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Dark Lady

By Richard North Patterson

By Richard North Patterson

By Richard North Patterson

By Richard North Patterson

By Richard North Patterson
Read by Patricia Kalember

By Richard North Patterson
Read by Patricia Kalember

By Richard North Patterson
Read by Anne Twomey

By Richard North Patterson
Read by Anne Twomey

Best Seller
Mass Market Paperback $7.99

Aug 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780345404787

Ebook $4.99

Jan 16, 2013 | ISBN 9780307833891

Audiobook Download $12.95

Jul 04, 2000 | 368 Minutes

Audiobook Download $20.00

Jan 05, 1999 | 857 Minutes

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    Dark Lady by Richard North Patterson
    Mass Market Paperback $7.99
    Aug 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780345404787

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    About Dark Lady

    Once the prosecutor was a young law student. Once the dead man was an honest lawyer. Now Stella Marz stares at the body of her former lover, hanging from a doorway in a gruesome tableau.

    For Stella Marz, the search for Jack Novak’s killer leads into another bizarre homicide case, back through her own past and through the city where she was born and where now–a good Catholic girl turned career woman–she is in crisis. Somewhere in this city a hidden alliance of big money, big plans, and dark secrets is fueling a great American revival. And somehow Stella Marz will bring the darkness into the light–no matter what it reveals, no matter who it destroys. . . .

    About Dark Lady

    In Dark Lady, Richard North Patterson displays the mastery of setting, psychology, and story that makes him unique among writers of suspense, and one of today’s most original and enthralling novelists.

    In Steelton, a struggling Midwestern city on the cusp of an economic turnaround, two prominent men are found dead within days of each other. One is Tommy Fielding, a senior officer of the company building a new baseball stadium, the city’s hope for the future. The other is Jack Novak, the local drug dealers’ attorney of choice. Fielding’s death with a prostitute, from an overdose of heroin, seems accidental; Novak is apparently the victim of a ritual murder. But in each case the character of the dead man seems contradicted by the particulars of his death. Coincidence or connection?

    The question falls to Assistant County Prosecutor Stella Marz. Despite a traumatic breach with her alcoholic and embittered father, she has risen from a working-class background to become head of the prosecutor’s homicide unit. A driven woman, she is called the Dark Lady by defense lawyers for her relentless, sometimes ruthless, style: in seven years only one case has gotten away from her, and only because the defendant took his own life. She has earned every inch of both her official and her off-the-record titles, and recently she’s decided to go after another: to become the first woman elected Prosecutor of Erie County. But that was before the brutal murder of her ex-lover–Jack Novak.

    Novak’s death leads her into a labyrinth where her personal and professional lives become dangerously intertwined. There is the possibility that Novak fixed drug cases for the city’s crime lord, Vincent Moro, with the help of law enforcement personnel, and perhaps with someone in Stella’s own office . . . the bitter mayoral race which threatens to undermine her own ambitions . . . her attraction to a colleague who may not be what he seems . . . the lingering, complicated effects of her painful affair with Novak . . . the growing certainty that she is being watched and followed. Making her way through a maze of corruption, deceit, and greed, trusting no one, Stella comes to believe that the search for the truth involves the bleak history of Steelton itself–a history that now endangers her future, and perhaps her life.

    For his uncanny dialogue, subtle delineation of character, and hypnotic narrative, critics have compared Richard North Patterson to John O’Hara and Dashiell Hammett. Now, in the character of the Dark Lady, he has created a woman as fascinating as her world is haunting. Dark Lady is his signature work.

    About Dark Lady

    In Dark Lady, Richard North Patterson displays the mastery of setting, psychology, and story that makes him unique among writers of suspense, and one of today’s most original and enthralling novelists.

    In Steelton, a struggling Midwestern city on the cusp of an economic turnaround, two prominent men are found dead within days of each other. One is Tommy Fielding, a senior officer of the company building a new baseball stadium, the city’s hope for the future. The other is Jack Novak, the local drug dealers’ attorney of choice. Fielding’s death with a prostitute, from an overdose of heroin, seems accidental; Novak is apparently the victim of a ritual murder. But in each case the character of the dead man seems contradicted by the particulars of his death. Coincidence or connection?

    The question falls to Assistant County Prosecutor Stella Marz. Despite a traumatic breach with her alcoholic and embittered father, she has risen from a working-class background to become head of the prosecutor’s homicide unit. A driven woman, she is called the Dark Lady by defense lawyers for her relentless, sometimes ruthless, style: in seven years only one case has gotten away from her, and only because the defendant took his own life. She has earned every inch of both her official and her off-the-record titles, and recently she’s decided to go after another: to become the first woman elected Prosecutor of Erie County. But that was before the brutal murder of her ex-lover–Jack Novak.

    Novak’s death leads her into a labyrinth where her personal and professional lives become dangerously intertwined. There is the possibility that Novak fixed drug cases for the city’s crime lord, Vincent Moro, with the help of law enforcement personnel, and perhaps with someone in Stella’s own office . . . the bitter mayoral race which threatens to undermine her own ambitions . . . her attraction to a colleague who may not be what he seems . . . the lingering, complicated effects of her painful affair with Novak . . . the growing certainty that she is being watched and followed. Making her way through a maze of corruption, deceit, and greed, trusting no one, Stella comes to believe that the search for the truth involves the bleak history of Steelton itself–a history that now endangers her future, and perhaps her life.

    For his uncanny dialogue, subtle delineation of character, and hypnotic narrative, critics have compared Richard North Patterson to John O’Hara and Dashiell Hammett. Now, in the character of the Dark Lady, he has created a woman as fascinating as her world is haunting. Dark Lady is his signature work.

    About Dark Lady

    In Dark Lady, Richard North Patterson displays the mastery of setting, psychology, and story that makes him unique among writers of suspense, and one of today’s most original and enthralling novelists.

    In Steelton, a struggling Midwestern city on the cusp of an economic turnaround, two prominent men are found dead within days of each other. One is Tommy Fielding, a senior officer of the company building a new baseball stadium, the city’s hope for the future. The other is Jack Novak, the local drug dealers’ attorney of choice. Fielding’s death with a prostitute, from an overdose of heroin, seems accidental; Novak is apparently the victim of a ritual murder. But in each case the character of the dead man seems contradicted by the particulars of his death. Coincidence or connection?

    The question falls to Assistant County Prosecutor Stella Marz. Despite a traumatic breach with her alcoholic and embittered father, she has risen from a working-class background to become head of the prosecutor’s homicide unit. A driven woman, she is called the Dark Lady by defense lawyers for her relentless, sometimes ruthless, style: in seven years only one case has gotten away from her, and only because the defendant took his own life. She has earned every inch of both her official and her off-the-record titles, and recently she’s decided to go after another: to become the first woman elected Prosecutor of Erie County. But that was before the brutal murder of her ex-lover–Jack Novak.

    Novak’s death leads her into a labyrinth where her personal and professional lives become dangerously intertwined. There is the possibility that Novak fixed drug cases for the city’s crime lord, Vincent Moro, with the help of law enforcement personnel, and perhaps with someone in Stella’s own office . . . the bitter mayoral race which threatens to undermine her own ambitions . . . her attraction to a colleague who may not be what he seems . . . the lingering, complicated effects of her painful affair with Novak . . . the growing certainty that she is being watched and followed. Making her way through a maze of corruption, deceit, and greed, trusting no one, Stella comes to believe that the search for the truth involves the bleak history of Steelton itself–a history that now endangers her future, and perhaps her life.

    For his uncanny dialogue, subtle delineation of character, and hypnotic narrative, critics have compared Richard North Patterson to John O’Hara and Dashiell Hammett. Now, in the character of the Dark Lady, he has created a woman as fascinating as her world is haunting. Dark Lady is his signature work.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

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    About Richard North Patterson

    Richard North Patterson is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 novels, a former chairman of Common Cause, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Formerly a trial lawyer, Patterson served as the US Security and… More about Richard North Patterson

    About Richard North Patterson

    Richard North Patterson is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 novels, a former chairman of Common Cause, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Formerly a trial lawyer, Patterson served as the US Security and… More about Richard North Patterson

    About Richard North Patterson

    Richard North Patterson is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 novels, a former chairman of Common Cause, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Formerly a trial lawyer, Patterson served as the US Security and… More about Richard North Patterson

    About Richard North Patterson

    Richard North Patterson is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 20 novels, a former chairman of Common Cause, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Formerly a trial lawyer, Patterson served as the US Security and… More about Richard North Patterson

    Product Details

    Category: Suspense & Thriller

    Mass Market Paperback | $7.99
    Published by Ballantine Books
    Aug 01, 2000 | 448 Pages | 4-3/16 x 6-7/8 | ISBN 9780345404787

    Category: Suspense & Thriller

    Ebook | $4.99
    Published by Ballantine Books
    Jan 16, 2013 | 448 Pages | ISBN 9780307833891

    Category: Suspense & Thriller | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $12.95
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jul 04, 2000 | 368 Minutes | ISBN 9780375418068

    Category: Suspense & Thriller | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $20.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jan 05, 1999 | 857 Minutes | ISBN 9781415920671
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    Praise

    "ENGROSSING . . . TRUE SUSPENSE."
    –San Francisco Chronicle

    "[A] COMPLEX TALE OF PERSONAL, POLITICAL, AND CRIMINAL BETRAYALS . . . Dark Lady not only keeps you in suspense; it gives you plenty of social and moral questions to ponder."
    –The Wall Street Journal

    "EXCELLENT . . . ONCE AGAIN PATTERSON REVEALS HIMSELF TO BE A MASTER OF CRAFTING MEMORABLE CHARACTERS. AND THE LONELY, LOVELY STELLA MARZ . . . IS ONE OF HIS BEST."
    –USA Today

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