The terrific writer, Colleen McCullough, who brought us The Thorn Birds in 1977 (her second novel), was just getting started. Carmine Delmonico, and the entire cast, of Naked Cruelty, a Carine Delmonico Novel, are drawn with thick, wonderful words so we see them all in person, up close and personal. The plot in Naked Cruelty is first rate--you keep turning the pages, and you never see it coming. At the end, you can't believe you missed it! The heroes and the villains send you out for the next in the series almost before you put this one down. ( )

My first "Carmine Delmonico" novel and my first Colleen McCullough for many years.

i enjoyed it from go to woe and although it had crossed my mind who the villain was it came as a surprise.

Definitely a four star read! ( )

I love this author. She left the scene for a while and returned with several mysteries featuring Carmine Delmonico, a detective with a heart of gold. He has morals and standards. Her mysteries are set in the 60's which cuts out all the technology making it different from alot of books taking place in the present. Her characters are well-developed, especially the killers and they all have some serious psychoses that drive them. They cannot be called your run-of-the-mill murderers. Carmine's wife is going through her post-partum blues after delivering a late in life baby, one right after the other in fact. Carmine is a man she can lean on though and I find myself appreciating the author's understanding of a woman's dream guy, while still giving him a very human aspect. She has a very clever approach to creating the puzzles that drive the actual case that Delmonico is trying to solve. They are complicated and frustrating, and when you begin to suspect someone, you find yourself cheering Carmine on because she manages to make him so endearing through the course of the book. The ending is always a surprise though and I hope she continues to write these mysteries along with her historical fiction. ( )

Naked Cruelty is the third in a series starring Captain Carmine Delmonico, detective in the Holloman police in the 1960s. The first book was the excellent On, Off, a truly creepy thriller, followed by Too Many Murders that had me throwing my hands up in the air in despair at the conclusion. (It was good, don’t get me wrong, but I felt really sorry for Carmine).

Naked Cruelty doesn’t continue with the murder theme from Too Many Murders. It starts with a series of rapes (described rather graphically) on women in Carew, a suburb of Holloman. One of the ways to combat the rapist is a walking club, the Gentlemen Walkers, walking the streets at night to protect the women from the ‘Dodo’ rapist. Are they hiding a rapist in their midst?

Add in a giant glass teddy bear, a pair of strangely acting twins, a kidnapping and guns found at the local school and you think Carmine must be in over his head. On top of that, he has a lot of bureaucracy to deal with – Helen, the wayward new recruit and others that are trying desperately to swim against the tide.

As always, Colleen McCullough writes a gripping crime story with many threads. Some seemed to be better ‘fleshed out’ than others (eg. the guns in the school doesn’t rate much of a mention and is tied up very quickly) but it’s easy to follow. Once again, the conclusion had me throwing my hands in the air – such an ending! I won’t give it away for you, but poor Carmine. He never seems to get a break.

This is very different from The Thorn Birds and also The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet (thank goodness). This series does not need to be read in order, but I’d suggest On, Off as the first book to read, as it’s the strongest.

Read it if: you like fast paced crime set in the past. ( )

America in 1968 is in turmoil and the leafy Holloman, Connecticut, suburb of Carew is being silently terrorized 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 ( )