No Boredom With ‘Stone Angel’

It takes skill to write a really good murder mystery. Ellen Raskin did it with “The Westing Game.” John R. Riggs did it with his Garth Ryland series. So had Marian Babson, with every novel she has written. But sometimes, a book will be written a little too intricately, resulting in a fuzzy feeling of boredom. (I got this from reading Agatha Christie.)

Thankfully, such a feeling is not present in “Stone Angel,” by Carol O’Connell. Policewoman Kathleen Mallory returns to the small Louisiana town of Dayborn, where she was born and where her mother was stoned to death by an angry mob. Within hours of her return, several people are near death, and one has been murdered.

Mallory’s friend Charles Butler (who is in love with her) turns up shortly after, and they encounter a long line of unique townspeople - the powerful Augusta Trebec, autistic Ira, the sheriff who used to call himself Mallory’s friend, and evangelist Malcolm Laurie, the brother of the murdered man. Mallory, Butler, and friend Riker (whose appearance doesn’t exactly thrill Mallory) race to find the truth about Mallory’s mother before history repeats itself.

Apparently, O’Connell has written other books with Mallory. I was not aware of these books before. But after reading “Stone Angel,” I certainly intend to check them out.