Too Many Murders

October 26, 2009
Set in a Connecticut college town, bestseller McCullough's disappointing sequel to On, Off
(2006) starts off with an over-the-top premise and doesn't improve from there. In April 1967, a dozen murders occur in the normally quiet town of Holloman, Conn., in just 18 hours, culminating in the death by bear trap of Evan Pugh, a student at Chubb University with a penchant for blackmail. The disparate victims include a hooker, a college dean and the head of a major corporation; among the killing methods are four poisonings, three shootings and two pillow suffocations. In an unrealistic move, Capt. Carmine Delmonico of the Holloman police, who's in charge of the unwieldy investigation, sends his sergeants home for a good night's sleep while the crimes are still fresh. The solution may elicit unintended giggles as it papers over holes in logic rather than filling them.

Carmine Delmonico returns as a Holloman, Connecticut, homicide cop in this sequel to ON, OFF (2007). When 12 gruesome murders occur on the same day in 1967, Carmine has his work cut out for him, tracking down the mastermind behind poisonings, shootings, and even murder by bear trap. Charles Leggett uses his precise, quiet voice to evoke the gritty nature of crime solving in an era before forensics took the spotlight. His strange vocal calm in the face of the crimes gives an eerie feeling to the murders, even while Carmine's slightly unbelievable leaps of logic bring the case to closure. Leggett is much more emotive with the characters outside of the police department, showing his talent at accents of all kinds. E.N. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

June 1, 2010
Australian author McCullough's ("The Thorn Birds") aptly titled new mystery features as its protagonist Carmine Delmonico, the no-nonsense, dogged detective she first introduced in "On, Off" (2006), also available from BBC Audiobooks America. It's 1967, and 12 murders are committed in one day in the town of Holloman, CT. Carmine, recently promoted to chief of detectives, is determined to find the killer(s). The book's plethora of victims and suspects makes tracking the characters at times cumbersome and challenging for any listener, let alone reader. But actor/narrator Charles Leggett ("Capture") beautifully voices each person, even clearly distinguishing between two British-accented females. Recommended for mystery fans. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 9/1/09.Ed.]Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

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