Too Many Murders: A Carmine Delmonico Novel

I think what I like best about this series of books is that it is set back in time, in the mid 1960s, an unusual time frame to set murder mysteries. Most of the books about this era are about the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement and so forth. These novels involve older people in a CT town which houses a prominent college. The main characters are all about 40 years of age. This is the second book in the series. I don't like it as much as the first but it is still very good. What the author chooses to deal with, at the heart of the 12 murders occurring in one day, is that there is a KGB spy operating within a major corporation in the town. Even worse, the corporation is mainly a defense contractor. The author does many clever things in this novel. I did solve it but not until the very end.

Holloman, Connecticut is rarely beset with hard crime cases in 1967, but April 3rd changes this small city forever. Twelve seemingly unrelated murders occur on that fateful day. Chief of detectives Carmine Delmonico and his unit are swimming in crime scene evidence, lengthy survivor interview files, and few if any suspects. The mayor and the media are clamoring for solutions to these gruesome deaths. Carmine is tough but suave, and his Italian background and longtime residence in the community have garnered him respect in his hometown. He's taken aback by the diversity of the crimes that have just occurred. A large rusty bear trap has clamped the life from a college student at the local Chubb University. A young mother's life has been snuffed in her own home. A college administrator has been poisoned by the tea he drank while conferencing with students. A professor's wife has inadvertently served her husband poisoned juice for breakfast. The wealthy CEO of Holloman's largest employer, Cornucopia, has been sexually brutalized, drugged and killed. Puzzling yet is the rape and murder of a well-known black prostitute. Carmine's staff is stressed by the workload. Two of his detectives are in line for a promotion, and each would benefit from a rapid closure to these cases. His right-hand assistant, Delia Carstairs, is the overqualified but enthusiastic niece of the local police commissioner. Colleen McCullough's long list of successful books began with her family saga, THE THORN BIRDS, and continues with a biography and crime novels that showcase her outstanding writing talents. Her characters become reality on the page. Carmine is portrayed as a handsome, fairly tall man with Mediterranean features whose family background strengthens his personality. His wife, Desdemona, in contrast, stands more than six-feet tall with large hands and feet, and is English by birth. She plays a part in Carmine's case problems when the mysterious perpetrator launches an attack on their family. McCullough skillfully introduces secondary characters important to the story. The detectives split interview responsibilities for the surviving spouses and family members. The murder of Desmond Skeps, Cornucopia's CEO, presents a series of difficult questions to answer. The company has been the subject of an FBI investigation because highly secret plans have been leaked to the Russians for nearly 10 years, and someone in the company has been the source of that leak. At this point, McCullough brings in FBI special agent Ted Kelly to stick as a thorn in Carmine's side. Banter between the two law enforcement officers is congenial but deadly serious when territories are overstepped. Evidence gathered by both agencies is closely guarded and begrudgingly shared. To complicate matters further for Carmine, his ex-wife's soon-to-be-ex-husband arrives in town with a startling announcement. Myron, a successful movie mogul, has fallen for a new love, Erica Davenport, executive officer at

McCullough, the author of The Thorn Birds, successfully mixes historical fiction, (1960's Connecticut) with the basic rules of a whodunit mystery where a dozen separate murders are committed on the same date. One of her best books yet

Loved the first one and loved this one! Wish she would write one a month!

Nineteen years old college student Evan Pugh blackmailed "Motor Mouth" who gave him one hundred thousand dollars. As he reaches for his stash in his college room walk-in closet, he moves into a bear trap, which makes him bleed out. When the police arrive, they are stunned by the scene especially the ingenious trap and shocked as this the twelfth death on April 3, 1967. Police Captain Carmine Delmonico realizes that the mass murders are related somehow because Holloman, Connecticut doesn't have that many murders in a year. As he and her cohorts investigate the homicides, they are able to separate some from the sinister genius who bolted down the bear trap. However, the puppet-master used locals to act as his or her perp murdering the victims. To further complicate an already convoluted murder mystery, one of the dead victims Desmond Skeps was a CEO and majority stockholder of Cornucopia where someone was selling secrets to the Russians that had him on FBI surveillance. Delmonico is uninterested in foreign espionage as he has a killer to catch, but each clue returns him and his unit back to Cornucopia. This police procedural sequel to On, Off affirms how super of a novelist Colleen McCullough is as her mysteries are as good as her historical fictions (see The Thorn Birds). Each murder is solved one at a time in a way that will remind readers of Christie's And Then There Were None although all occurs in the midst of a crowded college town. Delmonico is a multi-faceted protagonist who is a terrific police detective and a wonderful family man. Readers will enjoy working the cases with him and his sidekicks especially when his wife and daughter are threatened. Harriet Klausner