Find Me

Another reader complained that it took them a week to read this one instead of a day or two like the others. Me too. And that was great. Some of the later books in the series have been real pager turners--just slightly better-than-average routine pot-boilers. This one is a return to the strangeness and tension of the earliest Mallory novels. I had trouble reading more than two pages at a time. It was just too intense. I had to stop and let my own reaction to what I was reading settle down. My only problem was the beetle convertible hot-rod. 220 mph?!? No way! it would be airborne long before that speed. This not a typical police procedural, murder mystery, or even as the jacket calls it, a psychological thriller. If you are looking for one of those, it will be a disappointment. It rewards the reader in an entirely different way. But it was a most satisfactory read.

I have read all her books and have enjoyed each of them. This one is the best yet. She actually makes Mallory human and the story hummed right along with each character an individual with a story of their own. Would highly recommend this book.

Sociopathic Mallory is back with a bang. And what an ending.

I think you're either gonna like 'Find Me' or hate it. I liked it - very much. I believe O'Connell is continually developing a three-dimensional character and a fascinating one. Is Mallory a sociopath? I keep changing my opinion on that. I didn't find the large cast of characters confusing nor any more unbelievable than the Mallory literature discussion group of hookers. (Didn't ya love that - Sheriff Peety?) It took me a while to realize what Mallory was doing on Route 66, ie, to connect it to the letters, but I usually read Mallory books with a puzzled look on my face anyway. I always love the droll comments and observations, and I'm pleased that Mallory approved of Kansas (square fields and perfect right angles) as that's my home state. Wish there had been a little more of much put-upon Lt Coffey, bless his heart. :-)

Since the first Mallory book, Mallory's Oracle, we get bits and pieces about the 'Baby Thief' - she was alone, feeding out of trash cans, sleepng where she could. She was taken in by Helen and Louis Markowitz, and finally the girl found safety and love. But she never forgot why she had to live in the streets. She had a telephone # written on her hand, partially blurred. She would call all variations of that # and say 'Hi it's Kathy. I'm lost.' But no connections came from those calls..The Markowitzs gave her love and safety, but... When the Markowitz's are gone, Mallory has a career as a Detective with NYPD. Her only friends are her foster father's poker buddies, including Charles Butler and Detective Riker, also with NYPD. Mallory is missing from work and Riker gets a call that someone has been found dead in Mallory's apartment. When Charles and Riker go into Mallory's computer room, they find she unlocked the puzzle of the partial telephone number, and has a clue to her childhood. And so begins her journey. Mallory has been given letters her father wrote, addressed to 'OB'. They show his passions - a silver suped up Beetle, and traveling the old Route 66. She follows his journey down the old road in her own version of a suped up Beetle. But she is not alone - there are families of lost children following that path to find their lost ones. There have been children's skeletons found on the route, and someone seems to have been using that road to kill lost children. Mallory joins them and becomes part of the team to solve this mystery. A lost child trying to find her people..Butler and Riker find her and follow also. Here comes the rub - there is more info on the caravan, the lost ones, the FBI participants, it becomes 'ad nauseum'. But do not give up on this book, for it will solve the mystery Mallory has been looking for. I have been reading the Mallory books since the beginning, and the answers from previous books are there. The ending is so worth getting through the caravan stuff. We see Mallory as no one has seen her before. How this ending will effect subsequent books, one can only speculate. But speculate you will. A must for Mallory fans.