The Chalk Girl by Carol O’Connell

Kathleen Mallory, Book 10

Synopsis: The little girl appeared in Central Park: red-haired, blue-eyed, smiling, perfect-except for the blood on her shoulder. It fell from the sky, she said, while she was looking for her uncle, who turned into a tree. Poor child,people thought. And then they found the body in the tree. 

For Mallory, newly returned to the Special Crimes Unit after three months’ lost time, there is something about the girl that she understands. Mallory is damaged, they say, but she can tell a kindred spirit. And this one will lead her to a story of extraordinary crimes: murders stretching back fifteen years, blackmail and complicity and a particular cruelty that only someone with Mallory’s history could fully recognize. In the next few weeks, she will deal with them all . . . in her own way.

review: It’s impressive when I think I read the last book many years ago. I didn’t expect a sequel after all this time… So what a surprise when I discovered that a tenth volume would be out! I was so happy and I confess I was a little anxious that the series could finish like that since I always had a lot of questions and some unaccomplished hopes about our heroine.
Well it’s true it hasn’t any paranormal elements in it, but what a pleasure to follow this new story! Mallory is back, tougher than ever. Everyone has a lot of questions about her absence but nobody is brave enough to ask her the reason. And like always, all the characters are present for our great pleasure.
Carol O’Connell takes us in a new complex novel where we will suspect a lot of characters little by little. Indeed, I confess I didn’t expect a such development of the story. All the elements are linked in a way we didn’t know about and many characters are called in question… It was just awesome. Mallory has to deal with a lot of problems and we wonder how she can manage it. Nobody seems to understand her, not even Charles. Well Riker seems to be the only person who can see a little part of the truth, and it’s really pleasant to know he would do anything to protect her. I was very surprised by the Charles attitude in this volume, he is so different from the other novels. He wants to assert himself and he doesn’t understand that Mallory does everything she can to protect this little Coco. But more than that, he turns the only persons she trusted, against her. However Mallory isn’t a person who can show her feelings and she keeps everything for herself to develop some little revenge and she can be very rancorous.
Coco, this young girl, so different from the others, is so sweet. I didn’t know this pathology, and I don’t know if it truly exists, but we understand all the feelings immediately. She is so cute, she only wants someone to love her, and she wants this person to be Mallory, the one she loves the most in the world. We understand the Charles doubts for the intention of our heroine, but we also understand the determination of our investigator for resolving this case. Mallory is perhaps different from the other women, without a doubt, but she tried to take care of Coco in her own way.
The story is really sad and complex, and it’s true I didn’t expect a such novel. But I really enjoyed the whole story. We ask ourselves a lot of questions about these chapters headers written by a character we don’t know anything about. I wondered at first if it wasn’t some citations, but well, not at all. We can only learn the real reason later in the book and it’s very important to read all of them to understand the story.
We think, we doubt, we understand the characters little by little. I don’t read a lot of detective books but I really enjoy this one. Each volume is full of emotions and I really hope we would have an eleventh volume because I’m sure of it, Mallory, Riker, Charles and all the band still have a lot of surprises for us.

6 thoughts on “The Chalk Girl by Carol O’Connell

    • I really love this series, it’s always so interesting and mallory is a character like no one else. I would love to know what you think about it if you give it a try one day. It’s always so amazing, just too difficult to wait so long lol.

    • it was really intriguing. I think it must exist, because it’s really detailed but I’m not familiar with this pathology. It’s a really great detective series, as it’s also so much more.

  1. I was impressed with the one Carol O’Connell book I have read so far, Bone By Bone, if I remember correctly, and after reading your review I am convinced I need to read more by this author! 🙂

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