The Oxygen Murder

Periodic Table #8

by Camille Minichino

New York City welcomes Gloria Lamerino and her husband, homicide detective Matt Gennaro, in The Oxygen Murder, the eighth installment in Camille Minichino's acclaimed Periodic Table Mystery series.


Gloria and her best friends, Rose and Frank Galigani, are on vacation in the Big Apple. They plan to visit Matt's niece Lori Pizzano, a documentary filmmaker, and enjoy the holiday sights together: shopping on Fifth Avenue, dining in Little Italy, and honoring ancestors at Ellis Island, while Matt attends a conference with the NYPD.


Unfortunately, Lori's documentary on ozone and environmental issues has deadly fallout. Gloria stumbles over the body of Lori's scheming camerawoman in a Times Square loft, and, once again, she is thrust into some dangerous sleuthing.
With suspects ranging from a disapproving brother to a smooth-talking PR administrator to a self-protecting private eye, Gloria tracks a killer through an intricate landscape of colorful neighborhoods and famous landmarks.


Taking us on a trip from the city's tallest building to its grand park, from its crowded ice rinks to a lonely corner of its two-million-square-foot museum, The Oxygen Murder is as exciting as a ride over New York City in a helium balloon.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Christmas

244 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2006

About the author

Camille Minichino is also known as Ada Madison and Margaret Grace.

Reviews

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Oxygen Murder by Camille Minichino is the 8th book in the Periodic Table Mystery series. Police scientific consultant, Gloria Lamerino is visiting New York with her friend Rose while her husband Matt attends a NYPD conference. Matt's nice, Lori Pizzano is shooting a documentary on ozone and while visiting her, Gloria comes across Lori's room-mate and camera woman's body. An interesting mystery although Gloria is out of her element in New York and comes across as meddling rather than being helpful. Lori and Gloria seemed to be leading their own investigations which seemed to confuse things.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Retired physicist Gloria is in NYC at Christmas time, and manages to become embroiled, of course, with a murder that has a science connection. Gloria's niece-in-law Lori is making a documentary about exposing welding companies and their practices that cause dangerous ozone to escape into the environment, harming workers and depleting the ozone layer ofthe atmosphere. Gloria finds the body of Amber, the woman who conducts and films the various interviews, resulting in her assisting the NYPD in solving the murder. Along the way, various other inter-related crimes and misdemeanors are explored and Lori gets the final evidence to make her documentary a success.

It's a complex mystery and I literally did not identify the murderer until about 3 pages before the big reveal. I completely missed the clues. Gloria and the other characters were entertaining. The book is also an absolute Valentine to the NY of those who live here with recognizable streets, local landmarks like the Angelika Theater, descriptions of blocks and street vendors those who live here know well. Even the couple of 'made up' locations were surrounded by descriptions of neighborhoods that made me stop and think a minute about how I did not know that was there (it isn't of course - it doesn't really exist. The author even includes a lovely description of the Baroque Christmas Tree at the MET!

I found this hard to become absorbed in and I really cannot blame the writing or the story. I have found it very hard to read at all this pandemic holiday season.

I do want to mention that this is the only one in the series I believe that takes place elsewhere than in Revere, MA. Given it's publication and the touching mentions of WTC and Ground Zero, I suspect this book is the author's homage to NYC post-9/11. How wonderful that she chose to set it at Christmas, when NYC is at its best!

And with this, I have finished 2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge - this fills the prompt of a book about or by a woman in STEM - it hits both as the author is herself a physicist.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as some of the earlier books in the series, but the author has a nice twist on the mystery genre. I just got tired of reading, over and over, about Gloria's obsession with physics and her best friend's obsession with shopping. Those replays probably added 100 pages to the book.

[Lindig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like science. I like women protagonists. But I'm disappointed in this series. This is the second I've tried and I can't understand this woman's reactions to anything that happens. Bafflement.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of this series when I picked up The Oxygen Murder in a Little Library Box. This book is the eighth in the series, so I didn't have any back story. Luckily, the book kept my interest on its own. I was delighted to discover that the main characters were long time residents of a town near my own, and that they were on a business/vacation trip in New York City when the problems started. It is a good mystery with corporate greed and the public health consequences of said greed as the driving force. A body is found where it absolutely should not be, a bump in a dark alley, unfortunate elevator incidents, documents slipping out of folders, and so on. There is an interesting assortment of characters, well developed, including retired scientist Gloria, the snoopy sleuth, married just four months to the widowed Revere, MA detective Matt, and his niece New York City filmmaker Lori, a young woman who has made some questionable choices which she now regrets, with frightening fallout. I enjoyed the many science references, the police collaboration between Matt and his N.Y. contacts, and the over the top fashion and design obsession of family friend Rose. I was also sentimentally pleased with now vintage references like "Charlie on the MTA", the Revere Beach amusement rides, and the area near the shining Trump Tower as a desirable place to visit, live, or work. A lot of the book is development; the big action mostly takes place at the end. I would certainly read another book from the Periodic Table Mystery series. Three and three quarters stars.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I end up having mixed feelings about a lot of these books. For example, in this one our fearless detective has gone so far out of the bounds of duty to discover the mystery we start fearing for her sanity (or ours, for reading books that are so contrived). But then it gets balanced out by a pleasure in a change of scene, and change of characters. (And then gets canceled by the unfortunate resolution.)

I think if you keep these books in perspective they have something to offer, but lets not expect mind-bending literature.

[Rachel Kramer Bussel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first of the periodic table mysteries I've read, and I love it. I live in New York and thought Minichino did an excellent job with the setting, providing lots of details and contrasting Gloria, with her scientific mindset, and her more historical and fashion oriented friend Rose. I know nothing about ozone, which is at the heart of this mystery, so appreciated the lessons embedded in this tale of blackmail and intrigue. The clues were deftly spread out and focused on all the senses. I liked the personal connection, since Gloria's husband's Matt's niece, Lori, is a central part of the murder of her assistant Amber, so both are invested in solving the crime and keeping Lori safe. This is a cozy series I plan to keep on reading and one I'd recommend to any cozy fan, whether or not you like science (you don't need to, and Minichino even skewers Gloria's obsession a little bit by making other characters her foils).

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, Dr. Gloria Lamerino gets involved in a case of science and murder.

This time, she and her husband, Matt Gennaro, are vacationing in New York city, and the subject is ozone, an allotrope of Oxygen that is "good up high, bad nearby." Matt's niece, Lori Pizzano, is filming a documentary about the companies who are violating government regulations about the acrid-smelling stuff when, unexpectedly, her camerawoman, Amber Keenan, is found dying on the floor of Lori's loft apartment ...

[Scilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Retired physicist, Gloria Lamerino and her husband, Matt Gennaro, a homicide detective in Revere, MA are in NYC for a police conference. Gloria goes to Matt's niece Lori Pizzanno's apartment to return her glasses, and finds a dying woman. Lori is making a documentary about ozone, and is concerned about local companies who don't follow the letter of the law. Gloria insists on snooping to find the guilty parties.

[Pam]

02/25/08 rec via pbs

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

i learned there are special mysteries, even for science nerds. not much action, but they passed the time for me. i read several in the series (blame insomnia) - each has an element in the title!

[Loretta · Rating 4 out of 5]

By our dear family friend Camille. A fun mystery set in NY :-)

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of boring.

[Toni]

I liked it because I am a science teacher and it talks about the ozone layer which I am very interested in. reminded me of a Murder she wrote novel.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned about O3 and read a good story.

[Auntie Jpeg]

This was a hardcover used book purchase for me. Set aside for my summer reads...

[erocchio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun easy read. Good detective book.