Un exercice inhabituel pour Colleen McCullough. Parfois surprenant mais au final pas grand intérêt. ( )

I got into this book about 60 pages and I just wasn't interested enough in the story to continue..

I'm afraid this didn't grab me like some books of the genre, maybe because I felt the author was showing off her neuroscience training and knowledge at the expense of advancing the plot. It is set in 1965/66 in Holloman, Connecticut, at a neuroscience research centre, when a headless young female corpse is discovered in an animal fridge, which proves to be the first of a grisly number of similar incidents. Lieutenant Carmine Delmonico is the investigating officer, whose initial attempts to solve the murder prove fruitless until he literally stumbles upon the master clue. I thought Delmonico's character would have discovered the true secret through sheer persistence, but let that one slip him by. ( )

I listened to On, Off by Colleen McCullough on an audio book borrowed from the library. I found myself intrigued by the story and eager to listen every day for more clues to the identity of the brutal killer of a minimum of 14 mixed race girls. The body of a victim is discovered by accident in the refrigeration unit at the Hughlings Center, a research facility. Detective Carmine Delmonico is brought in to discover the murderer. McCullough soon involves Carmine in a romantic entanglement with Desdemona Dupre, who is in a management position at the Hug as the facility is called. I felt this part of the book to be the least interesting, mainly because while Carmine is somewhat intriguing, both characters lack any real appealing characteristics. The eccentric group of suspects are far more interesting. I found that the book took longer to find its way to the end of some scenes than necessary. This caused the action to slow down and made me want to fast forward until I find another action-packed scene. I kept expecting there to be a reason why McCullough set the story in 1965. I never did find one. After some research, I did find that McCullough was a neuroscientist for twenty years before she was published, so that explains the setting in a science research facility. Ultimately, I think the book was too long. There were many passages that did not seem to move the story along in the least. While it may have served the purpose of explaining some motivations for characters actions, it was not necessary in helping to discover the identity of the murderer. The two main characters, Carmine Delmonico and Desdemona Dupre were equally uninteresting and so, seemed well-matched for each other. Still, I did ultimately listen to the whole audio book so there must have been enough happening for me to finish the story. I don't think I can highly recommend it, but I would not discourage any of her fans from giving it a try. ( )

On, Off is the first novel of Colleen McCullough's that I have read, and I enjoyed it very much. The book was interesting from start to finish, with plenty of suspense and romance to keep me captivated.
The one dificulty I had when reading On, Off was keeping all the characters and their respective stories straight. There were the Hug scientists, their wives and families, the Parson family, the police force, the murdered young girls......there were a lot of people. The number of characters might have contributed to the sometimes less than fantastic character development. However, over all most of the characters were intrigueing.
My favorite part of On, Off was the last few pages. All my lingering questions were answered, and in a way I would never have suspected. I'm a big fan of the final ending twist, and this book did not disappoint.
All in all, I was very satisfied with this book and I look forward to reading more from Colleen McCullough. ( )