The Rosary Girls

By: Richard Montanari

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

In his sleek, visceral novels Deviant Way, Kiss of Evil, and The Violet Hour, Richard Montanari slammed into the suspense field like a force of nature. Now, Montanari has written an astounding novel that pits two besieged detectives against a fiercely intelligent serial killer.

Sprawling beneath the statue of William Penn, Philadelphia is a city of downtrodden crack houses and upscale brownstones. Somewhere in this concrete crazy quilt, one Catholic teenage girl is writing in her diary, another is pouring her heart out to a friend, and yet another is praying. And somewhere in this city is a man who wants these young women to make his macabre fantasy become reality. In a passion play of his own, he will take the girls - and a whole city - over the edge.

Kevin Byrne is a veteran cop who already knows that edge: He’s been living on it far too long. His marriage failing, his former partner wasting away in a hospital, and his heart lost to mad fury, Byrne loves to take risks and is breaking every rule in the book. And now, he has been given a rookie partner. Jessica Balzano, the daughter of a famous Philly cop, doesn’t want Byrne’s help. But they will need each other desperately, since they’ve just caught the case of a lifetime: Someone is killing devout young women, bolting their hands together in prayer, and committing an abomination upon their otherwise perfect bodies.

Byrne and Balzano spearhead the hunt for the serial killer, who leads them on a methodically planned journey. Suspects appear before them like bad dreams - and vanish just as quickly. And while Byrne’s sins begin to catch up with him and Balzano tries to solve the blood-splattered puzzle, the body count rises. Meanwhile, the calendar is approaching Easter and the day of the resurrection. When the last rosary is counted, a madman’s methods will be revealed, and the final crime will be the one that hurts the most.

Relentlessly paced and vividly told, The Rosary Girls is a smart, emotionally complex, fiercely gripping thriller from an author who takes chances, breaks new ground, and leaves listeners haunted and moved long after the last moment.

©2005 Richard Montanari (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The Rosary Girls is a well-written, fast-moving thriller with twists and turns galore that will keep you guessing until the end." (Phillip Margolin)
"A relentlessly suspenseful, soul-chilling thriller that hooks you instantly." (Tess Gerritsen)

Great Listen!

Always enjoy Scott Brick, my favorite reader. This is my first book by this author and I certainly plan on reading more. Excellent book,
nice twists and turns. Great character development. Highly recommend!

Great Beginning to a Series with a Great Narrator!

Would you listen to The Rosary Girls again? Why?

Yes, the characters are complex. I like that Burns is not your ordinary detective. This book had a lot of twists and the end had me at the edge of my seat.

What other book might you compare The Rosary Girls to and why?

Maybe similar to the John Lutz novel, only because both killers are twisted however "the rosary girls" can stand on its own as creepy.

Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I can't say enough about Scott Brick, he could read me the dictionary. I chose this book because Scott was the narrator and I'm delighted to see he is the voice for the rest of the series. I will be listening to the second book in this series next.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

****SPOILER***** The ending in the basement during the storm was intense. That's all I'm going to say.

Any additional comments?

Great book, I highly recommend it.

Dark Beginnings

This is my second book with Balzanno and Byrne, but their first adventure together. This is a pretty solid police procedural thriller. You get some insights into each of the main character's lives and who they are. Balzanno is the rookie in homicide, and Byrne is a grizzled veteran. The story of the Rosary girls is an interesting story, but there is some dark things that happen away from the case. Byrne does some very questionable actions and some characters conveniently die or show up as needed. I cut it some slack as Montanari's first foray into these characters.

Scott Brick does what he does best and that's deliver a solid performance that brings the highs and lows to the story.

Fans of police procedurals, thrillers and crime stories should go into this book. Be warned, it's dark and twisted, and a wild ride.

Worth listening to!

I liked this book it was interesting and it kept my interest. I would recommend it.

Well told story but extremely violent

I have thoroughly enjoyed two of the Byrne and Balzano stories. The characters are fully drawn and engaging. My only caveat is the extreme violence.

ambitious attempt, flawed execution

I'm baffled by all the gushing 5-star reviews for this book...it's got serious plot holes, unrealistic characters --like, how in the world does model-gorgeous [naturally] Jessica manage to train for her so-successful boxing career when she can barely sneak time from her cop career for her daughter, or even for sleep? I'd buy Byrne's psychic ability before that...but his habit of hanging around in abandoned crack houses is bound to cause him problems.

And the author is lazy: his characters frequently fail to ask very obvious questions of witnesses (because if they asked them, the book would be about 1/3 as long), and this also makes the "brilliant" detectives look real stupid. There's also a VERY obvious thing they failed to ask about while they were looking at all the things the girls might have in common, despite several times checking for gang affiliations in these nice Catholic girls (since it's sort of a spoiler, I'm putting it at the bottom*).

Basically, the plot and the characters were unrealistic and characters not terribly appealing or original --the schlock reporter was straight out of central casting, for instance. The Burned Out Experienced Detective. The Eager Young New Detective, bursting with energy, yearning to prove herself. The Fading Former Partner. They could have come out of cans, off a shelf in the Writers' Mart.

Scott Brick does a great job, possibly better then the material deserves. I recall when listening to some of his early work, thinking his name was apt --there was sort of a brick-like stolidity to his reading-- but he's developed into a much better, more nuanced and skilled reader. I wouldn't put him into my quartet of readers who're so incredible I get books I wouldn't ordinarily listen to, just to hear them read, but he is excellent, nonetheless.

*The Spoiler part:
They never ask about the girls' health, medical history, doctors, or any suchlike thing, despite conjecturing from the very first that the perp may have medical training. If they had, of course, the book would've ended after the second murder. Which would've been an improvement, IMO.

Outstanding

Fantastic book - great twists and turns. Keeps you guessing and doesn't disappoint! Definite read for mystery/suspense lovers!

boring

this book is the worst. prove me wrong.
. . 5 4 3 2 1

Pure crime/thriller melodrama!

I am now on book #4 in this series, and I tend to be stingy with stars. First off, let's take care of the category. Some reviewers cry "not believable". Sure, but these books are not about solving crimes with dogged police work. Again...these are not police procedurals. Yes, they have crimes at their core, but only to hang the many characters, the twisted plot, the parallel story lines, and the suspense on. Think Charlie Huston meets David Koontz (some clues even come to our heroes psychically through Byrne's battered brain). Few of us would complain about the lack of "believability" in many of the movies we see; it's a movie--pure fantasy.

Yes, there are the cliches of Jessica Balzano, tough female detective who boxes, and her tough but much damaged (natch) older male partner Kevin Byrne, both of whose main vulnerabilies are their children, and their good hearts. In each book so far, Balzano and Byrne, regularly find themselves (or their friends and loved ones) at great physical risk, and in very tight life-threatening spots which require miraculously well-timed rescues. And yes, as a number of reviewers have pointed out, Montanari's writing seems to be of the school of "Why use two or three words when an entire paragraph, or better yet, a long interior monologue will do--we can just suspend the intense action for a few minutes". But hey, for those of us who can enjoy highly fictionalized crime thrillers replete with melodrama, Montanari does it quite well, and with a more than reasonable command of the English language, which is not always the case at this level of literature. All of the above add up to why it was brilliant to use Scott Brick to narrate these books (so far). As one reviewer remarked, he could make the phone book sound dramatic. Montanari's and Brick's styles are a pitch perfect match.

There is some violence, and the crimes are gory even though we are not usually present when they are committed. The language is medium; what you'd expect in an adult cop story. The unfortunate part of this series is that if you get hooked, and if you get to numbers 5 and 6, not only are they not available on Audible, they are also not available as ebooks on either B&N or Amazon. And, in fact I can only find hard copies of them in two places in US; most are from UK. The last(?) two, 7 and 8, are here at Audible. Go figure.

great mystery

solid characters, excellent plot and i didn't figure it out...yet another one i couldn't stop listening to....