortimer Cray, Ali's uncle, a psychiatrist who bears the awful burden of knowing who the killer is but is constrained by professional ethics from revealing it; gutsy, clever Sadie Green, the Judas child of the title, and her irritating, annoying, desperate mother, Becca; FBI agent Arnie Pyle, who's dying to know how Ali got her scar; and Father Paul Marie, jailed for 15 years for a crime he may not have committed. The opening sentence grabs the reader, and doesn't let go till the last page. In her skilled rendering of psychological suspense, O'Connell is on a par with Barbara Vine and Frances Fyfield; like Jonathan Kellerman, she is also an astute observer of children, especially those who survive the most terrifying youthful traumas and betrayals. Judas Child may be O'Connell's "breakout" book, and it will surely send readers who've just discovered her in search of her backlist while they await her next one. --Jane Adams

Presumption of Death

Perri O'Shaughnessy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

New York Times bestselling author Perri O’Shaughnessy has garnered impressive acclaim for her tough, passionate thrillers set against the lush Lake Tahoe landscape and the world of one remarkable character: Attorney Nina Reilly. In this spellbinding new novel, O’Shaughnessy delves deeper into the heart and psyche of her popular heroine as Nina journeys back to her hometown to heal old wounds, and instead discovers that old secrets can be the deadliest kind....

Nina Reilly needs a fresh start. In three years, she’s taken on some of Lake Tahoe’s most controversial cases and has turned her struggling one-woman law firm into a thriving practice. Now she’s ready to sort out her complex relationship with her boyfriend, Monterey P.I. Paul van Wagoner. So she’s heading to the Carmel Valley, the place where she began her career and where her estranged father lives. It’s also a place of dramatic contradictions and hidden tensions, of new wealth and old families. And, within days of her arrival, Nina is already feeling the heat, as a case of arson exposes some of the darkest secrets of her hometown.

Two suspicious fires have already raged through the valley this summer, igniting suspicions of arson. When a third blaze ends in a fatality, police zero in on a suspect: Wish, the son of Sandy Whitefeather, Nina’s ex-assistant. The dead man is identified as Wish’s childhood friend, a troubled local auto mechanic who hated the changes wealthy newcomers had brought to the valley. Nina and Paul are certain that there is more to this strange case than meets the eye. As they work together to clear Wish, new, more frightening questions are raised, and another fire is set. And out of the flames a terrifying picture emerges: a community steeped in secrets and rage, a tangled history between two men, and a killer whose motives are dark and wrenching.

With the relentless page-turning suspense that has become her trademark, Perri O’Shaughnessy once again demonstrates her talent to enthrall. A haunting tale of crime and punishment, old grudges and second chances, Presumption of Death is suspense fiction at its finest--instantly compelling and utterly impossible to put down.


From the Hardcover edition.