On a hot afternoon, in an East Side apartment, a woman is found hanged. Carefully placed red candles and an enormous quantity of dead flies suggest some sort of bizarre ritual. By some cruel miracle, the victim lives, but remains in a coma...Kathy Mallory does not recognise her immediately. Fifteen years have passed since Kathy lived on the streets of New York, succored by hookers and thieving to survive. Now she has traded in her plastic pellet gun for a 357 revolver and a police badge. No one is allowed to call her Kathy anymore - just Mallory. Once upon a time, a junkie whore and police informer, known simply as Sparrow, had cared for a young street urchin when she was lost and alone. Now, Mallory finds that she is staring her in the face, as she pursues a case which also has its origin in an unsolved murder committed years ago...

It's been quite a while since I've read a Carol O'Connell novel and I'd forgotten how well written and well plotted they are. The Mallory series is really excellent if you are looking for interesting characters as well as a good plot. This one is a little gruesome in parts and perhaps could have been pared down slightly, but once involved in the story I was hooked. Kathy Mallory is one of the most unusual and fascinating cops I've met in crime fiction . . . not always likeable, but you gotta admire her! An excellent read, and I really enjoyed being given some more of Mallory's backstory.

BTW, you don't need to have read the books preceding this one in the series to really enjoy this one. There's enough info on Kathy's history to fill you in.

Left on the book exchange shelf.


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