Naked Cruelty
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Now in paperback—the gripping follow-up to Too Many Murders, in which Colleen McCullough pits Captain Carmine Delmonico against a dangerous villain and a difficult case.
Once again, Captain Carmine Delmonico and his trusted detectives must restore peace to their small university town. 1968 was that kind of year. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated, riots raged in Detroit, and Richard Nixon was elected president. Amidst the new era of paranoia, Capt. Carmine Delmonico faces new challenges. Sex and greed dominate two new murder cases. And tension strains Carmine’s ties to colleagues, Desdemona and his elder son. The result will astound and test Delmonico as never before.
Since her success with The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough has proved whether she’s writing about a Roman emperor, Mr. Darcy, or an American detective, her fans know they can expect an entertaining page-turner and Naked Cruelty is no exception.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1968, McCullough's uneven third Carmine Delmonico novel (after Too Many Murders) finds the Holloman, Conn., police captain facing multiple problems. On the crime front, a serial rapist calling himself Didus ineptus, the Linnaean name for the dodo bird, is increasing the violence of his attacks; a vandal strikes at a mall; incipient gang violence threatens area high schools; and the fate of a kidnapping victim strains resources. Within the department, everyone detests bright, beautiful, ambitious detective trainee Helen MacIntosh, the daughter of the president of Holloman's "world-famous institute of higher learning," Chubb University. One lieutenant, Corey Marshall, isn't working out, and another, Morty Jones, has a drinking problem. On the domestic front, Delmonico's wife, Desdemona, may be suffering from postpartum depression and is worsening by the day. The admirable Delmonico holds this character-driven novel together, but awkward plot twists and a climax more silly than shocking undermine credibility.
