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A review by tracey_stewart
Killing Critics by Carol O'Connell
3.0
I'm not sure I'm happy about living in a world where a man lying bleeding to death on the floor of an art gallery can be mistaken for art. I don't think it's so very far-fetched, either.
Interesting characters here, to say the least. In a series that shines spotlights on some of New York's Craziest, this was extreme: there is a fashion terrorist, one of the more horrific murder scenes O'Connell has featured (the details of which are one of those things which most of the characters know, but which are kept up the book's sleeve until near the end), and … the art world. 'Nuff said. There are reasons I'm just as happy never to have joined the world of working artists, and it's personalities such as are brought into this story (not very widely caricatured, I fear) that rank high among them.
I couldn't help asking one question through at least the first half of Killing Critics, having just come away from The Man Who Cast Two Shadows: what happened to the cat? This is where I discovered that once something has happened it's happened and is very unlikely to be addressed in any other book. While these books are sequential to some degree – Mallory's actions in the first book lead to her promotion in the second from sergeant to detective, and her actions at the end of Killing Critics feed directly into Stone Angel – they seem designed to be almost purely standalone (which means I could have just jumped in with the ARC I received of Chalk Girl and been just fine… Oh well).
There are two certain hallmarks of a Mallory novel: there will be something major O'Connell hides from the reader (here the details of the horrific murders which seem to have laid the groundwork for the ones currently under investigation), and the writing will be beautiful. Actually, as I've discovered in reading the series in sequence, there are others as well, but those can wait.
Interesting characters here, to say the least. In a series that shines spotlights on some of New York's Craziest, this was extreme: there is a fashion terrorist, one of the more horrific murder scenes O'Connell has featured (the details of which are one of those things which most of the characters know, but which are kept up the book's sleeve until near the end), and … the art world. 'Nuff said. There are reasons I'm just as happy never to have joined the world of working artists, and it's personalities such as are brought into this story (not very widely caricatured, I fear) that rank high among them.
I couldn't help asking one question through at least the first half of Killing Critics, having just come away from The Man Who Cast Two Shadows: what happened to the cat? This is where I discovered that once something has happened it's happened and is very unlikely to be addressed in any other book. While these books are sequential to some degree – Mallory's actions in the first book lead to her promotion in the second from sergeant to detective, and her actions at the end of Killing Critics feed directly into Stone Angel – they seem designed to be almost purely standalone (which means I could have just jumped in with the ARC I received of Chalk Girl and been just fine… Oh well).
There are two certain hallmarks of a Mallory novel: there will be something major O'Connell hides from the reader (here the details of the horrific murders which seem to have laid the groundwork for the ones currently under investigation), and the writing will be beautiful. Actually, as I've discovered in reading the series in sequence, there are others as well, but those can wait.