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Kathleen Mallory, the feral child rescued by a NY cop, is now a member of an elite NYC police division, and her partner, Riker, who has known her since she was that feral child, are called to the scene of a fire and murder. When they get there, they find Sparrow, a prostitute known to them both, hanging from the ceiling of her apartment, with her long blonde hair roughly chopped off and stuffed in her mouth. A spark of life remains in Sparrow's body, so she is taken to the hospital where she lies in a coma. 15 years earlier, when Kathy was a 10-year old, living on the streets of New York, by stealing and picking pockets, and flitting in and out of the lives of a group of streetwalkers, who acted as surrogate mothers for the beautiful feral child with the amazing green eyes, Sparrow had been both Mallory's friend, and, to Mallory's mind, her betrayer. From the depths of her memory, Mallory dredges up a remembered conversation between her partner, Riker, and her adoptive father, Lou Markowitz, who was partnered with Riker 13 years before, about a similar murder, that of a woman who was hanged and whose blonde hair was hacked off and stuffed in her mouth. After the weakish 5th installment, Shell Game, O'Connell has gotten back on track, In Stone Angel, Mallory went back to her childhood home in Louisiana and investigated her mother's murder by stoning when Mallory was 6 years old. Crime School , the 6th entry in the series, gives us more of Mallory's history, which is intimately tied with that of the victim, Sparrow. Margaret Maron's Sigrid Harald is something like Mallory, but even Harald was able to allow someone to get near her. Mallory cannot, but she is a whiz at solving crimes in the present that have their roots in the past. Although it is not absolutely necessary to read these in order, it is a good idea to start with Mallory's Oracle, then read The Man Who Cast Two Shadows, and Killing Critics. Shell Game could probably be stuck in either 3rd or 4th place with Stone Angel and Crime School read one after the other. It has been about 5 years since I read Stone Angel. I'm going to chase down a copy and read it again. because I think there may still be a few years missing from Mallory's early life.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, September 2002
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