Thomas Dunne Books 2009

 

Awards

Edgar Award for Best Novel nominee

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Other Books by Kathleen George

The Odds

Author: Kathleen George

The Homicide Department is upside down -- Richard Christie is in the hospital, Artie Dolan is headed away on vacation, John Potocki’s life is falling apart, and Colleen Greer is so worried about her boss's health, she can hardly think. A young boy in Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood dies of a suspicious overdose. The Narcotics police are working on tips and they draft Colleen and Potocki to help them. In this same neighborhood, four young kids have been abandoned and are living on their own. The Philips kids, brainy in school, are reluctant to compromise themselves. But they need cash. Connecting these people and their stories is Nick Banks, just out of prison and working off a debt to an old acquaintance involved in the drug trade. Nick is a charmer, a gentle fellow who’s had a lot of trouble in his life. One day he gives free food to the Philips kids, little guessing how connected their lives are about to become.

The Odds (Richard Christie, #4)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Kathleen George has once again written a masterfully plotted crime novel featuring Pittsburgh homicide detective Richard Christie. But in this fourth book, she outdoes herself in another of her strong suits -- vivid characters. The four young people who carry this novel are the most compelling kids I've encountered in 40 years of reading mysteries. They continued to haunt and entertain me for days after the final page was read.

 

Library Journal:

George's fourth crime novel is a truly original tale featuring four amazing youngsters: they are resilient, resourceful, and responsible. This very modern police procedural will not be easily forgotten.

 

Entertainment Weekly:

If anyone's writing better police thrillers than George, I don't know who it is.

 

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Kathleen George's fourth novel, The Odds, is arguably her best work. George finesses an improbable story into a seamless, natural narrative that is remarkable in its attention to detail and insights.

 

Pittsburgh Magazine:

George is, above all else, a master storyteller, shifting the point of view often, providing page space for each of the book's many characters to develop and rarely relying on cliches and stereotypes to do the heavy lifting. Sure, the book is populated with hardnosed detectives and fast-talking street junkies, but each is more than the sum of its parts.

 

Publishers Weekly:

Four extraordinary and resilient youngsters lift George's enjoyable fourth police procedural to feature Pittsburgh homicide chief Richard Christie and his team (after 2007's Afterimage). On loan to another department, detectives Colleen Greer and John Potocki pursue a narcotics investigation that meshes with a drug-related shooting. Meanwhile, the four Philips children -- Meg, 13; Joel, 11; Laurie, 10; and Susannah, seven -- are trying to cope with the desertion of their stepmother, who had told Meg to wait a couple of days before seeking foster care. Instead, they set about making do with limited resources but unlimited resolve. When Joel runs across a dead man and a wounded man in an abandoned house, the four decide to help the wounded man avoid the law and the drug dealer on his trail. George doesn't neglect the police work as Greer and Potocki effectively chase down clues, but it's the kids who are heroic in a world where few adults can be trusted.