Shell Game (Kathleen Mallory Series #5)

Publisher Weekly

O'Connell deftly demonstrates her own sleight of hand as she recounts NYPD detective Kathleen Mallory's investigation of the 'accidental" death of magician Oliver Tree- who died while trying to recreate on live TV the late Max Candle's most famous trick, in which a man survives the fire of four crossbows. O'Connell adroitly entwines the excitement of Manhattan's Thanksgiving day parade with the world of illusion and the anguish of war. Her tough realism and hypnotic prose will leave readers anxious for more.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Loyalty, romance and mistaken identity lie at the heart of this sentimental WW II drama by Pratt (The Lighthouse Keeper). Teenage twins Norman and Lucian Parker, trainmen in late 1930s Oklahoma, having endured the dual tragedies of the Depression and the death of their mother, fall for the same woman, blonde stunner Mary Jane Harrison. Conservative, sensitive Norman begins to court Mary Jane, but she soon leaves for California. Heartbroken, Norman joins the National Guard and tries to forget her. Meanwhile, rash, volatile Lucien moves to California to attend college. Of course he meets up with Mary Jane and they begin a secret romance. The rift between the brothers deepens when Lucien and Mary Jane wed, but it is clear that Mary Jane suffers regrets. Norman and Lucien achieve an uneasy truce when both are stationed in the Philippines just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Their bond is strengthened during the conflict, but only one brother survives, and the other makes a decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, Pratt employs embarrassingly awkward language, tinny descriptions and simplistic characterizations--especially of Mary Jane. The big "secret," painfully obvious from the prologue, is no surprise. The novel is strongest when it focuses on the twins' nightmarish experiences in the South Pacific: Pratt has done his homework on the horrors endured by both Americans and Filipinos during WWII--from malaria to torture by the Japanese--and these scenes have authentic clarity. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

O'Connell brings back New York detective Kathy Mallory in the fifth book in this highly praised series. Illusion has never been a part of Mallory's life. This no-frills, seemingly unemotional cop has learned the hard way that there is no magic in the world and that things are rarely what they seem. So when an old magician attempts the dangerous "lost illusion" and dies before thousands of live spectators and television viewers, she is the only cop who believes that the death is not the accident it seems but rather a carefully crafted and well-executed murder. The dead man was one of a group of aging magicians who, as boys of 18, had worked together as magicians' apprentices in occupied Paris during World War II. The men use misdirection and sleight of hand to divert Mallory. Meanwhile, in typical fashion, she tries her own brand of hard-edged cons and threats to find the truth. Reader Roberta Germaine's performance of this riveting story takes some time to get used to: her portrayals of Mallory's partner Riker and long-time friend Charles Butler are weak, and she falls back on stereotypes to convey the personalities too often. Her rendering of Mallory is somewhat better, although Germaine takes to whispering every internal thought, a habit that makes even the most mundane or sarcastic idea sound slightly sinister. However, her performance of the collection of aging magicians soars. Her accents and characterizations are distinct and wholly believable, and every scene in which any of the group appears is a pure pleasure. Recommended for popular mystery collections.--Jennifer Belford, Addison P.L., IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Yvonne Zipp

O'Connell, who was an artist before trading paintbrush for pen, packs Shell Game with visual spectacles from New York's Thanksgiving Day parade to the elaborate illusions.
— Christian Science Monitor

Kirkus Reviews

Kathy Mallory (Killing Critics, 1996, etc.), the savage street-kid turned half-tamed NYPD detective, is back after a one-book hiatus (Judas Child, 1998). Mallory's rules can be disconcerting to her admirers, infuriating to her superiors, and terrifying to her enemies, although they seem perfectly reasonable to her. When an elderly magician dies before a TV audience of millions, no one aside from Mallory believes it's murder. What's more, it's obvious to her—and her alone—that the malefactor will strike again. "My perp loves spectacle," she tells her partner as they stake out the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It turns out she's right, of course. And right about the first death, too—no accident at all but a homicide cleverly disguised. Yet who'd want to kill a harmless, likable, venerable magician? One of a group of other venerable magicians, Mallory decides. Among them is the mysterious, still charismatic Malakhai, whose dead wife seems to accompany him wherever he goes, drinking his wine, smoking his cigarettes, sharing his conversation—an illusionist's trick as bewildering to Mallory as it is irritating. But if the magicians constitute the sum total of usual suspects, what could possibly make sense as a motive? As Mallory, indefatigable as ever, pursues her investigation, she discovers how inextricably her perp is connected to another crime, this one 50 years old, shrouded in enigma and drenched in treachery and betrayal. At the close, the brilliantly devious culprit is made to suffer—brought to the special kind of justice shaped by Mallory's rules. Too long for its thinnish plot and tending, every so often, to mark time. Mallory, however, retains all herferal, sullen, paradoxically endearing components, so it's probable that series fans won't mind the muchness overmuch.Ê(Literary Guild and Mystery Guild alternate selections; author tour)