It Happens in the Dark

✍ Scribed by O'Connell, Carol

• Book ID: 108310286
• Publisher: Headline
• Year: 2013
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 792 KB
• Series: Kathleen Mallory 11
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9781101623183

✦ Synopsis

A Kathy Mallory thriller-filled with knife edge suspense and a masterful plotline

The reviews called it 'A Play to Die For' after the 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's, with his throat slashed.

Detective Kathy Mallory takes over, but no matter what she asks, no one seems to be giving her a straight answer. The only person - if 'person' is the right word - who seems to be clear is the ghostwriter. Every night, an unseen backstage hand chalks up line changes and messages on a blackboard. And the ghostwriter is now writing Mallory into the play itself, a play about a long-ago massacre that may not be at all fictional. 'MALLORY,' the blackboard reads, 'TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT. NOTHING PERSONAL.'

If Mallory can't find out who's responsible, heads will roll. Unfortunately, one of them might be her own...

From Booklist

This latest addition to the popular Mallory series, launched in 1995 with Mallory’s Oracle, seems almost like a send-up of the tough detective novel, so over the top are Mallory’s appearances and other people’s reactions to her. Kathy Mallory is an NYPD detective whose beauty and insight overwhelm everyone. As does her rudeness: Mallory’s way of ordering people around more befits a traffic cop than a detective. This one has a Broadway background: two deaths occur in two nights in the audience of a play; the second one is that of the playwright. O’Connell resurrects the Phantom of the Opera device of having notes delivered to the actors; here, someone writes threats and directions on a backstage blackboard. This does intensify the suspense but in a somewhat formulaic way. Not at the level of some other Mallory mysteries but necessary reading for devoted fans. --Connie Fletcher

Review

*Praise for It Happens in the Dark _

“Dazzling.”—_ Publishers Weekly _

“Fans won’t want to miss another solid mystery from O’Connell”—_ Library Journal _

“NYPD Special Crimes Detective Kathy Mallory is one of the most intriguing characters in crime fiction today.”—_ New York**Daily News*

** Praise for the Kathy Mallory series by Carol O'Connell _
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_“ The Chalk Girl is an event – any Mallory book is. She is as fine a fictional creation as the crime genre offers.” – Janet Maslin, The New York Times
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_“Like every mother’s child, every author’s detective is exceptional. But Carol O’Connell takes it way over the top with the mythic scale of her mad-genius New York City cop, Kathy Mallory.” – Marilyn Stasio,The New York Times Book Review
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_“O’Connell’s awesome ability to weave a taut, complex plot works with Mallory’s equally awesome detective skills as she unearths each crystalline facet of crimes both past and present.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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_“A remarkable series. O’Connell delivers shock after shock, held together by exquisitely detailed police and forensic procedure and by the riveting, punishing figure of Mallory herself.” – Booklist (starred review)
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_“O’Connell offers more than a suspenseful tale; she portrays a complex world of dark and light, corruption and love. Another must-read in a compelling and rich crime series.” – Library Journal (starred review)
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_“My new favorite in a long line of mysteries by Carol O’Connell that I have greatly admired and enjoyed. Mallory is one of the great characters ever in detective fiction. She’s tall, beautiful, scary smart and…just plain scary. A great read, filled with O’Connell’s command of humor, pathos and drama.” – San Jose Mercury News
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_“O’Connell’s writing is electric, her plots multilayered, and her cast of characters fascinating.” – Sacramento Bee
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_“Wow, my vote for the most terrifying and gripping January read. It will chill you to the bone with a plot rising right out of the Brothers Grimm.” – Barbara Peters, Poisoned Pen
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“Mallory is one of the most fascinating characters in crime fiction. Before Lisbeth Salander, there was Mallory.” – Joanne Sinchuk, Murder on the Beach