Wow! I have mostly ignored Colleen McCullough after The Thorn Birds. What a mistake. This is the first of her books about an old fashioned detective in a small university town in Connecticut. It seems to drag at times, as we see the detective use an employee of the research institute for information and then change his feelings about her. There is a strange death, the body discovered by accident at the research institute in a restricted area. All the employees of this university research lab are suspects and the detective and his crew keep having missing girls in the area. Sometimes the girls show up dead but always on the property of a researcher at the lab. There are many false clues but the ending is well worth the slow description - it was a shocker, on the very last page. This is a possible spoiler - do not read the last page until you have read the entire book! The book was published in 2006 but there are following up books with Detective Carmine Delmonico.
If you enjoy mysteries, it is time to go back to McCullough.

I gave 3 stars because this police murder mystery redeemed itself in the last few chapters.
It was long and the first third, even oaring. I kept going because of my love for Colleen McCullough best novel; The Thorn Birds. Even with the surprise ending that was explained at the very end, three stars was generous. I really wanted to love this book, but liking it was the best I could do.

Good read but a bit sick for me at times

The first half of this book is insufferably boring. It just rambles on and on and on. The second half of the book picks up and it's good, if you make it that far. However, it seems all the juicy questions get answers on the last page--meaning the book doesn't truly hook you until it's over.