Mallory's Oracle is the first novel in the

Kathy Mallory Kathleen 'Kathy' Mallory is a fictional character featured in eleven mystery novels by author Carol O'Connell. The novels in the series include ''Mallory's Oracle'' (1994), '' The Man Who Cast Two Shadows'' (1995), '' Killing Critics'' (1996), ''St ...

series by author

Carol O'Connell Carol O'Connell (born May 26, 1947, in New YorkElizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, ''Great Women Mystery Writers'', 2nd ed., Greenwood Press, 2007, p. 192, ) is an author of crime fiction, with a large series of crime books focusing around the character ...

. The book was nominated for an

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

and a

Dilys Award The Dilys Award was presented every year from 1992 to 2014 by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. It was given to the mystery title of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling. The Independent Mystery Booksellers ...

. It was first published by Hutchinson in May 1994 in the UK, then in August that year by Putnam in the US.

Plot

The series stars

Kathleen Mallory Kathleen 'Kathy' Mallory is a fictional character featured in eleven mystery novels by author Carol O'Connell. The novels in the series include ''Mallory's Oracle'' (1994), '' The Man Who Cast Two Shadows'' (1995), '' Killing Critics'' (1996), ''St ...

, a policewoman who is tall, blonde, beautiful, and green-eyed. She also has immense street and computer smarts. Her physical beauty masks a cold, amoral interior, however; O'Connell describes Mallory as a

sociopath Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been u ...

. New York City police detective Louis Markowitz picks up an 11-year-old homeless street urchin for stealing. Instead of arresting her, he takes Kathleen Mallory home and raises her as his own. Mallory (as she likes to be called) still deals with issues from her traumatic childhood, but she has an undying love (or at least the closest thing she can manage to it) for her adopted parents. She follows Louis to the police academy and ends up in the special crimes unit, specializing in computer research. Louis begins investigating the brutal murders of several older, wealthy women from

Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States. T ...

. While working alone and hot on the trail of this

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

, he is murdered alongside another victim. Mallory takes it upon herself to take on this investigation (without police sanction, of course) and tries to piece together all the bits of information Louis had gathered. Louis trained Mallory well, but there is still the possibility that following his trail will cause Mallory to make the same mistakes he did, and lead to her becoming another victim. Along the line, Mallory uncovers a complicated plot that deals with magic, séances, and

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

Reception

Ellen Datlow Ellen Datlow (born December 31, 1949) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award (Horror Writers Association). Career Datlow began her career ...

praised the novel as "an important suspense debut with a fascinating protagonist"."Summation 1994: Horror," ''

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror ''Year's Best Fantasy and Horror'' was a reprint anthology published annually by St. Martin's Press from 1987 to 2008. In addition to the short stories, supplemented by a list of honorable mentions, each edition included a number of retrospective e ...

: Eighth Annual Collection'', p.xli

References

1994 novels Kathleen Mallory (novel series) Novels set in New York City Hutchinson (publisher) books {{1990s-crime-novel-stub