The Rosary Girls

December 13, 2004
A starred review indicates a book of outstanding quality. A review with a blue-tinted title indicates a book of unusual commercial interest that hasn't received a starred review.

THE ROSARY GIRLS
Richard Montanari
. Ballantine
, $23.95 (416p) ISBN 0-345-47095-8

A specialist in serial killer tales (Kiss of Evil
, etc.
) offers the gory first in a projected series. A religious nut is preying on Catholic schoolgirls, picking them off with impunity while Philadelphia detective Kevin Byrne and his new partner, Jessica Balzano, wring their hands and wrack their brains. The victims are found with their necks broken, their hands bolted together in prayer and their vaginas sewn shut. Byrne has a problematic past and a Vicodin habit, and Jessica's daughter, Sophie, is a tempting target for the killer, especially since her dad, undercover cop Vincent Balzano, has been kicked out of the house for cheating on Jessica. Several red herring suspects keep both cops and readers off balance, and there are plenty of subplots—Jessica is a female boxer, Byrne is the divorced father of a deaf daughter, there's a nosy tabloid reporter trying to start trouble. But most of these mini-dramas serve only to provide a breather between sadistic mutilations. Montanari can be a wonderfully evocative writer, but the final unveiling of the madman's identity will draw cries of foul from readers who expect a fighting chance at figuring out who the guilty party is. Agent, Meg Ruley. (Feb.)

Forecast:
Ballantine is pushing this one as Montanari's breakout book—and it's a featured alternate of the Literary Guild, the Mystery Guild and the Doubleday Book Club—but the dangling subplots and a formulaic ending may hobble it a bit
.

January 1, 2005
Leaving behind Cleveland detective Jack Paris, Montanari (Kiss of Evil) introduces Philadelphia veteran cop Kevin Byrne and his rookie partner Jessica Balzano. What hasn't changed is the twisted serial killer and the gore-drenched violence that are Montanari's trademarks. Here the Philly killer targets teenage girls attending Catholic schools, leaving a rosary with each corpse and a clue to the next murder. This is a no-holds-barred thriller with driving prose that thrusts the reader into the black soul of the killer. The plot is cleverly crafted, the appealing characters are multidimensional, and those with a taste for Thomas Harris will look forward to the sure-to-follow sequel. Recommended for popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/04.]-Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2004
It's every Philadelphia cop's dream to make it to the homicide unit. For Jessica Balzano, formerly on traffic detail, she couldn't be more excited or more anxious. Jessica jumps in feet first when, on day one, she and her partner--the confident Kevin Byrne, who has a reputation for skillfully but unconventionally solving murders--get a call saying that a homeless man has found the dead body of a teenage girl. The victim turns out to be Tessa Wells, a student at the same Catholic girls' high school that Jessica attended. Returning to the school to investigate brings back memories of Jessica's high-school woes, but teenage growing pains pale in comparison to Tessa's fate--raped and murdered with a rosary, which quickly becomes the killer's calling card, tied around her hands. Montanari jumps between following the investigation and tracking the killer as the horrific events unfold. This high-concept, heavily promoted thriller--the first of what promises to be a grisly series starring two likable Philly detectives--could vault genre veteran Montanari into the big time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)