Naked Cruelty
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £4.49
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- £4.49
Publisher Description
Locking your door won’t help. He’s already inside…
America in 1968 is in turmoil and the leafy Holloman suburb of Carew is being silently terrorised by a series of vicious and systematic rapes. When finally one victim finds the courage to speak out and go to the police, the rapist escalates to murder.
For Captain Carmine Delmonico, it seems to be a case with no clues. And it comes as the Holloman Police Department is troubled: a lieutenant is out of his depth, a sergeant is out of control, and into this mix comes the beautiful, ruthlessly ambitious new trainee, Helen MacIntosh, daughter of the influential president of Chubb University.
As the killer makes his plans, Carmine and his team must use every resource at their disposal – including a highly motivated neighbourhood watch, the Gentlemen Walkers…
Reviews
Praise for Colleen McCullough:
'Very much in the tradition of P.D. James…McCullough is a tremendous storyteller.' The Times
'Compelling, passionate and gritty.' She
'McCullough piles on the drama.' Daily Mail
'Absorbing.' Sunday Telegraph
'Probes the depths of the human heart in a haunting, multi-layered novel.' Good Book Guide
'This experienced writer knows how to grab attention and keep it.' Literary Review
‘As an artful storyteller, McCullough has more than a few tricks up her sleeve.’ Sydney Morning Herald
About the author
Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neurophysiologist, she worked in Australia and the U.K. before joining the department of Neurology at the Yale University School of Internal Medicine, where she remained for ten years.
Publication of The Thorn Birds, her second novel, in 1977, saw the end of her scientific career. She moved to Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, where she lives with her husband, Ric Robinson.
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.
