Well-crafted, but these Mallory tales are damn bleak. ( )

Kathleen Mallory, police detective, investigates a 70-year-old woman who killed a man who broke into her house, presumably to rob her. The odd thing was that the murder weapon was an ice pick, which was the weapon used to kill most of this woman's family 60 years ago, and the murdered man was a serial killer out on bail. The premise was intriguing but the Mallory character was very one-dimensional, popping up abruptly and making pronouncements about what was right or wrong with the case. This was not consistent with the rest of the characters, who were more developed and realistic. I found it too distracting and didn't enjoy this book. ( )

Going to have to tack the others in this series down as it was a well crafted read. Superbly written, suspense and the 'strangeness' of the lead detective all went to make it such a good read. Mallory made me think of her antithesis - Dallas, with a little bit of Dexter mixed in... ( )

The arc of Kathy Mallory's character swings through the first four books and then again in the second four, whch conclude with this superb novel. ( )

In 1947, most of the wealthy Winter family was murdered by an ice pick in their Manhattan mansion. Two children survived while one went missing. 58 years later, the missing girl Nedda - now an elderly woman - was found in a Maine insane asylum. She returns to the mansion where she gets a cold greeting. Shortly after her return, a bailed serial killer suspect is killed with a ice pick when entering the mansion.

Mallory's police partner Rider fell in love in Dead Famous, only of course to have his heart broken. Here, it is poor Charles Butler, Mallory's psychologist partner and secret admirer, who is damaged by the flow of the plot, not because he loses his love, for there no Mallory series without Mallory, but because he loses his first patient, Nedda. Mallory is pissed by this too since Nedda's life so resembles her own. The climatic scene, when Mallory - once again - terrifies a murderer into a confession, is of course unrealistic but also deeply satisfying. ( )