L'école du crime

Kathleen Mallory #6

by Carol O'Connell

Une ex-prostituée vient d'être retrouvée pendue, à moitié scalpée, la bouche fourrée de cheveux, entourée de bougies rouges et d'un essaim de mouches mortes. Pour Kathy Mallory, gosse des rues devenue une pro de la police criminelle et de l'informatique, cette nouvelle enquête s'annonce particulièrement sensible. Malgré la chirurgie esthétique, cela ne fait aucun doute : la victime, Sparrow, est une vieille connaissance. Dans l'air flotte un parfum de déjà vu, une affaire similaire non résolue qui s'est produite plus de vingt ans auparavant. Secondée par son fidèle coéquipier, Riker - toujours amateur de mauvais bourbon -, Mallory va mener l'enquête : dans cette ballade new-yorkaise des pendues, Sparrow n'est ni la première victime ni la dernière

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Detective, Police

568 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Born in 1947, Carol O'Connell studied at the California Institute or Arts/Chouinard and the Arizona State University. She lives in New York City.

Series:
* Kathleen Mallory

Reviews

[Woman Reading (is away exploring) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absent all humanity, its bias and fragility, the law was a sociopath.

O'Connell explores cops and killers, from cop killers to killer cops, in Crime School, book #6 in her 12-title Kathleen Mallory series. It can be read as a standalone. Of course, if one has read Stone Angel (#4), Crime School packs a stronger emotional impact as it provides some insight into Mallory's feral years on the streets before police inspector Louis Markovitz and his wife took her in.

Sparrow, a former prostitute and long-time informant for Special Crimes detective Riker, is found dangling from a rope in her burning apartment. Riker's enigmatic and brusque partner Mallory also has a personal tie with Sparrow, but it's a bond that needs to be kept secret.

The Special Crimes commander wants nothing to do with Sparrow's case, especially since a greenhorn detective resuscitated Sparrow from death to a vegetative state and into a hospital bed. But Mallory spots a connection between Sparrow and a 20-year old cold case with a similar m.o. And soon, comparisons are inevitably drawn between Mallory and another mysterious twenty-something who also had a similarly traumatic childhood. As Riker explains to Charles Butler, who is still devoted to Mallory:

"It's an old idea that cops and killers are twins. What separates us - that's what happens after the killing is over. "

Crime School is a multi-layered police procedural with a serial stalker- turned- hangman and complex character dramas. It was published in 2002, and yet New York feels like the NYC of the 1990s or older. The police force's history is speckled with corruption and cops adopt compromising positions in order to preserve secrets. Or cops just make major screw ups. Although I still don't love the ruthless Mallory, I'm intrigued by her support system. Riker, who watched Mallory grow up, acts in loco parentis, and glimpses of his troubled history are provided. Although Charles turns a blind eye to Mallory' s personality deficiencies, he is the magnetic north for morality and normality. My only quibble with Crime School is the identification and arrest of the killer at the book's end; it didn't feel solid enough for me.

#1 Mallory's Oracle 3 ☆
#4 Stone Angel 4 ☆
#9 Find Me 3.5 ☆

[Roman Clodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It's an old idea that cops and killers are twins"

Another macabre masterpiece of crime fiction from O'Connell: someone is stalking and killing blondes in NYC but the story that unravels behind this trope of the genre is more gruesome, more emotionally-wrenching than anything your average writer could produce.

After dipping in and out of this series, I'm now reading it in the correct order and can see how precisely O'Connell rations information about Mallory, deepening both our understanding of her damaged psyche and her relationships with Riker and Charles. She sprang fully-formed in the first book Mallory's Oracle but it was only in the last book Flight of the Stone Angel that we were allowed to understand where she came from. Here, we get an insight into her life on the streets, and a more oblique portrait of an equally damaged child who is both like and radically unlike Mallory herself.

I can't put into words how much I love this series: O'Connell's writing is superb - nuanced, crisp, acidic, full of dark dark humour but also pliable enough to hit emotional high-notes without ever faltering. Crime is such an over-crowded marketplace, but O'Connell is one of its contemporary cult stars - just brilliant.

[Sid Nuncius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love Carol O'Connell's Mallory novels. This, the sixth in the series, is no exception. It's written with her usual flair, wit, insight and excellent storytelling. As always, it is extremely well structured so that the story and tension build slowly but grippingly and the climaxes are both thrilling and surprising.

The crime story itself is about a serial killer who, it emerges, has links to characters from Mallory's childhood on the streets, so the story is interwoven with revelations about Mallory's past and how she came to be the woman she is. It's all well done; you always have to suspend disbelief to an extent while reading a Mallory novel and the same is true here, but it's a satisfying and engrossing story with her characters (including old friends like Riker and Charles Butler) as well drawn as ever.

This is perhaps rather darker in tone and more revealing of Mallory's past than some others and so more traumatic and thoughtful. I slightly missed the comic aspects of Mallory's if-you-do-that-your-life-will-be-an-utter-misery-from-now-on approach which aren't strong here, but it's still a great read and warmly recommended.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most excellent 5 star read! Kathy, at some point you need to become human

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. O'Connell digs into our brains and hauls out empathy, repulsion, anger, regret, pity, insanity. Mallory's world is not one I want to live in, but six books into the series, I feel like a rookie ghost standing by the sergeant's desk at the foot of the stairs leading up to Special Crimes Unit, watching. O'Connell knows we can never understand the gears that propel Mallory, or the pain that Riker lives with, or the unique and combustible combination of elements that is Charles Butler. I learned to cut Lieutenant Coffey some slack in this book, and the jackass I wanted punched, she punched. O'Connell has multiple writing gifts she unwraps for us, one piece of bloody duct tape at a time. "Crazy is a place," said Janos. "You go, you come back."

[Vicky Sp · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 stelline
Raccapricciante al punto giusto

[Summer Zee · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very good, and tied up loose ends I didn't realize I wanted tied. I don't wait so long to read the next series entry - I like Charles quite a bit.

[Alexis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je pensais au début que c’était un problème de traduction, mais non, c’est le style, enfin si on peut parler de style. J’ai failli vingt fois laisser tomber, mais bon, par principe il fallait que j’aille au bout.
Le livre commence par un prologue dans lequel l’auteur essaye de faire un peu d’humour en écrivant qu’une de ses professeurs lui avait dit qu’elle avait parfois un brin de talent. Et bien elle se trompait, il y a autant de brins de talents que de brins d’herbe sur la lune.

[Roxann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first Kathy Mallory book I read. Apparently this is the 5th book. I probably should have read them in order. The story was wonderful (or should I write the plot), but I didn't get into the characters. Also there seemed to be so much that I didn't know about what happened 'before'. I've read other series and most times a book in a series can stand alone. This one could not.

[Stephanie Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like there was information that I was supposed to already know as I read this book, but somehow I didn't. But it was a bit lighter than the last one in the series, and I enjoyed it more. I might need a "happy book" break before I start the next one.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kathleen Mallory is not your typical policewoman. First she was a street child until found and adopted by a policeman. She uses her gut instinct to solve crimes and takes no guff from anyone. Now she is working the murder of a bag lady.

[Melliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

And...this one was back to being great! This series is really frustrating--one good, one not, one good, one not. There's something about it that has caused me to hang in there, but...now I'm off to read three books for teen book clubs! Maybe I will revisit it after.

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

O'Connell, Carol-CRIME SCHOOL-Ex
2002 Top Ten - Serial killer - more of Mallory's history

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I thought the plot and characters were interesting, I got really really really tired of reading that Kathy's eyes are green, Charles is tall, blahblahblah.

[Pisces51 · Rating 5 out of 5]

CRIME SCHOOL [2002] By Carol O’Connell
My Review Five Stars*****

“Awe, Mallory, what a gift you have for payback. It made her the ultimate cop. She was the paladin everyone wanted, a perfect instrument of vengeance. In Riker’s view, people should be more careful about what they wished for. Absent all humanity, its bias and fragility, the law was a sociopath.”

This outstanding and unforgettable installment is book six of the author’s twelve Mallory Novels, and I was so engrossed I read it in two sittings. I discovered this incredibly talented and surprisingly underrated crime fiction author the first of this year, and more to the point was introduced to her main protagonist the damaged and dangerous NYPD Special Crimes Investigator Kathleen Mallory. I’ve been so addicted to O’Connell’s style of writing, to the unique and fascinating character of Mallory, and to the recurring characters in her universe that I have read halfway through the entire series and it is only the fourth of April.

This sixth installment is an impressive work by a superlative author who deftly unpacks a multi-layered and complex murder mystery that spans over two decades and contains several intriguing subplots as well. The story line pulls the reader in smoothly and seamlessly, and the hours just melt away as you are solidly ensconced in the tale the writer is weaving for you.

The plot actually encompasses two story lines, one Cold Case Homicide from 21 years in the past, and the parallel active homicide investigation of serial murders taking place in the present day. It begins when Mallory and Riker are summoned to a crime scene that promised to be intriguing to the two seasoned cops from the Special Crimes Unit. A familiar prostitute and heroin addict (“Sparrow”) is discovered hanged in her apartment. She and the jaded Riker go back decades and she had been one of his most reliable and valuable police snitches. Moreover,” Sparrow” is a dark specter from Mallory’s childhood as a homeless kid on the mean streets of New York, her former mentor and protector who became her Judas. But that is not the extent of the mystery and intrigue surrounding this sad yet all too familiar tableau, the victim hanged, partially scalped, her own sheared hair used as a gag, flames smoldering and smoke rising from the torched apartment. The signature matches an unsolved murder in the Cold Case Files from 21 years ago. It was a case that had always troubled Lou Markowitz and a precocious young Kathy had eavesdropped the crime scene details when Lou had been discussing the homicide case with Heller of forensics. It then becomes imperative to solve the 21-year-old case in order to save the young women in the present who have been targeted as victims. The unique signature of the killings leads Mallory and Riker to question the likelihood of a copycat versus the surfacing of a grisly new serial killer. The police investigation is realistic and rewarding with the revelation of astonishing truths from the past that molded the bloody future that has the city gripped in terror. The details, as they gradually emerge, will chill you like a bucket of ice water poured down your back, and with O’Connell at the helm you never see the plot twists coming.

O’Connell is absolutely marvelous with character development and scintillating dialogue. The recurring personalities in Mallory’s universe (Detective Sergeant Riker, Dr. Edward Slope Chief ME, genius Charles Butler, Special Crimes Head Jack Coffey, Heller in Forensics, Rabbi Kaplan, and the memories of Lou & Ellen Markowitz, Kathy’s foster parents, are only more enriched and real to life with each successive novel). They are all three dimensional and fully realized people at this point, and so true to life you fully expect them to step off the written page.

This author is the “complete package”, and has no weaknesses that I can discern. I am unable to think of another writer off the top of my head who is so brilliant at rich character development while simultaneously maintaining perfectly paced action and searing suspense. Her ability to dig deep into the minds of the story’s protagonists while building the momentum to a fever’s pitch is just crazy good.

The character of Mallory is compelling, even chilling at times, and unrelentingly unapologetic in her approach and delivery. O’Connell’s dark imagination has created more of a mythical figure in Mallory with each novel in the series providing another puzzle piece to the complex Rubik’s Cube of mystery that has created and cloaked this beautiful avenging angel.

Finally, there is a subplot streaming through the narrative which involves a series of pulp Westerns which obsessed Mallory as an orphan on the mean streets of New York. The mystery of the paperback serial Westerns featuring the “Wichita Kid” and his father-figure and mentor Sheriff Peety is a show stopper and very nearly steels the thunder from this wonderfully complex plot with its own surprise turns and shocking reveals.

SEARING SUSPENSE, SCINTILLATING DIALOGUE, SURPRISING PLOT TWISTS, PERFECTLY PACED ACTION---CRIME FICTION AT ITS BEST

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

content warning: transphobia, whorephobia, misogyny

I enjoyed the heck out of this. Got super absorbed.

I've been feeling pretty 'meh' about this series over the last few books, and I thought if this one wasn't any better I was going to call it quits. But Crime School delivered!

Kathy Mallory, who lived on the streets as a child, and indelibly bears the psychic marks, is a stunningly attractive but cold demeanoured computer genius and detective. Her business partner Charles - who is, of course, in love with her - is comically gangly but also is a brilliant psychologist, illusionist, and bibliophile. Riker, the hard boiled older detective with a drinking problem who is Kathy's partner, makes up the third in this crime-fighting trio at the heart of the series.

Kathy is hinted to be a sociopath throughout the series, which is maybe why she gets little character development. But in this volume, and Stone Angel, where we deal more with her childhood, I feel like we get more of a glimpse into her wounded inner child.

In Crime School, Kathy is chasing the killer of a former sex worker who took care of her when she lived on the streets as a kid. Along the way a serial killer is uncovered - but he too, has a tragic story. I appreciated that he was portrayed in a complex way, as a product of his circumstance, a monster made not born.

There are some good red herrings in here - they almost got me.

The procedural elements are well paced and intriguing. My only criticism is that although Sparrow (the murder victim) and the other sex worker characters are somewhat complexly portrayed, the way they are talked about it predictably whore-phobic/misogynistic. Also, one of the sex worker characters is a trans woman and her portrayal in the one scene where she appears is highly transphobic. It shows how far we've come since 2001, despite the current culture wars.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book I found difficult to read. It took me a long while to get into the story, but I was enticed enough to keep hanging on until it did. I can not quite put my finger on to why I had such trouble falling into the story. All that is given is good. The characters are agreeable, even interesting. I especially liked Charles Butler, a very nice man, highly intelligent, thoughtful, caring, not the looks of a movie-star... What's not to like about him. Riker was more difficult to categorise. I felt like he was just a typical detective, haunted by his work and his private life..nothing really bad, but no happy life either. Deluthe is a character I suspect we'll hear more of in the next novels. Kathy Mallory was the hardest to place. This was the first book I read with Kathy as a prime character. She has such a history that I now understand why I felt at a loss beginning this book. Truly, this can be a great crime-novel, but I strongly suggest that you read the previous books in the series as well.

About this book, it is well written. As I said, I found it difficult to plunge myself into the story, which can be attributed to not reading the previous novels in the series. Therefore I highly recommend that. The plot itself is constructed well enough. It did not leave me with any unanswered questions, only wondering what will happen to the characters that were involved. But for that, I guess, I would have to read the upcoming novels in the series.

[Barbara M · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I read one of the Kathy Mallory series but I'm glad to have picked this one up. There are actually three "mysteries" in this one. The new one comes up when a woman is found hanging in a burning apartment. Detective Kathy Mallory of Special Crimes remembers a similar murder 20 years previously. She is calling it a serial murder but its hard to sell that to the bosses with the 20 year gap and some differences between the two settings.

Kathy and her partner Riker know this victim and they want to solve this case. Sparrow was a prostitute and part of Kathy's very unusual childhood. It is Kathy's childhood that is the third mystery and it is slowly uncovered, to some extent, throughout this book. The boss gives Sparrow's case to someone else and gives the Cold Case from 20 years previous to Mallory and Riker.

O'Connell has some very unusual characters in her series, I have always liked Charles and was happy to have him back. She may have even added a new one who plays a pretty big part in this book, I'll see when I pick up the next in this series but I think he'd be a good addition. Everyone of her characters has their faults and strengths, some are quirky but believable. I hope I won't have such a long gap between books next time.

[Doren Damico · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swallowed this in less than 2 days! The insight into Mallory's childhood and Detective Riker, are fascinating and poignant. As always, it's a mystery through the last pages and a race to try and save the next victim while Mallory follows clues regardless of department policy. Going to break from O'Connell to read one of my favored sci-fi stories. But I'll rush back to the next Mallory story soon after!

[Barbara Zuckerbrot · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good story. I read it as a standalone although it is part of a series. I had the feeling it was not edited properly. There were non sequiturs and references to things that had not been mentioned earlier. There was definitely something off about the writing but it was a decent read anyway.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different read as considered against earlier. I didn't find the poetic descriptions and narrative beauty I loved in earlier works. There's less of Mallory's internal analysis and the work is more from Riker's pov, which is fine. This one is also part of Mallory's origin story, and as in earlier works connects an old crime to contemporary murders. O'Connell's had a make over on the dust jacket.

[Bob Schueler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another tantalizing piece of the Mallory origin story, this book is thrilling and fascinating at the same time. When you experience such conflicted feelings toward a protagonist, and still really care intensely about her, you know you are in the hands of a master.

[Mark Zvonkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

What distinguishes this book from other crime novels is its ending, or more precisely, its epilogue. The author could have ended the novel when all the action is over, the murders solved. By adding the short epilogue, however, she made the book more than just a crime novel. She made Mallory a real person, and she did it brilliantly. Excellent.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books pull me in. The main character, Kathy, is so damaged from her childhood, that the way she protects herself now makes so much sense. The mystery brings her back to parts of her childhood, which is hard but enlightening.

[Brittney M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this book was a little too slow for my taste but the ending was perfect. It would probably been rated higher if I had read the earlier books in this series first because I got confused with all of the characters and she switches back and forth between past and present a lot.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the dual mystery plot threads, of the serial hanging murders and the history of love/hate between young Kathy and Sparrow, was really well done. I was riveted despite areas of the plots that require a suspension of disbelief.

[Anna Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mallory's past won't stay in the past, this time a murder from the past is being recreated again and again. Why and who is killing these blond actors, taunting them with creepy messages and marks, is this for the cops or a chance for the victim to escape death.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite Mallory novels!! It’s exciting and interesting. It opens up more of Mallory’s story too.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Binge read this series on my patio with iced tea and/or martinis.