Barbara D'Amato Mystery Collection

Barbara D'Amato Novels

Hard Road : A Cat Marsala Mystery by Barbara D'Amato, Brian D'Amato

Amazon.com
Cat Marsala, the hard-working Chicago reporter, returns in this ninth entry in D'Amato's series. This time she's got plenty of company--what seems like the entire cast of characters from the magical world of Oz created by L. Frank Baum. In a pleasant diversion that reads more like an homage to Baum than a mystery novel, Cat tracks down the unknown assailant who disrupted the annual Grant Park Oz Festival by killing its security chief and attempting to murder the reporter herself. Or is it Cat's young nephew, whose father (Cat's brother Barry) is the director of the event, who is the target of the killer? Torn between family loyalty and her duty to tell the police exactly what she witnessed between the dead man and her brother, Cat unwittingly lands Barry right in the prime suspect seat. So it's up to her to get him out of it by finding the real killer and, not so incidentally, treating the reader to a guided tour of the marvelous mind of one of the most beloved children's authors of all time. Oz fans will have a field day; others may be drawn to the world of the Emerald City for the first time and discover that as long as Baum's books endure, it will never be too late to have a happy childhood.

Hard Bargain by Barbara D'Amato

Amazon.com
Barbara D'Amato's books about freelance Chicago journalist Cat Marsala celebrate the quaint idea that what somebody writes in a newspaper or a magazine can have some effect, can make a difference, can even tip the scales of justice from time to time. We all know how ludicrous this idea is, but while we're reading D'Amato's latest, which finds the feisty Cat involved in linked cases of spousal abuse and high-level police department dirty pool, all doubts are happily suspended.

Good Cop, Bad Cop by Barbara D'Amato

Amazon.com
The good and bad cops of Barbara D'Amato's tough, tension-filled thriller are two brothers: Chicago police superintendent Nick Bertolucci and his disturbed brother Aldo, a jealous and vengeful patrolman. Using a real case--the 1969 police raid that killed Black Panther Fred Hampton--D'Amato has constructed a complicated, credible story about family rivalries and public cover-ups. The Bertoluccis' father was a top policeman involved in the Hampton case, and after his death Aldo uncovers evidence that could destroy his brother's career. As she did in her excellent Killer.app, D'Amato manages to surround her police characters with a richly detailed everyday life that stays with you long after you close the book's covers.
Book Description
Based on actual events in Chicago's history; Chicago Police Superintendent Nick Bertolucci is a tough top cop. But he has a dangerous enemy on the force: his brother Aldo. Aldo is a beat copy who is eaten up by jealousy and resentment of Nick's success. He gets his chance to sabotage his brother's career when records turn up concerning an illegal raid on a Black Panther household back in 1969. When Aldo tries to connect Nick to the scandal, his scheme threatens to collapse the Chicago Police Department, and his own family, from the inside out.

Hard Evidence by Barbara D'Amato

It starts with a soup bone. Chicago freelance journalist Cat Marsala, relaxing at home after a long week's work reporting on the city's best restaurants, looks forward to a quiet evening with her semi-significant other, Dr. Sam Davidian; her parrot, Long John Silver; and her temporary houseguest, a Dalmatian named Dapper. As a special treat, Cat buys Dapper his very own soup bone at Chicago's most elegant and exotic food emporium, Spenser and Angelotti.
The Dalmatian is delighted with his bone, but his euphoria is short-lived when Sam, a trauma surgeon, snatches the bone away. One close look tells Sam that he and Cat will not enjoy the romantic evening they'd planned.
The bone is human, probably part of a large male's leg, which suggests two immediate problems: a murder may have occurred at the Spenser and Angelotti store and a potential health hazard may exist in the store's butcher shop and meat cases. Cat's purchase was packaged in plastic, tucked in next to the beef, lamb, and pork. How much meat has been contaminated? How many other customers will face similar surprises?
Cat gets on the phone to her longtime friend, Chicago's chief of detectives, Harold McCoo, who with the mayor, the medical examiner, and other officials, agrees to a deal. The store will do a five-times-your-money-back recall on its meat, and Cat and the cops will have twenty-four hours to find a killer before the story goes public and Spenser and Angelotti's reputation is trashed.
Co-owner Bruno Angelotti, desperate to preserve his beloved store's reputation, brings in Cat to work undercover in catering. If she has a good reason to be in the store, she can ask questions more easily and observe the employees in unguarded moments. Is one of them a killer? When Cat's car windshield is broken as a warning, it's clear that somebody, at least, does not want Cat nosing around Spenser and Angelotti. And that's only the beginning in a dangerous case that takes Cat and the reader deep inside the intriguing worlds of specialty foods and funeral homes. Somebody will stop at nothing, even another murder, to obscure the evidence of one of the most bizarre crimes Cat has ever encountered.
With all the ingredients that have made Barbara D'Amato's mysteries such favorites -- the puzzle, the research, the ensemble characters, the rich Chicago setting, the police detail -- Hard Evidence is powerful, page-turning entertainment from one of the very best of contemporary crime writers.

Killer App by Barbara D'Amato

When her sister, a computer engineer, lapses into a coma after accessing a secret database at SJR Computer Systems, Chicago police officer Suze Figueroa finds herself confronting a mega-corporation harboring some deadly secrets.

Help Me Please by Barbara D'Amato

A chilling criminal kink in the World Wide Web leads to a horrifying crime
An hour and a half after three-year-old Danielle Gaston is kidnapped from the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, a new site pops up on the World Wide Web--featuring Danielle Gaston. She's isolated in a room with no food and only water to drink. This live-action Web page is available to all net users around the world and is soon rebroadcast on CNN and other television networks.
Since Danielle is the only child of a popular country and western singer and a senator, her case is a high profile one--and likely to end in heartbreak. Unless Deputy Chief of Detectives Polly Kelly can crack the case before the child is harmed.

OxfordBooks.com / Oxford, MS

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