Killing Critics

Kathleen Mallory #3

by Carol O'Connell

As NYPD Detective Sergeant Kathleen Mallory probes the death of a hack artist at a gallery opening, she discovers links to a bizarre twelve-year-old double homicide and dismemberment originally investigated by her late adoptive father, Louis Markowitz.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Detective, Suspense

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Born in 1947, Carol O'Connell studied at the California Institute or Arts/Chouinard and the Arizona State University. She lives in New York City.

Series:
* Kathleen Mallory

Reviews

[Sid Nuncius · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third in the Mallory series and is the best so far, I think. It is witty, shrewd, unflinchingly bloody in places and a terrific read.

A killing at an art gallery leads Mallory and Riker into an investigation which soon links to a horrendous crime from twelve years ago, investigated by Markowitz, Mallory’s adoptive father. The tale is convoluted and involves corruption and manipulation in the art world, serious corruption in the police and city officials, a half-crazed art critic camped on the roof of Bloomingdales...and so on.

O’Connell writes excellently and creates great characters, especially Charles and Mallory herself, who is cool, self-possessed but not invulnerable and utterly determined and ruthless. If you’re looking for a charming, likeable protagonist, you’ll have to look elsewhere, but I find her a brilliant companion and a very interesting character study. I also love O’Connell’s jaundiced picture of New York; not just the blatant, criminal corruption but her characters’ world-weary acceptance of political shenanigans and manipulation – like this exchange, for example:
“But the homicide rate is falling.”
“It’s an election year so the mayor won’t let us drag the river.”

This is a great entry in a great series. Warmly recommended.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I've indicated in my reviews of the first two books in Carol O'Connell's Kathleen Mallory series, I don't really care for the lead character. So, I ask myself, why do I continue to read the series?

The plots are interesting, the writing is good and the characters are believable, even if Mallory's freedom in policing her own way stretches credibility.

Mallory is a sociopath (think Dexter) who is a sergeant in the Special Crimes Unit of the NYPD. Prior to her foster father's recent death, Mallory had only worked in the background, sleuthing info on computers. Her foster father, an esteemed NYPD Special Crimes detective, deliberately kept her from the streets, preferring to use her talents for research -- legal and illegal.

I really like the supporting cast of characters. Maybe one reason I keep reading is the hope that Mallory will develop into a person for whom I can care.

These are good stories. The journey continues...

[Joan Lim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Judas Child was the first book by Carol O' Connell that I have read and I loved it! Getting her books in the Philippines is not easy so I was quite excited to find "Killing Critics" in the bookstore. However, as I started reading it, I could not relate with any of the characters. I feel that the author was not able to successfully communicate her characters' personalities. The story itself was quite boring.. I mean, Art Terrorism? I just find the whole book weird. I didn't even bother to finish it anymore.

Overall, a very big disappointment.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better and better. We learn a little more about Mallory, The Early Years. And we are privy to the politicking of a big city police force in a way that doesn't make me more cynical than I already am. The supporting misfit motleys are more interesting, bonkers and all portrayed as disturbed performance artists. In this book O'Connell treats us to another cold fish who thinks he can outfrost Mallory and we squirm in excited anticipation of the smackdown ahead. Every character is richly weird, and way smarter than most of the folks walking around any major city, and that may be what forgives the lurid details, and allows the horrific crime to not overpower the novel. O'Connell is a brilliant storyteller, and rather than be put off by the whodunit teases, we're invited to play along, and given a trail of art gallery hors d'oeuvres to follow on the dark streets of the East Village, where we slop our champagne on the sidewalk and never, ever, make eye contact. I hope I can step away from this series for a little while. I need to get some sleep!

[Eugene Gorodinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even better than the second installment in the series. In this one we, the readers, get to see a side of Mallory we were never shown before. While the first book showed a calculating mind and a person you wouldn't want to mess with and the second showed how broken she is and left you wondering whether Kathy Mallory can be fixed or not, the third book shows that she's not actually broken beyond repair and can be fixed. And then Kathy Mallory surprises us, her only friend and herself by doing something that we all would think would be impossible for her. And this is the state we're left in at the end. A better cliffhanger that's not a cliffhanger is hard to come up with.

[Harry Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

O'Connell has created one of the most fascinating principals in the detective genre. Mallory is a waif whose early, homeless years made her effectively a sociopath. But she was taken in and given a veneer of civilization and a set of values by a policeman and his wife. The result is something not quite human - or perhaps someone just one step up the evolutionary ladder. In this installment, Mallory sees a connection between murder as perfomance art done in the present with a ten-year old case that no one seems to want reopened. The story is well stocked with characters, and unfolds in zigs and zags. Along the way O'Connell seems to take a swipe or two at artsy pretensiousness.

[Melissa (Hiatus due to Death in Family) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this whole Mallory series because for whatever reason I identify with Mallory. I like that she can solve crimes and I love the mystery throughout the book.

[Pisces51 · Rating 5 out of 5]

KILLING CRITICS [1995] By Carol O’Connell
My Review 4.5 Stars Rounded To 5 *****

This is Book 3 of 12 in the author’s widely acclaimed Mallory Book Series, and it was first released to an enthusiastic audience of O’Connell fans nearly three decades ago. I waited for several weeks for it to become available in my state’s digital library system which provides a glimpse of this writer’s continued popularity with crime fiction fans today.

The complex plot of this third installment plays out against a backdrop of New York City’s art community in the mid ‘90’s. An artist is silently murdered amidst a crowded art gallery. As murders go, it was an especially bloodless killing, the weapon a longer than average ice pick plunged through the back into a chamber of the heart. The victim quietly sinks to the floor of the crowded room as his heart’s blood pools around his body. An art critic’s column compares the murder to performance art in a city that is experiencing “art terrorism”.

The controversial column by the otherwise pedestrian art critic is accompanied in time by an anonymous letter to the NYPD which alleges a connection between the fresh homicide and the grisly double murder with dismemberment 12 years earlier. The cold case was never officially closed by Markowitz but resources to further investigate the murders were cut off following the confession of a drug-addled hack who was certified insane at the time. Mallory is driven to revisit the double murder her adoptive father had never solved, but is met with pressure to let sleeping dogs lie from her superiors.

The author’s narrative style is addictive with its crisp prose, sense of atmosphere, articulate descriptions, and witty dialogue among the wildly diverse array of characters in this outing. The investigation that Mallory undertakes is a bold quest to go where no detective has gone before and to perform a postmortem on the police work that accompanied the ghoulish murders a dozen years ago. A promising young talent (artist Peter Ariel) and a uniquely gifted ballet student (Aubry Gilette) were literally hacked to pieces and their body parts reassembled into an abattoir of death as art.

Mallory’s adoptive father was hobbled when he endeavored to investigate the crime when it was a fresh double homicide. Specifically, he was denied the necessary access to interview key figures surrounding the horrific murders. Subsequently there was a bogus signed confession and Markowitz was then denied the resources to delve any further into the murders. Mallory is hell bent on interviewing everyone she deems relative to ferreting out the truth.

A good many of the principal players in the modern-day art world were involved in the double murder all those years ago. Mallory sets her sites on finding and interviewing those individuals who were central to the original investigation. The dashing Jamie Quinn is perhaps the most interesting quarry of them all, the rich, powerful, politically connected and elegantly polished art critic whose niece Aubry was a victim. He is immediately smitten with Mallory and their interchanges are wickedly entertaining. Gregor Gilette, the larger-than-life famous architect and father of Aubry, was carefully shielded from the police and the press. This was also the case with the beautiful fabulously famous and wealthy artist Sabra. She was the beloved wife of Gregor, and the mother of the murdered young ballerina Aubry. Quinn used his connections to prevent the police and camera crews from getting anywhere near his sister Sabra and brother-in-law Gregor. Avril Koozeman, the gallery owner where the present-day murder took place, but also the old gallery location where the horrors of the old double homicide played out, is still active in the art scene. The figure and person of Emma Sue Halloran also looms large, obsessed then and now with Gregor Gilette. The columnist Andrew Bliss is the pen behind the editorial in the newspaper alleging “art terrorism”. He is but a pitiful puppet on a string for this ostensibly horrible woman, evidently once an art critic but now a “culture rat” who uses her power and connections to force hideous art into new architecture. Andrew dulls his conscience with booze and escapes it all by camping out on the roof of Bloomingdale’s. His crazy antics include trying his talent as a fashion advisor sniper from on high, using a bullhorn to terrorize the citizens on the street who exhibit poor fashion sense, which is naturally pretty hilarious at times.

The author executes another complex, multilayered plot with exquisite skill. The story is riveting and the suspect pool is so colorful and exotic that it remains an exciting tale all the way to the finish line. Fans of this series know that Mallory is fond of “money motives”, but it is genuinely curious how she will fair applying greed as a reason for this double homicide involving mutilation of the bodies and moving the parts around like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. A new homicide in the gallery spices things up and telegraphs that Mallory’s picking and poking is getting too close to the truth.

I don’t think anyone could possibly divine the complete truth that surrounds the old murders from 12 years ago. As a reader I found that it was difficult enough keeping up with all of the players and trying to get a good picture of which ones may be involved in the actual murders. The author provides an enlightening inside look at the subject of art marketing, and how it plays out in actual finance. Most readers know how valuable that anything surrounding a notorious killer becomes in today’s world of folks fascinated with the macabre. All we have to think about is John Wayne Gacy’s clown paintings. I don’t believe that I ever contemplated how lucrative it could be for an entrepreneur to artificially manufacture a market for the items rather than seize the opportunity.

The conclusion of this novel, to include all of the answers to what happened with the double murder and mutilation deaths includes more than one unexpected plot twist, especially the surprise ending. Finally, I liked this third installment best so far because the author is effectively fleshing out the character of Mallory. The reader gets to see and revel in Mallory’s aptitude for manipulation, whether it is hood-winking her honest boss Jack Coffey, her masterful ability to deliver a press conference that emasculates the cocky FBI presence, using her sex appeal, blackmailing the mob-connected police brass, or using the razor-sharp edge of an antique sword. Her figurative swordplay with the crooked police chief Delaney is perhaps more exciting than her fencing match with an Olympian Gold Medalist.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a treat to walk in the shoes of young, beautiful, and dangerous NYPD Sergeant Mallory again. This time she is on the case of murders of art critics at the scene gallery openings. They seem to be connected to a case nearly a decade ago, which involved staging of the body parts in an twisted, "artful" display. Is it the work of a maniac serial killer or do they have a conventional motive related to emotions of greed or passion? I had more fun with the cast of characters than the mystery. Mallory's ability to surmount the corruption in the art world and in the police administration depends on her willingness to bend the rules, on certain loyal friends (whom she doesn't treat very well), and the elements of moral compass and empathy derived from the foster parents who saved her from the path of delinquency. Mallory's allure is similar to that of Larsson's dark heroine Lisbeth Salander (published a decade later, maybe Larsson got some inspiration from Mallory). �

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

KILLING CRITICS - Ex
O'Connell, Carol - 3rd in Mallory series

Andrew Bliss, art critic pens the phrase "art terrorism" to describe the murder of artist Dean Starr. No one suspects he knows anything about a crime committed in a gallery 12 years earlier. Detective Kathy Mallory wants to reopen the case and a number of people in high places start to get nervous.

I find the character of Mallory completely intriguing. Add to the wonderful secondary characters, a dry humor and it's a winner. I shall admit, in this book, the characters are better than the story.

[Georgiann Hennelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dean Starr a performance artist. Makes a name for himself. When he,s stabbed at a gallery during one of his more memorable pieces. Then audience liked it-until they realized how authentic Starr,s art as death,s routine is. Det Kathleen Mallory see,s a connection between Starr,s stabbing and another cold-case murder of a promising young dancer from twelve years ago. Her beloved stepfather was the investigator on that earlier unsolved case. But the deeper Mallory gets in to the past the more she realizes .Just how dark and dangerous it can be.

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very good. #3 in the series, and I have lots of catching up to do (#10 is coming out this year). Lots of gore, and lots of broken people. I enjoyed the multiple points of view - too much of what I've been reading lately has been first person, so it was a refreshing change. I thought I had it figured out, but the ending was not what I expected at all - and O'Connell really made me work for it!

I'm fascinated by Mallory's ability to compartmentalize everything, and by her "there are no rules but MY rules" attitude. It will be very interesting to see where this goes....

[Patti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different take

Missed the interactions between Mallory's babysitters. Everyone is on edge. A few gems reveal scenes from Mallory's childhood. We begin to see her true code.

[Anne, Unfinished Woman · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILER ALERT

A particularly complicated murder from the past becomes part of current murder of a hack artist. DS Kathy Mallory is part of the investigation until the Chief of Detectives Blakely wants her off of it. She smells a coverup. Her foster father Louis Markowitz was in charge of the case, and she believes he had evidence withheld and he also had evidence that she finds in his notes that some evidence was deliberately altered by the ME. Lt Coffey fights for her staying on the case, and Blakely is also warned off by a mafia don with whom he has an agreement.

In the first murders some twelve years earlier two people were brutally murdered, an artist Peter Ariel and a young dancer Aubry Gilette. Their bodies were cut up and the parts changed and attached to a piece of art so that the parts were comingled. A family member, J L Quinn kept the police from interviewing the family. Aubry's mother lost her mind and has disappeared. She is now a homeless person, appearing years older and much like a hag, with a tin she thinks contains her daughter's brain.

As the story is revealed, Mallory's relationship with her foster mother, Helen and with Louis is brought into play. She will find some emotion to Sabra, Aubry's mother as they come into contact. Blakely when confronted by Mallory with evidence of his wrongdoing will cause him to rage and to get one of his men to burn down the Markowitz house, and to destroy Mallory apartment, savaging her belongings and clothes. He makes no secret that he is the one behind it. He will in the end be forced to pay for the house and belongings from his offshore accounts that others know about and will be forced to resign penniless.

Andrew Bliss, an art critic who knows of the details of the first murder will take to the roof of Bloomingdale's hiding from the killers once the second murder of Dean Starr. Had Louis had all of the information withheld by Quinn, Sabra's brother, he would have agreed that Aubry was not the target, and the other evidence would have made sense. The murder was set up by the gallery owner with the complicity of Starr to cause the artist work to increase in value. Quinn had been called to give credence to the "murder art". It was in error that the dancer had shown up and Bliss had been forced to keep her from leaving by Emma Sue Halloran, a power broker in the art community and the one who killed Aubry. The artist has not been murdered, but had died when a large sculpture had fallen on him. The schemers had then decided to cut then bodies up and comingle their parts on the art piece to create another art piece.

When Halloran had been confronted by Starr and Koozeman, gallery owner, to do another scheme, she had killed Koozeman and Starr. She is now after Bliss. Mallory figures it all out. She gets to the Halloran's apartment where Bliss has arrived, having given up his roof, too late. Sabra had followed them, and Halloran had shot Sabra, who had then stabbed Halloran. Sabra tries to leave by way of the fire escape and falls to her death.

Mallory is confronted by the mother figure that Sabra had presented, and Riker sees the role reversal when Mallory carries Sabra's body aside and kisses her, telling her she is sorry. Then Mallory leaves, telling Charles "Goodbye". He has gone to her apartment not knowing she is already gone and thrown a rock through a window with a note that he loves her.

[Kenneth G · Rating 5 out of 5]

a peek inside the art world that will cause you nervous laughter

According to O’Connell, NYC is a bastion of corruption. Everyone can be bought: police, politicians, doctors and even art critics. And even suspects in a murder investigation have a price to take the fall for the real perp. Mallory has to navigate through all of this when artists and art critics are murdered. She opens up an old case that was closed because of unwarranted interference from higher powers, which causes a rift between herself and her Captain. Of course, Mallory never backs away from any fight, so you know the Captain is toast even if he thinks he has the upper hand. Throw in some insights to the business end of the art community and you have a whale of a story that is only enhanced by O’Connells brilliant writing.
O’Connell’s cynical view of the art world matches my own, so I took sheer delight in reading about the charlatans and con men who populate the galleries and magazines of this made up New York art scene. O’Connell makes it seem real, and who knows, maybe this version is closer to the truth than what you might read in the Times or Art Collectors monthly. And Mallory is able to piece it together by solving three murders, and a missing person case, all while giving aid to her alcoholic partner, and adding more confusion to her relationship with Charles. Throw in a disturbing encounter with her parish priest, and you have one of the best Mallory stories in the series.

[Fede · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terzo libro in ordine cronologico.
Oltre all'indagine vera e propria si indaga nelle dinamiche della corruzione, giochi politici, patti, favori, anche all'interno della polizia. Mallory deve crescere in fretta e imparare a relazionarsi con gli altri invece che andare avanti stile rullo compressore.
Stavolta l'ambiente è quello dell'arte, dei critici, mercanti e musei, mondo affascinante, ma anche estremamente cinico e crudele.
Con l'aiuto dei suoi colleghi e di amici di vecchia data (sempre che per Mallory sia possibile avere amici) la protagonista riuscirà anche questa volta a scoprire cosa è successo.
Nel frattempo il suo passato torna a farsi vivo e lei stessa inizia a capire un po' più se stessa, lasciando anche al lettore qualche informazione in più per provare a comprenderla, anche se non è facile, come non è facile immedesimarsi in tutto quello che può avere passato.
Ovviamente leggere tutti i libri di fila mi fa immergere completamente nella storia e fra i personaggi, quasi fossero persone reali e conosciute, ogni libro mi sembra migliore del precedente, più scorrevole, invitante e coinvolgente.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm still feeling ambivalent about this series. The writing remains uneven. Of the first three Mallory books, I think I liked this one least. A major factor in me liking it less was Charles was less central as a character, and I like the Charles/Mallory interplay. I also found the plot confusing. There were too many critics and they didn't stand out to me as characters so I kept forgetting who they were or mixing them up. There was a lot going on with different characters and their plot lines, and I had trouble putting any of the pieces together till the denoument. It probably didn't help that I read most of the book a few pages at a time, at night when I was already tired. The reveal of the who-dunnit and their motivations was quite ridiculous, as it often is in murder mysteries. But this one seemed a bit of a stretch, at that. I continued to be intrigued by Mallory as a character, however, and am now quite curious as to how she makes her come-back in the next novel.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third in the series.

Our hero, the superhuman Kathy Mallory ("just Mallory"), is still on the hunt for the real killer of an artist and a dancer years before. Her dad had insisted that the wrong person was convicted for the murders, and now that he is dead, Mallory is determined to find the answer. Especially when persons involved in that murder are starting to be killed themselves.

As she pounds on doors and talks to people, she gets pushback from her superiors in the police force. It becomes clear to her that they do not want her to find out the answer. Hence there even comes a time when her life is threatened. But Mallory is afraid of nothing. Or at least she wants others to think so.

It's a long, complicated journey that ends with a significant change for Mallory. What will this mean in the next book, I ask?

[Jamie Jonas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read seven O'Connell novels at this point--and I have a feeling that "Killing Critics" will be my least favorite when I've reached the end of her available titles. Yes, the writing is great as always, but the central murder, as it plays out, is so utterly gruesome that it might as well come from a Stephen King novel (and King is a writer I despise). I won't say much about the crime except this little teaser: Dismemberment and BEYOND. I'm grateful that in moving on to the next Mallory outing, "Stone Angel," I found what may be the greatest and most captivating of the series. As for "Killing Critics," this will be the one I read only once, and remember with revulsion.

[Jeremy Preacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok this might be my favorite hardboiled mystery ever. From the opening scene, it's got a ton to say about art and money and corruption and trauma. It's not a nice book - its not a nice series - but it's incredibly effective and I am now very unhappy that the library doesn't have the next one. I dunno that I would recommend people start here - I think in this case it's going to work better if it's able to build on the characterization of the various recurring people from the previous books, not just Mallory herself but her colleagues and allies - but it's good enough that I'd recommend the previous two just to make sure this one hits as hard as possible.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kathleen Mallory is one of the most fascinating detectives I have ever encountered. Once a damaged and feral child, the few social skills she now has were taught to her by her adoptive family and the few people who care for her now. Her astounding beauty deceives others, who soon regret their encounters with this ferocious and cold intellect whose inclination to break rules is only partly controlled by her friends.

Although Killing Critics is funny, in a dark way, like the other books, the murders are pretty gruesome.

[Quentin Feduchin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this a most unusual book.
For a start, a pretty good percentage of people in this book are nuts! Mallory is determined to find out about current murders, but quite sure that the man originally gaoled; 10 years ago; was the wrong one. So she proceeds; against the wishes of the commisioner; to do so.
It really is very unusual and there is a large cast; so make sure you take note of all the names as you go along, otherwise it gets pretty confusing.
Anyway I found it great; also quite a long book at well over 300 pages.

[Mark Edlund · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystery series - too many characters doing too many things too quickly. Kathleen Mallory seems to have a backstory about her stepfather that was teased at several times. There were some funny comments made on the New York art scene. Mallory solves a particularly gruesome murder while ticking a lot of people off and causing an uproar in her department.
No pharmacy references.
Canadian reference - character is on vacation in Canada

[Dick Ulmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Mallory book. Again, Mallory has to battle the police management, corrupt city officials, and a state senator to solve a contemporary murder (which turns into 3, then 5 at the end), which she finds linked to a 12 year old double homicide, all occurring in the art community. Of course it ends up that the prime motive for all this carnage is profit from manipulating the value of art.

[Susan Krich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first mystery that I have read in the Mallory series.
It is number 3.
It was a little hard to get into at first but about half way through I didn't want to put it down.
The ending was a complete surprise to me.
I thought after the epilogue it was the end of the series but I was wrong.
I definitely will read more of these mysteries.

[Chantal E. R. H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very weird little book. It's quite beautiful in places. It's not your typical detective mystery/thriller. The mystery itself doesn't make much sense but the characters are very interested so by the end you don't really care that it's totally implausible and wrapped up too neatly.

[Garth Pettersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant writing with an unforgettable protagonist. Not everyone's cup of tea and I am not sure it was mine--brutal and graphic and dark describes the Mallory series. Also interesting and compelling.

[Dokusha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schwer zu beschreiben. Neben dem eigentlichen Kriminalfall, der auch schon etwas aus dem Rahmen fällt, geht es auch um die Polizistin Kathy Mallory, die ein ganz spezieller Charakter ist. Auf jeden Fall ist es ein spannende und anregende Lektüre.

[Doren Damico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gets more into the demented with a quite horrific crime as art. It also breaks open Mallory's shell and we learn so much more about her youth.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Dark but in an angelic way. Mallory is like an avenging angel, relentless, unemotional, a being who inspires devotion. Compared to this most other modern mysteries feel....sloppy.