1001 Books for Every Mood - Readers Guide

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell

NYPD Sgt. Kathy Mallory was once a child thief. Now she keeps company with computers. When her adoptive father, who rescued her from a life on the streets and tried to tame her, is found murdered, Mallory forces herself to deal with humans to solve the crime. Mallory stalks into scenes with preternatural grace (“She moved on the boy in the shutter blink of the old man’s eyes.”) and with a cold, otherworldly ability to sense what others miss. O’Connell told an interviewer “Yes, she's a deliberately sociopathic creation, and perhaps a strong response to more politically correct characters in books by other authors.” For readers who like their protagonists (and authors) prickly.
--1001 Books for Every Mood

Readers Guide by Steve Liskow

Overview

Mallory's Oracle introduces Kathy Mallory, one of the strongest female protagonists in crime fiction. As the book opens, someone has killed two wealthy women, one of them on a park bench and surrounded by witnesses who saw absolutely nothing. Both women lived in Gramercy Park and had enough money to give relatives a motive for murder, but those heirs all have alibis. NYPD detective Louis Markowitz tells a friend the killer is so smart that he will only be caught in the act. Then Markowitz dies, too, apparently trying to defend a third victim.

Years ago, Markowitz rescued a young thief from life on the streets and became her foster father. Now an adult, statuesque blonde computer wonk Kathy Mallory, who has never worked a murder before, pretends to take compassionate leave from the PD. She and her associate Charles Butler, a genius with eidetic memory, investigate a case involving an invisible killer, too many suspects, wealthy women who dabble in insider trading, and a con artist who stages seances.

Through computer hacking, the lessons of her dead mentor, and sheer brilliance, Mallory finds the solution-but can prove nothing unless she puts herself in the path of the same person who killed her father.

The plot is complex and satisfying, but O'Connell's real strength lies in her fascinating cast of grotesques. Mallory the sociopath may be among the more "normal" people here. The series gains as much from unveiling her traumatized childhood as it does from the killings she investigates. In The Stone Angel, she revisits the decades-old murder of her own mother in Louisiana, and Find Me has her searching for the father she never knew. All the books showcase O'Connell's strong prose with visceral description, painful psychological insight, and a cruel irony that hard-boiled readers will love.

Discussion Questions

1. What/who are Kathy Mallory's guides/mentors/oracles in the novel?

2. Dr. Slope tells Charles Butler, "Kathy's emotions are still very much alive, but it would be a mistake to forget she's damaged (Jove paperback, p. 64)." How do the many damaged "children" (Charles Butler, Margot Siddons, Henry Cathery, Redwing's drugged boy, Mallory herself) fit into the rest of the novel?

3. "Mallory" is an anagram of "morally." We hear several times that Kathy's childhood left her as a brilliant sociopath, but she actually shows a clear sense of right and wrong. How does her moral system work?

4. Charles Butler's cousin, stage magician Max Candle, died performing a dangerous magic trick. How does the idea of magic as misdirection/illusion relate to the murders AND to the characters?

5. Mallory says, "I'm gonna [get the killer] by the book. Markowitz would have liked that. My gift (Jove, p. 22)." Does she indeed follow proper procedure? If not, does her behavior seem justified?

6. How do mediums Edith Candle and Redwing, and the theme of raising the dead, fit into the book as a whole?

7. Louis Markowitz dies before the book begins, but Mallory keeps him "alive" until she solves his murder and she can let him go. How do Markowitz's watch, his chaotic corkboards, his coffee maker, and his dancing all fit into the case?

8. How do the supporting or minor characters (Charles, Brenda Mancusi, Lt. Coffey, Riker, Markowitz's poker buddies) reflect and amplify Kathy Mallory?
How is Mallory changed by her experiences in the novel?

9. Edith Candle tells Mallory, "It's staggering what you can get away with when you're old (Jove, p. 109)." How does the book support or contradict that claim?

10. Discuss the multiple meanings of "the writing on the wall" in Edith Candle's apartment.

11. Mallory agrees with Markowitz that most crimes have financial motives. How does O'Connell use money as BOTH a clue and a red herring?

12. Many readers have urged O'Connell to make Mallory more sympathetic, but she has refused. How does she make Mallory appealing in spite of her sociopathy?

About the Author

New Yorker Carol O'Connell (b. 1947) was a waitress, painter, bartender, copyreader, and graphic designer before she sent Mallory's Oracle to Ruth Rendell's English publisher. She felt Europe was more open to unpublished authors, and she may have been correct, gaining a 3-book contract and six-figure deals for Dutch, French, and German rights. Then she brought the MS to auction in America, where Putnam paid the unheard-of sum of $800,000.

The money enabled O'Connell to move into a bigger apartment where one bedroom serves as her office. She has produced nine Mallory novels, each revealing more of Kathy's traumatic youth, and the stand-alone Judas Child. Another stand-alone, Bone By Bone, is due late in 2008. Mallory's Oracle was nominated for an Edgar, but O'Connell has won no awards.yet.

O'Connell outlines carefully and revises heavily. Unlike her sociopathic blonde protagonist, she is short, dark, funny, and likes animals.

If You Liked This...

These books also have strong female protagonists, complex plots, and hard-boiled sensibilities:

Hard Landing by Lynne Heitman
Winter And Night by S. J. Rozan
The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen
Shadow Woman by Thomas Perry
City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin
Heart of the World by Linda Barnes
Easy Innocence by Libby Fischer Hellman
Darkness Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
Cold Steel Rain by Kenneth Abel
California Fire And Life by Don Winslow
L. A. Requiem by Robert Crais (no strong women, but Pike is as damaged as Mallory)

Steve Liskow

Steve's most recent short story, "Running On Empty," appears in Still Waters: Crime Stories by New England Writers. A member of Sisters In Crime, he lives in central Connecticut and is currently working on a PI novel.