Too Many Murders

By: Colleen McCullough

Narrated by: Charles Leggett

It's a beautiful spring day in the little city of Holloman, Connecticut; the year is 1967, and the world teeters on the brink of nuclear holocaust as the Cold War goes relentlessly on. But Holloman has other things to worry about on April 3rd, 1967; 12 murders have taken place on one day. Suddenly Captain Carmine Delmonico, chief of detectives, has other, more important matters to occupy him than finding a satisfactory name for his infant son. With his cohorts Abe Goldberg and Corey Marshall giving him unfailing support, Carmine embarks on what looks like an insoluble case.

©2009 Colleen McCullough (P)2010 BBC Audio

Amazing

Where shall I start? This looked interesting, at first. Then I got into it.


The narrator is attempting to showcase a number of different accents, speech patterns, but there are too many characters and he seems to be too few voices. Sometimes (actually, quite often) the voices come across as caricatures.


But, it is not all the narrator's fault. At first, I thought that the book was a parody. Then I didn't think so. I then decided that it must be, but bad parody. Finally, I decided that it was simply a bad novel.


Some items:


The dialog is beyond what anyone would speak. It's convoluted and uses phraseology that might show up in 19th century books, but certainly not in anything 20th century, either American or British.


The premise is so far out as to be almost alien (not Mexican, rather, the kind that land in Roswell, NM)


The anomalies, with items from the '80s & '90s really show that the author should have done at least a minimal amount of research.


I finished the book, but, in retrospect, only because it was akin to looking at a particularly horrendous auto accident. You know that you shouldn't, but you can't help yourself.


Do not buy.

The title would be more accurate as "Too Many Characters".

Seriously though, there's so many names in this book introduced briefly or in such big quantities that it makes it hard to remember who might have been an ally, an enemy, or a murder victim.