REVIEW
Killing Critics by Carol O'Connell
Hutchinson (0 09 179198 7) £15.99
Coming late to Mallory's Oracle I could definitely see what the fuss was all about when I finally caught up with O'Connell's wonderful heroine - completely original, like no other fictional PI or PD you've come across she's absolutely at home in her New York setting, a match for this city and its people. The plot became though, I thought, too involved, and "busy" as it progressed. While looking forward to meeting Mallory again I wondered whether the same question mark for me would hang over Killing Critics.
No need to worry. O'Connell this time has Mallory in the world of the New York Art Scene - galleries where horrendous murders are turned into "performance art", where "ghoul art" can fetch a high price and where those who run the show jostle for power and cash and do a good job of conning the buyers. This time for me the plot works, raising serious questions about the contemporary world of art and values in the process. And the role of critics too. O'Connell is not only telling a story, though the story here kept me guessing and involved from start to finish.
Some of the characters are extreme, outrageous, acting and reacting in ways which are astonishing yet convincing within the context of present day New York, the avant garde city of the Western World. It is not only Mallory who has suffered psychological damage. But then you meet others whose behaviour and values reflect a morality and old time sense of honour which survives even here in the frenzy of life in The Big Apple. Complex and thought provoking in its underlying themes, on the surface the book is an entertaining story of cops and homicide in a city where anything it is possible to imagine can and does happen.
And what about Mallory herself ? Computer superwoman, ruthless, beautiful, clever, cold, damaged, beyond desire and warmth? Somehow this general picture of her does not fit in with the feelings she evokes in the reader. You desperately don't want harm to come to her, even if she lies and steals and seems to care for no-one as she goes about her business of law enforcement In this book there are subtle ways in which she has changed. Subtle. That's how I'd describe O'Connells writing. Subtle and clever. I haven't read her second book - The Man Who Lied To Women, but somehow I don't think I want to go back to that now. What is going to happen to Mallory next? That's what I want to know.(P.E.D)