Blind Sight

July 18, 2016
Rampant rumors suggest that Andrew Polk, a Wall Street wheeler-dealer turned New York City mayor, has plenty of skeletons in the closet, but what these might have to do with the four mutilated corpses dumped outside Gracie Mansion, his official residence, lies at the heart of bestseller O’Connell’s affecting, fast-moving, but labyrinthine 12th thriller featuring NYPD Det. Kathy Mallory (after 2013’s It Happens in the Dark). Although the inscrutable, cyborg-chilly Mallory headlines the show, most of the novel’s emotional pull stems from blind 12-year-old kidnap victim Jonah Quill, whose tiny hope of survival may hinge on his own considerable wits. As Det. Kathy Mallory and police partner Riker wrestle with the sprawling case as well as stonewalling from both the mayor and the Catholic Church—one of the dead, Jonah’s aunt, was a young cloistered nun—the feisty, fiercely independent boy struggles to connect with his stone-cold captor long enough to figure out an exit strategy. In contrast to this gripping life-and-death drama, the larger plot is excessively convoluted and capricious.

Starred review from July 15, 2016
The twelfth in a series of clever crime novels featuring scary-smart Kathy Mallory (It Happens in the Dark, 2013, etc.).On the streets of New York City, a nun and a 12-year-old boy go missing and may have been kidnapped. Sister Michael's real name is Angela Quill, and--oh my!--she's a former prostitute, not your typical nun's career path. The boy is Jonah Quill, who has been blind from birth. Also, four corpses are dumped on the mayor's lawn at Gracie Mansion. The victims' hearts have been surgically removed, prompting a cop to say that "the freak takes trophies." Special Crimes Unit detectives Mallory and Riker think otherwise. Meanwhile, the hearts wind up in City Hall, and the mayor wants them quietly disposed of. An aide tosses them in the river, thinking "How buoyant could human hearts be?" Meanwhile, Iggy (don't call him Ignatius) Conroy tries to decide whether to cut Jonah's heart out. Captor and captive have interesting exchanges about the abilities of blind people. You must see something, Iggy insists to Jonah. You must dream about something. And Iggy explains the Catholic practice of confession--say so many Hail Marys for this or that sin, and bingo, you're absolved. "How many Hail Marys for killing a nun?" Jonah wants to know. He is an intelligent, resourceful boy, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to survive. Hearts, corpses, and the mayor's office connect somehow with Jonah's disappearance, so Mallory and Riker had best hurry to find the lad alive. As in previous novels, Mallory's quirky personality shows "just a hint of crazy," and sometimes, to unnerve people, she drops "every pretense of being human." She's an entertaining, slightly over-the-top protagonist with brains and attitude. Colorful and appealing (or appalling) characters make this one a winner for crime-fic fans.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Kathy Mallory's twelfth outing (following It Happens in the Dark, 2013) showcases the unparalleled characterization and powerful backstory that have made this a bar-raising hard-boiled series. Mallory's childhood priest appeals to her past as a young pickpocket who benefited from streetwalkers' kindnesses when he asks her to look into the disappearance of a young nun with a history of child prostitution. But before Mallory tracks Sister Michael down, the nun's body is dumped with four others on the front lawn of Gracie Mansion, home of New York's mayor. Sister Michael's blind nephew, Jonah, has also gone missing from the site where she was snatched, and his aunt's murder pits an increasingly determined Mallory against NYPD brass, diocese representatives, and the mayor. The evidence points toward a contract killer, and Mallory homes in on the host of motives found in the mayor's shady stockbroking past. Mallory is in top form here, orchestrating high-stakes mind games with her lieutenant and partner, Riker, andwith ever-loyal consulting psychologist Charles Butler as she plows with machine-like precision through everyone whose deceptions keep her from finding Jonah. And, while Mallory's street-sharpened tactics are as riveting as ever, it's two supporting characters who provide this novel's most compelling narratives: contract killer Iggy, who is tormented by personal connections to his mark, and the missing Jonah, who attempts to manipulate his captor with strategies seemingly delivered by his aunt's ghost.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)