It happens in the dark

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Title:

It happens in the dark

Author:

O'Connell, Carol, 1947- author.

Series:

Kathleen Mallory ;

Series Number:

11.

Summary:

After two patrons at a play are found murdered on successive nights, detective Kathy Mallory investigates the killings along with mysterious backstage chalkboard messages.

Edition:

Berkley premium edition.

Physical Description:

x, 463 pages ; 20 cm.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Subject Term:

Mallory, Kathleen (Fictitious character) -- Fiction.

Police -- Fiction.

Policewomen -- Fiction.

Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Berkley Books,

Publication Date:

2014

2013

ISBN:

9780425270875

Publication Information:

New York : Berkley Books, 2014.

Call Number:

OCONNEL

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003099457	Adult Fiction	OCONNEL	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

The reviews called it "A Play to Die For" after a woman was found dead in the front row. It didn't seem so funny the next night when another body was found--this time the playwright himself, his throat slashed. Detective Kathy Mallory of the NYPD Special Crimes Unit takes over, but isn't getting a straight answer from anyone. Not the lead actor, a movie star fallen on hard luck; not the lead actress, a nervous sort with a dependence on pharmaceuticals; not even the wardrobe mistress, working under an alias; and certainly not the twin actors so unnervingly convincing playing psychos.

Now, backstage, someone has left Mallory a message on the blackboard: Tonight's the night. Nothing personal. It appears that she is being written into the play itself, a play about a long-ago massacre that may not be fictional after all.

If Mallory can find out who's responsible, heads will roll. Unfortunately, one of them might be her own.

Author Notes

Author Carol O'Connell was born in 1947. She attended the California Institute or Arts/Chouinard and Arizona State University, where she studied art. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a freelance proofreader and copy editor as well as occasionally selling her paintings. At the age of 46, she wrote the first book in the Kathleen Mallory series and sold it to a British publisher. Her title The Chalk Girl made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

M is for Mallory-Kathy Mallory, bestseller O'Connell's powerful and powerfully flawed New York Special Crimes Unit detective. M is also for morbid, macabre, and mordant-adjectives that can be applied to the plot, the prose, and the humor of this dazzling 11th novel in the series (after 2012's The Chalk Girl). An audience death on opening night stops Peter Beck's play The Brass Bed, based on the slaughter of a Nebraska family, as does the discovery of Beck's bloody corpse in a front-row seat the next night. Add to the strange mix of cast members a mysterious ghostwriter working on the script who leaves taunting messages for Mallory. Mallory makes startling deductions; manipulates witnesses, suspects, and colleagues unsparingly; humiliates a brash official who tries to grab her case; and draws the smalltown sheriff who investigated the actual slayings to Manhattan. Her bravura performance wreaks justice both inside and outside the legal system. Author tour. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Set in New York City's theater district, this solid entry in O'Connell's long-running series (after The Chalk Girl) follows NYPD detective Kathy Mallory and company as they track clues left by a "ghostwriter" directing changes in a new play: the edits are mysteriously written on the backstage chalkboard, and audience members are turning up dead after each performance. The play becomes a huge success as audiences flock to the theater in hopes of witnessing more murders. Though this dark-humored Mallory novel may be enjoyed as a stand-alone, series devotees will enjoy following the quirky, sad, and complex characters as they interact with the beautiful, brilliant, and merciless detective. Excellent narration by Barbara Rosenblat enhances the characterization and atmosphere of the story. Verdict Fans of Mallory will savor as well the fiercely independent female detectives in series by Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and Nevada Barr.-Sandra C. Clariday, Tennessee Wesleyan Coll., Athens (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Library Journal Review