Carol O’Connell is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve previous books, ten featuring Kathy Mallory, most recently The Chalk Girl, and the stand-alones Bone by Bone and The Judas Child. She lives in New York City.

The reviews called it “A Play to Die For” after a woman was found dead in the front row. It didn’t seem so funny the next night when another body was found—this time the playwright himself, his throat slashed. Detective Kathy Mallory of the NYPD Special Crimes Unit takes over, but isn’t getting a straight answer from anyone. Not the lead actor, a movie star fallen on hard luck; not the lead actress, a nervous sort with a dependence on pharmaceuticals; not even the wardrobe mistress, working under an alias; and certainly not the twin actors so unnervingly convincing playing psychos.

Now, backstage, someone has left Mallory a message on the blackboard: Tonight’s the night. Nothing personal. It appears that she is being written into the play itself, a play about a long-ago massacre that may not be fictional after all.

If Mallory can find out who’s responsible, heads will roll. Unfortunately, one of them might be her own.

Praise for Carol O’Connell and for the Mallory novels
“...among the best crime fiction ever written.”—San Jose Mercury News

“Mallory…is as fine a fictional creation as the crime genre offers.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“O’Connell has raised the standard for psychological thrillers.”—Chicago Tribune

“Pop fiction’s most compelling mystery series…[by] one of America’s finest, but too often overlooked, writers of mysteries.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Scores on all levels.”—Detroit Free Press

“Breaks the usual rules.”—The Baltimore Sun

“Easily one of the most original and striking crime fiction protagonists to appear in the last few years.”—St. Petersburg Times

“A hard-edged, brilliant, and indomitable heroine.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Darkly stylish…highly original…This is great fun.”—Chicago Tribune

“A tight, twisting mystery.”—Newsday

“Beautifully written.”—Harper’s Bazaar

“Mallory is a marvelous creation.”—Jonathan Kellerman

“One of the most interesting new characters to come along in years.”—John Sandford

“One of the most unique, interesting, and surprising heroines you’ve ever come across in any work of fiction.”—Nelson DeMille

“An author who really involves you, and makes you care.”—James B. Patterson

“Wild, sly, and breathless—all the things that a good thriller ought to be.”—Carl Hiaasen

“One of those books you can’t put down.”—The Boston Globe

“An author who can raise goosebumps with both her plot and her prose.”—Detroit Free Press