Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Chalk Girl
    Chalk Girl
    Chalk Girl
    Audiobook15 hours

    Chalk Girl

    Written by Carol O'Connell

    Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    New York Times best-selling author Carol O'Connell has won a wide fan base with her popular novels starring NYPD detective Kathy Mallory. in The Chalk Girl, a little girl is abandoned in Central Park-her uncle's body in a tree not far away. Recognizing a kindred spirit in the girl, Mallory takes the case. But her investigation soon leads to a trail of murder and blackmail spanning 15 years. ". a rich, character-driven series ."-Library Journal
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJan 17, 2012
    ISBN9781464028939
    Chalk Girl

    More audiobooks from Carol O'connell

    Related to Chalk Girl

    Titles in the series (4)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Launching today: CrimeReads

      Mar 7, 2018

      Launching today: CrimeReads
      2 min read

    • Article

      Karin Slaughter

      Jul 2, 2020

      This American crime author has sold more than 35 million copies of her books globally. This month she’s celebrating the release of her 20th novel in as many years. It’s also the 10th book in special agent Will Trent’s series. “It feels really great a

      1 min read

    • Article

      Boston Manner

      Feb 7, 2020

      Boston Manner
      3 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Bridle

      Oct 10, 2021

      Saliva pooled on her tongue beneath the rusty depressor. She endured a constant urge to swallow, afraid of choking on her own fluids. The taste of metal and blood are so akin, it is easy to mistake one for the other. This early in the day, blood was

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Social Picnic

      May 15, 2022

      The Social Picnic
      2 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      Dear C, At first Virgil’s poem is quite dull; equivocalnames of products at The Container Store: Elfa White Medium Drawer, Mesh NarrowRolling Cart (Medium Solution), Narrow Classic Mesh Box and the number of pirouetting starseach product attained. An

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Air You Breathe

      Aug 20, 2018

      The Air You Breathe
      23 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Fantasy

      Nov 20, 2021

      Sweet Fantasy
      8 min read

    • Article

      From Our Archives: A 1981 Interview With Toni Morrison

      Aug 7, 2019

      The award-winning author Toni Morrison died Aug. 5, 2019. We're reposting this 1981 interview conducted shortly after her fourth novel, "Tar Baby," was published.

      11 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      Storytime

      Apr 20, 2022

      Professor in Animal Behaviour at the University of Sydney, Ward takes us on a fascinating journey revealing the hierarchy and habits of animals. Long-living elephant families are built around a single female matriarch. “The rest of her family choose

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cul-de-Sac

      Dec 1, 2021

      That old rage for order: how my father drove a square mouthed mower over-and-back, over-and-back, each row of neatly trimmed grass cut just like he told his barber: boy’s short, regular. O pioneer, taming this joke bit of prairie, no bindweed or dog

      5 min read

    • Article

      How the Lark Got Her Crest

      May 30, 2023

      How the Lark Got Her Crest
      15 min read

    • Article

      A Path Through the Woods

      May 30, 2023

      A Path Through the Woods
      3 min read

    • Article

      Foxes

      Jun 15, 2019

      What’s worth happening happens in deep woods. Or so my daughter tells me. Her plotlines: In the deep woods someone is chasing, someone else is getting hacked. Hatchets are lifted, brought downdowndown. Men stutter blood onto snow. A cast of animals—s

      17 min read

    • Article

      Christmas Gifts

      Oct 30, 2019

      Did you ever pine after the cake decorations as a child, not the cake? The pointy ballerina, caped crusader? Bowerbird Marion Frith understands the miniature world that children love to inhabit; her own hunting from around the world housed in an alph

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Plague Legends

      Dec 1, 2021

      The Plague Legends
      12 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Nov 12, 2020

      Book Club
      2 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Chalk Girl

    4.5/5

    49 ratings39 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Several victims are found hanging in trees in Central Park, left to slowly die. And a rather odd small girl is the only witness. Detective Mallory, on desk duty after her extended unauthorized absense, is determined to get to the bottom of things.Convoluted.
    • 5/5
      As another reviewer here said... How have I never heard of Carol O'Connell? The Chalk Girl has fueled my interest in reading the entire series from the beginning. A blurb on the back cover compares Kathy Mallory, the NYPD detective and star of the series, to Lisbeth Salander of Stieg Larsson's trilogy that begins with "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." This comparison is an apt one and I will go one step further to say that I liked The Chalk Girl better than I liked the Larsson books. This is a smart and sometimes gritty and graphic murder mystery that begins in Central Park with bodies hanging in the Ramble's trees and a rat invasion in Sheep Meadow. I wasn't sure that I could get through the rats at the beginning but I soldiered through and was rewarded with a first class read. Kathy Mallory is fierce and I am her newest fan!
    • 5/5
      The Chalk Girl is a fantastic addition to the Mallory series. I have been a fan of the series since Mallory's Oracle, the first book, and have enjoyed O'Connell's stand alones also.Mallory is a complex and twisted character. The Chalk Girl reveals even more aspects of her damaged soul. The mysteries are also complex; but I read these for Mallory.
    • 4/5
      Kathy Mallory is back again, this time investigating reports of a beautiful, friendly, lost child in Central Park. When the Detective locates the child there is blood on her shirt. She tells Mallory that her 'Uncle Red' turned into a tree and the blood falls from the sky near him.Mallory identifies with this lost child and sets about digging into what has happened to her. The trail leads to many wealthy people, people who have managed to evade justice because of their vast wealth. There are people who have long memories and desire vengence. And there is the little girl. Carol O'Connell has written another suspenseful novel starring her favorite detective, the flawed, beautiful, intelligent Kathy Mallory.All the support characters are there and the ride is a wild one.
    • 5/5
      Carol O'Connell just gets better and better. Mallory, in her quest for justice for a murdered boy, is ruthless as she follows evidence trails both hot and cold. She, shamelessly and with great aplomb, manipulates computer and justice systems to expose and punish the wicked.
    • 4/5
      If you are a fan of complex thrillers, this is the book for you. This is the first Kathleen Mallory book I've ever read, but it won't be my last. O'Connell weaves a tale that will keep the reader on their toes throughout the book. A little girl is found in the woods of Central Park. She talks to a tree who she says is her uncle. She may know who a murderer is. But Coco has Williams syndrome and has attached herself to Mallory. Mallory is bent on protecting Coco and getting her help with the bizarre murder. Coco's temporary guardian, a psychologist familiar with Williams syndrome, is trying to keep Mallory from getting to close to the girl and from overwhelming her with questions about the murderer. The characters are well written, each intertwined in the history of others. Maybe it has been this way throughout the whole Mallory series, but it works in this book even if this is the first Mallory book you read. Mallory is a bit psycho. She will do almost anything to reach her end goal. The NYPD is lucky she is on their side. But somehow, it seems Coco touches her cold, cold heart. This was a very enjoyable book to read. The intricacies of the plot and relationships will keep you guessing about what happens on the next page. But, it wasn't the kind of book I couldn't put down. Even so, I want to go back and read the rest of the series.
    • 5/5
      This book is reviewed based on a copy of bound uncorrected proofs provided by the publisher through LT's Early Reviewer program.Oh, what a treat to get wrapped up in a good mystery that's almost impossible to put down! Carol O'Connell has done it again, revealing even more facets of her amazing Mallory character while spinning a delicious, complex mystery that spans a decade and a half of pure evil. A brutal series of crimes in Central Park are more than a modern-day whodunit; they carry echoes of the past and whispers of conspiracy. Where will the evidence lead Mallory and her partner Riker? The story begins with an almost surreal (and icky) scene of swarming rats. (Rats -- both the animal and human types of vermin -- are a theme throughout this disturbing but compulsively readable mystery.) There is a creepy reference to it raining rats and blood, and there are mysterious quotations -- from a journal, maybe? -- at the head of each chapter. O'Connel begins bringing it all together just as the reader is wondering what it can possibly all be about. Then there is the charming and compelling character of young Coco, a child with Williams syndrome. I knew little about Williams going into this book, and meeting Coco was an education in itself.In many ways this book is about ongoing relationships -- those that nurture, those that are strained, and those that are patently toxic. The investigation reveals a web of deceit that stretches back over fifteen years in time, to the highest levels of New York's power structures, and involves a vast cast of characters linked by greed, self-preservation, power, money, and fear. Where will it all end? Who will pay, and how? Mallory is something of a law unto herself, defining and attending to justice (as she sees it) via any route her calculating mind can envision -- and her mind is nothing if not creative.This was one roller-coaster ride on the dark side of life in New York.
    • 5/5
      Mallory's back!!! Oh how I so loved reconnecting with Mallory and friends. I love the quote on the cover saying before Salander there was Mallory, truer words have never been spoken. The biggest kick was seeing Mallory's "softer, maternal side." A great read from start to finish. You can't put this one down.
    • 5/5
      Wow. Disturbing but delicious. A slightly unwieldy plot, but interestingly told. Childood bullying, genetic syndromes, rats, jazz music, money laundering, oh and fiction's best sociopath, Kathy Mallory (sorry, Lisbeth Sanders). Also, sad.
    • 5/5
      If you have an issue with rats, you may want to steel yourself. A beautiful summer day in New York City, and an elderly teacher is leading a group of day campers through Central Park. But as she stops to do a head count, she notices there is one child too many. A sweet elfin looking little girl, with blood on clothes, going on about the rats and her uncle in the tree, has attached herself to the group. But wait..it will get worse. Suddenly the park is swarming with rats, seemingly drugged, crazed rats, the teacher has a stroke , falls to the ground and... well, how to say this..is eaten. Well, the rats did not get to finish her before animal control turned up.Gosh, if the beginning of this book does not get your attention, you must be dead. Wow!It turns out there is a man in a tree, strung up while he was still alive, in the Ramble, left to die. But he is not the little girl's uncle. No, he is a very bad man, a bad man who has done bad things in the past, starting more than 15 years ago when he was in school. He was not alone in his evil deeds then and he will not be alone in his horrible death now.But it seems it is time for payback and it is up to NYPD Detective Kathy Mallory and her partner Riker to protect the little girl who is their only witness and stop any more bodies from showing up in the trees.This is the tenth book in the Mallory series, which does seem daunting if you have not read any of them. But I will say that I have only read a couple of them but had no trouble following this book. Mallory is a fascinating character, with a childhood that has resulted in making her a very unique adult and if you are not familiar with her and her 'group', you are going to have to pay attention and put the clues together. But if you reading a mystery, I assume you like clues! This is a complex story, with a lot of characters...more than a few more rats.. and a story that reached back decades, but I think O'Connell is so skilled as a writer that the attentive reader will have no problem. Coco, the little red headed girl is a fabulous character. She suffers from something called Williams Syndrome, which results in her distinctive appearance as well as giving her a unique musical talent..and maybe her also unique ability to find a place in Mallory's heart, the rarest thing of all. How even knew she had a heart? But fans, fear not. Mallory will not be going all soft on us. No, she is as strange and brilliant and as unorthodox as always and deals with it all in a very Mallory like way. This all comes to a conclusion with an excellent ending. Even when you think you have it figured out, there will be a few unexpected twists that will wrap it all up in a quite satisfactory way. Although I must say, it is hard to beat that beginning!
    • 5/5
      I had thought that [Find Me] was [[Carol O'Connell]]'s last novel about Kathy Mallory. I am so glad to be wrong. In [The Chalk Girl] Kathy Mallory, who is far from normal in one direction, deals with a small girl who is far from normal in an entirely different direction. The girl is at the core of a mystery that piles up bodies and reveals emotional grotesques among the rich and privileged. Vivid. Graphic. Not for the squeamish.
    • 4/5
      I had forgotten that I had this book until I was cleaning up and going through my books. When I came across this book I picked it up to read it. This is the first book I have read in this series but I was able to jump right into it. It helped that Kathleen Mallory was so likeable but she also had some quirks about her that made her interesting as well. In addition, she is smart. Now I have read many murder mystery stories but I have to say that the killings in this book was refreshing. What I mean by this is that they were not your standard "gut them" or "cut them up". This is all I am going to say about the murders as I don't want to give anything away. Try as I might I could not put all of the pieces together to solve the case before Mallory did. I will be checking out the other books in this series.
    • 3/5
      Kathy Mallory, the protagonist in Carol O'Connell's novel The Chalk Girl, can be as compelling as any character in mystery fiction. In the last few years, she has often been referred to as the original Lisabeth Salander, and indeed the two have much in common. Both are emotionally damaged, possessed of a wide range of survival skills and fundamentally unknowable. And both inhabit very dark worlds. If anything, Mallory's almost superhuman abilities are even more impressive than Salander's. However, unlike Salander, Mallory is first and foremost a detective intent on using her skills to insure that justice is done in a very immoral world.

      Unfortunately, in The Chalk Girl, O'Connell does not succeed as well as he has in other books at weaving the spell that makes us rush through the pages that do not feature Mallory, impatient for her next appearance. In this book, Mallory's appearances were a bit flat. She doesn't startle, amaze or confound the reader. Perhaps, this being the tenth Mallory novel, O'Connell has allowed herself to take Mallory's magic a bit for granted. And so, I found myself ultimately disappointed, not feeling that I had gotten the Mallory fix that I was hoping for.

      That said, O'Connell is a good story-teller who rolls out an unnerving tale of monstrous adults and their equally unappealing children doing unspeakable evil in a society that is all too willing to turn a blind eye when the perpetrators have enough money to make their crimes "go away."

      The author also offers an interesting subplot to all the mayhem. Mallory's relationships with the cast of regular supporting characters becomes increasingly strained throuhout the book as her friends try to decide if indeed there is a human heart at the core of her very machine-like personality. We will undoubtedly see this theme explored further in future novels.

      So, while this was not my favorite Mallory book, I was sufficiently engrossed to finish it in a weekend. If you like Mallory, her friends and the dark world they inhabit, this book should be on your "to read" list.
    • 5/5
      I love Kathy Mallory. The depth of her character is amazing, and each book leaves me wanting more. This one is especially good, perhaps because of the long wait between books. A bit about the characters.

      Mallory is an incomplete story - nobody knows her well. Many fear her, others love her, and everyone keeps their distance. Well, except for her partner Riker. And Charles (who is hopelessly in love with her). And her late father's poker playing buddies, who want so much for her. Some call her psychopath. But one thing is clear. She has a definite sense of morals and knows no boundaries when it comes to protecting the innocent.

      Coco, is a beautiful little red-head with a smile that lights up a room, suffers from Williams syndrome which prompts her to reach out to anyone for a hug putting her life at risk. She has brilliant qualities, such as recognizing any vacuum by sound alone and playing the piano; and can't lace up her shoes or button her clothes. She simply thinks differently.

      Mallory gets through to Coco on a deep level, and Charles (friend, therapist, police adviser) wants to protect Coco from Mallory's investigative motives.

      There is so much to this book, it's simply quite beautiful to read. Except maybe for the rats. Lots of rats.

      The mystery is excellent as always, although the characters in this series are more important than the events. It's a psychological study of the highest level, and more fascinating because we aren't given all the answers. Sometimes there's aren't any. Well, the crime is solved, and repercussions handled well (and by Mallory). But we still know so little about Mallory - it's like peeling an onion one layer at a time. I'd love to see a Mallory book written from her point of view.

      My only complain about this story is a disturbing paragraph about Charles Butler at the end of the book. "This summer afternoon would remain in his memory forever, a bookmark to a sad and curious passage that he must return to again and again. Weill into his nineties and long after the death of Kathy Mallory, on every fine, warm day, he would sit in a garden where he would only suffer daisies to be planted."
    • 5/5
      School yard bullying and revenge are taken to new heights in Carol O’Connell’s newest Mallory novel. Detective Kathy Mallory has returned from an unauthorized and unexplained absence, and just in time to investigate the “Hunger Artist” murders. While the victims were incapacitated but still alive, the killer placed them in burlap bags which he then hung from trees in Central Park. Two of the three victims were dead by the time they were found. Needless to say, strung up in a tree with no food or water and only the rats to keep you company, is an awful way to die. The only witness Mallory and the police have is a young girl named Coco whose Williams Syndrome makes her statements cryptic and unreliable. Through exhaustive investigating using more than a few questionable tactics, Mallory discovers that several years earlier, all three victims were involved in a similar crime against fellow student Ernest Nadler. The reader is privy to excerpts of Ernest’s diary in which he wrote of the horrible, daily abuse he suffered at the hands of these three tormentors. Mallory and her partner must sort through conflicting accounts, evidence of police cover-ups, uncooperative victims and much more to finally get to the truth. This is the first Mallory novel I’ve read but it definitely will not be my last. “The Chalk Girl” is action packed from beginning to end with some of the darkest and most disturbing characters I’ve ever encountered. If you’re looking for a fast paced novel and you don’t mind blood and guts, this definitely a book for you.
    • 3/5
      Good story of the results of bullying. Mallory is a hard character to like.
    • 5/5
      Another installment in a great series that I have been reading from the very first Mallory book. A main character that continues to surprise you with a supporting cast that you sometimes want to shake! The only non series ook I have read by Ms O'Connell was the Judas Child. That is a book that will haunt me forever.
    • 5/5
      Well, I was going to take lots of notes and quotes while I was reading Carol O'Connell's newest book, The Chalk Girl, so I could write a fabulous post telling you how much I love this character and author.The notes and quotes didn't happen.....because I couldn't put the book down long enough!! But I can tell you that I do love O'Connell's 'Mallory' books.As a child, Kathleen (Kathy) Mallory was found living alone on the streets of New York City by NYPD Lieutenant Lou Markowitz. She was taken in and raised by Markowitz and his wife (with some help from Lou's fellow cops and friends). She is streetwise, cunning, an expert thief and described as 'a baby sociopath.' Following in Lou's footsteps, Mallory (she refuses to answer to Kathy) has joined the NYPD and is paired up with Markowitz's old partner. She is a brilliant detective, but her methods and her relationships with people are strictly on her terms. No one breaks through the walls she has erected. The term sociopath is still bandied about.In The Chalk Girl, the 10th in the series, there may be a little chink in Mallory's armour. A small girl is found wandering alone in Central Park...with blood on her tee shirt. She says the blood fell from the sky while she was looking for her uncle who turned into a tree. There is something special about Coco. She has Williams Syndrome and can't really tell them exactly where she's from or who she is. But with help from psychologist Charles Butler, they are able to decode what she's trying to tell them. Coco seems to stir something in Mallory - one wounded child recognizing another.When Mallory locates the uncle, the case leads to places no one could have ever predicted.And that's the beauty of O'Connell's books. You just never have an idea where the plots will lead. They're inventive, intriguing, intelligent and will keep you guessing until the end. They might keep you up late too - the crimes are bizarre and gruesome - perfect fodder for crime thriller aficionados. Each chapter opens with an excerpt from what seems to be a journal of someone called Ernest Nadler. I'm glad I read everything on the page - these entries told a story on their own that eventually met Mallory's path.The character of Mallory continues to intrigue me. Small details about her past and small glimpses past the barriers she has erected have been slowly inserted into each new entry in this series. We still really have no idea who Kathy Mallory really is. But I am inextricably hooked by this flawed protagonist.
    • 5/5
      I was so happy to see that a new Mallory novel had been written. After reading The Chalk Girl, I will say that I was not disappointed. Mallory is back in New York after her leave of absence, and finds herself in the middle of a horrific string of murders. While I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I would not recommend this as your introduction to Mallory. This series is one where knowing the back story is particularly important. Otherwise, as some reviewers have said, Mallory can come across as an unpleasant, unsympathetic character.
    • 4/5
      O'Connell started writing the Mallory novels long before Steig Larson and his Salander character and long before Taylor Stevens and her Michael novels, though comparisons can be made. Love these books and the characters in them, Mallory herself has such an interesting back story. Good plots and interesting psychological meanderings make this series my favorite.
    • 3/5
      Mallory is the main character in this novel. Her character is utterly ridiculous and unbeliveable at best. An abused child raised by foster parents who just happen to be cops, Mallory grows up to be somewhat of a super hero who gets away with cheating, stealing, and basically not following rules that others have to. The story starts out with a little girl who is found in a park with blood on her clothes and desperate for love & human contact. The blood is finally traced to corpses hanging in trees and so begins the mystery. These murders were traced to a child that was killed years ago that turned out to be a case of bullying to the extreme I did not care for this book and struggled to finish it. I would have quit on it if not for agreeing to review it.
    • 5/5
      There are two types of readers that will approach Carol O'Connell's newest book The Chalk Girl: those who know Kathy Mallory and those who are meeting her for the first time. As a part of the former category, I was thrilled to discover novel number ten in O'Connell's Mallory series featuring the brilliant, beautiful, sociopath who is the law but doesn't quite object to bending it. The mystery presented in The Chalk Girl finds Mallory placed in desk duty after her unexplained absence but pulled into active service with a case of a serial killer stringing up victims from trees in Central Park. The only witness to the crimes is a young girl named Coco starving for human contact. Coco instantly latches on to the cold-hearted Mallory causing many - especially Charles Butler - to wonder if Mallory has a soft spot for a kindred spirit or if she's just using the girl's trusting nature as a means to solve her case.Complexly layered with a storyline spanning past and present, O'Connell once again keeps the reader guessing throughout the entire story. Though I was a longtime Mallory fan when I picked this book up, the beauty of this series is that each entry can be enjoyed as a solid novel on its own. Granted, the back stories and character development of Mallory, Riker, Charles Butler, and the rest of the well-drawn cast are painted over time throughout the series so that constant fans will have the benefit of closer ties to the key players, but that is not to say that newcomers to the books will enjoy this one any less.
    • 5/5
      A homeless girl is found wandering the park. School children on a park tour remember the girl because she looked just like a pixie with red hair, bright eyes, and a wide smile. They also remember the blood on her shoulder. Mrs. Ortega, Charles Butler’s cleaning lady, witnesses a man trying to lure the young girl who runs away. She enlists Mallory’s help in finding the young girl before some pervert does. Coco, the young girl, leads Mallory to a section of the park where she claims her uncle turned into a tree. Not one to dismiss a little girl’s fantasy stories, Mallory happens to find the uncle in a sack hanging from a tree. Not only is the man not dead, but there is another body. Soon there are three victims. Coco has become attached to Mallory. Charles has become attached to Coco whom he has diagnosed with Williams syndrome because of her facial features, poor motor skills and sensitivity to sounds, among other things. Charles wants to find her a good home. Mallory isn’t ready to release her star witness. Thus starts the battle of wits. Whom Coco thinks is her uncle is actually a child predator with a fondness for redheads. He comes from a rich family with ties to powerful people. As usual, Mallory likes to follow the money and it leads to the acting police commissioner. As with previous Mallory books, the author has suspects with psychological flaws. Mallory is still at the top of her game and Riker is still unable to stay one step ahead of her. CHALK GIRL is well worth the wait. If I have one complaint it is that the author never reveals what happened between Mallory and her father in the previous book, FIND ME. In CHALK GIRL not one person knows where Mallory was for three months. She just walked back into the precinct without a word. Her boss, Jack Coffrey, placed her on desk duty pending her psyche eval. But Charles was with her when she found her father so at least Charles knows where she was but nothing is said about Mallory’s father, whether she spent time with him, whether he’s still alive or dead, nor the fact that Charles was there. And I for one am quite fond of Charles and the unrequited love is getting a bit frustrating. There is one passage where the narrative is that Charles will be well into his nineties and still thinking of something Mallory did and his grandchildren will be concerned. Is that a hint from the author that she has every intention of leaving the impression there will be no future for Charles and Mallory? If so, please kill him off now and end his and our suffering.
    • 5/5
      How is it that I have never read Carol O'Connell before? I LOVED this. The richness of detail, the character development and the plot twists place this several notches above your standard detective pot-boiler. The comparisons to Stieg Larson entirely justified. I can't wait to read the entire series. P.S. Make sure you read the little quotes at the start of each chapter - they are a story themselves.
    • 2/5
      The Chalk Girl is an odd mystery/crime novel. I had trouble maintaining any interest in the story, and I could only read one chapter at a time before I lost interest. I made it through eventually, but I wouldn't recommend this book unless you have read some of the others in the series first. Perhaps if I had, I would have been more sympathetic toward Mallory instead of just thinking her as a rude, violent, crooked cop.Mallory has returned to her job as detective after a mysterious absence, and then with no questions asked is back investigating murders in Central Park. We know that she has a troubled past, but very little information about her past is given in this book, and perhaps that is why I cared so little about her and her unknown problems. Mallory is not likeable, and most of the characters are just odd and unpleasant. When the book began, I thought it was going to be a surreal fantasy story with the opening chapters about hoards of rats, but no, just rats roaming the park attacking and killing people as if it were a real life setting.
    • 4/5
      It's been five long years since the last Mallory novel. I honestly wasn't sure that there'd be another one - the last one could've been a series ender. Yet Mallory is back in The Chalk Girl and that makes me very very happy.There's no one else like Mallory in crime fiction. Smart, enigmatic, damaged, manipulative, possibly sociopathic, yet brilliant in her role as a cop - perhaps because for Mallory winning is the number one priority so she takes risks and makes connections in her head that others do not. Surrounded by the wonderful support system that her foster father, a cop, left her, Mallory remains in constant trouble with the NYPD, but always manages to turn that trouble to her own advantage (and that's very fun to watch).This book involves a lost child, bodies in trees, and lots and lots and lots of rats. The first part of the book is both hysterically funny and horribly macabre all at the same time - if you read none of the rest of it, at least read that part. It'll give you a healthy respect for rats.Always smart, always fun, always different, and never boring this is a great entry in the Mallory series. If you haven't read these books, you are missing out and I wish I was you. I'd love to go back to the first book and read it like a new discovery. Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      This was a great read! I had never read anything by Carol O'Connell before and don't know how I missed her, but I'm very grateful that I now know about this series. I went ahead and bought the first four books in the series before I was halfway through The Chalk Girl. Great characters, great plot, great writing. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of this series, and anything else by this author.
    • 4/5
      This book has quite a complicated plot. From the beginning there are rats stampeding through Central Park and a little girl who shows up talking about her uncle turning into a tree. Special Crimes Unit detective Kathleen Mallory is one of the few who understands the little girl and discovers the body of a man in a tree. After two more similar murders occur, Mallory ultimately ties them to murders that occurred years before at a private school in New York City.The first chapter was fascinating and made me want to continue reading. As the book proceeded to involve creepier people and grisly murders, I felt less drawn to keep reading. There was inexplicable cruelty and extreme bullying which was beyond my understanding. However, I wanted to learn what would happen to the little girl, Coco, who suffered from a rare disease known as Williams syndrome. Additionally I became very interested in what becomes of Ernie, a boy whose diary entries begin each chapter.There are many, many twists in the plot; corruption among police administration; and sociopathic characters abound, including the heroine, known simply as Mallory. The plot is complicated by all the character details, but I felt that was also one of the best qualities because it made the nonsociopathic characters more relatable. This is the tenth book in a series, but the first one I have read. I found the Mallory to be unlikable and couldn’t get why so she was able to get the best of others, including her superiors. She’s stunningly beautiful, superbly talented with computers, and overall too much larger than life for me. Because I don’t know all the details of her life from the previous books, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.Ms. O’Connell adds a third person observation about events or people which is at times confusing but also clever. I enjoyed the writing style and would recommend the book to mystery fans that aren’t put off by the cruelty and violence.
    • 4/5
      Police detective Mallory is called to a crime scene in Central Park that involves rats, bodies hanging in trees and a strange young girl who is drawn to Mallory like a moth to flame. This is the tenth book in the Mallory series. When I found out that I won this book I read the first two books so I would have a foundation to build on. I liked this book a lot. There are plenty of twists along with a backstory that will disturb you. I will read more books from this author and series.
    • 5/5
      Malloray is back!! For those readers of this series, our girl was on the run from her life as a police officer and not sure if she would ever return to New York and her familiar associates. But, here we are, the author has brought our heroine back to the NYPD homicide squad with all her delicious quirky behavior in tact. Bodies are being found in Central Park, strung up in trees of all places. Amongst them is a strange little female child who seems to know more than she has told, but then, maybe she can't tell, either way, she picks Mallory for her most favorite person in this world, wraps both her body and smile around her and suddenly becomes what Mallory fears or least wants which is a person who needs her and depends on her for existence. The homicide is almost an afterthought in this book, but with the author's way of writing, we have a page turner with a ending that leaves everyone satisfied.