Dark House

by Theresa Monsour

Book Overview

Paris Murphy, the brilliant homicide detective who pursued serial killers in Clean Cut and Cold Blood, tracks an intimately involved couple in a very different kind of murder case. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399152903
• ISBN13: 9780399152900
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Theresa is AWESOME!

I have read all Theresa Monsour's books and they are all well written books. Paris Murphy is a great character, and the books are written in a believable way. I can't wait for her next book to come out. Please hurry Theresa.

A well written, downright creepy psychological thriller!

Catch & Serene ...what a pair!! He is a bartender with a violent streak, suicidal tendencies and a terrible secret. He used to be a terrific hockey player though. She is an Associate Professor of English Lit. at the state university with impeccable credentials from Princeton and a few publications under her belt, notably "Romance or Reality? How The Divided Soul Pains the New Prometheus." Well, I don't know much about the divided soul...but Serene Ransom, a.k.a. "Pink Lady," is acquainted with the divided self. Oh...and she also prefers her men young - very young. "Catch," a.k.a. Enda Clancy, is young and Greek god handsome, although he is not Prometheus nor is he as young as Serene usually prefers her boys. However, he has been known to gravitate toward older women. So...it's a match made in heaven - or hell! The two meet late one night in Maggie's Red Door, the bar Catch tends, located in Northeastern Minnesota's Iron Range. When a drunk snowmobiler with a police record decides to cause a bit of excitement as the joint is closing, he gets more than he bargains for. Before Catch locks up for the evening, he and his new girlfriend, (with a penchant for pink, cats and S & M), commit murder, conspire to conceal both the body and the evidence, clean up, clear out the cash register, claim the shotgun under the bar and takeoff for the Twin Cities. This is obviously just the beginning of their spree. Detective Paris Murphy of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area Police Department gets the case. This is Detective Murphy's third appearance in a Theresa Monsour police procedural and my introduction to the intelligent, feisty, part Irish, part Lebanese law officer. Paris is a more complex character than most female protagonists in series novels. There is more to her than the same old "tough but vulnerable" facade. I am definitely planning to read books one and two, ("Clean Cut" and "Cold Blood"). Not only am I taken with this three-dimensional take charge lady, but I like her husband, family, colleagues, boss and problematic love life. The dialogue is realistic, the plot is gritty and fast paced - some nice twists. Ms. Monsour, an award-winning journalist for a St. Paul newspaper, gives us a vivid look inside the heads of two totally wacko individuals, one a serial killer - and the view is chilling. The writing is quite good! What's not to like?? JANA

Dark House

It was a very good book, well written. It was interesting to follow the story because of the locations in the story as I live in the same area.

The Old Dark House

You don't often read books about women who live highly respected professional lives but who have a weakness for underage men who look more like teenage boys, but hey, every week or so it seems they catch another school teacher in bed with a middle school pupil, so why not Serena Ransom, "Lady Macbeth's finest pupil," who walks into a bar in St. Paul on a cold, cold night and brings down a firestorm of blood and bullets. She's quite a character and, if truth be told, she outshines Paris Murphy, Theresa Monsour's tough, dedicated half-Irish half-Lebanese cop. Ransom's boy toy observes her through a musk of male hormones, and in Monsour's inimitable noir style, the sentences get so excited they lose their particles and articles: "Eyes the color of blue Popsicles. Lips that looked swollen and chewed on. Vanilla ice-cream skin." You can tell she's sort of a cold person. Not so Paris Murphy, who goes to a chiropractor halfway through the case and gets the massage of her life! Paris is a little bit like her namesake, Paris Hilton, always ready for a tumble. "Can you loosen your jeans?" murmurs the chiropractor guy. "I need to reach that lower-back area that's been bothering you." Note: she's undercover and doesn't really have any back problems. It's just a ruse to get her undressed. The tension between the two stories drives Monsour's third novel to a rackety finish. If only Demi Moore would consent to play Paris Murphy, and for Ransom, the producers should hire Uma Thurman.

terrific Paris Minnesota police procedural

In the remote Iron Range section of Minnesota, though at least ten years older than her, Professor Serene Ransom picks up early twenties "Catch" Clancy, a bartender at Maggie's Red Door though he is slightly older than her usual boy toy. Catch fails to lock up when a snowmobile rider enters the place with a shotgun. Serene distracts the killer with her pistol while Catch hammers the robber with a bottle of Daniels. Serene's "pink" voice coaxes Catch into shooting the intruder and she fires also killing the robber. Though she says it self-defense, he says they would not be believed. After disposing of the body, Serene takes Catch to her St. Paul home. The local sheriff believes that Catch killed the snowmobile rider before fleeing with a blond. He wants to question Catch so he asks St. Paul Police Department to find him. Homicide Sergeant Paris Murphy is assigned to track him down; she quickly connects him to Serene, but lacks CLEAN CUT evidence. Though concern for her father following his heart attack keeps her from fully concentrating, Paris uses herself as bait to catch a dangerous murderous pair led by a female sex predator. DARK HOUSE, the terrific third Paris police procedural is a fabulous tale as the audience sees the fugitives more often than the cops. Readers gain incredible insight into the minds of Catch, who is a mix of innocence (nickname from his days as a hockey goalie) and hardened soul (accidentally killed his father and lives with busted up ankles), and the macabre Serene. Surprisingly Paris takes a back seat to this duo, but still provides her usual sleuthing skills and voluntarily plays the mouse to the two dangerous cats. Harriet Klausner