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Book Review: The Prodigal Son

Colleen McCullough’s The Prodigal Son has no edge-of-the-seat moments, and too many unnecessary characters that leave many questions unanswered

Most people connect the name Colleen McCullough to her most famous work till date, Thorn Birds — which she wrote in the year 1977. It was converted into a TV mini-series in 1983, which starred the suave and handsome Richard Chamberlain.

A prolific writer, McCullough has led an interesting life, having held jobs as a teacher, librarian, journalist and eventually a neuroscientist. It was during her stint at Yale in the late 70s, after her first two books had been received well, that she decided to write full time. With over 23 titles to her name, five of which have been adapted on screen, the author usually sticks to the 
non-thriller genre.

But the Carmine Delmonico series begs to differ, been touted as a “mystery thriller”. Delmonico is a long time detective, and together with his team, he investigates and helps solve criminal mysteries. The Prodigal Son is the fourth book of the series.

Set in 1969, a lethal toxin, that can kill within minutes without leaving a trace has been stolen from biochemist Dr Millie Hunter’s lab at Chubb University, who promptly reports it to her father, and the Chief Medical Examiner, Dr Patrick O’Donell, who brings in his cousin Carmine Delmonico to examine the case.

A series of deaths later, all of which seem to be from the lethal poison, all fingers point at Dr Jim Hunter, a gifted biochemist — and Millie’s husband. He is an African American man in the US of the 1960s, and given that he has been in trouble before, the reader is made to bel-ieve someone is out to frame him.

It is hard to talk about this book without giving too much away, but from the author who has written bestsellers, this falls a little flat. As a thriller, it fails to deliver. There are no edge-of-the-seat moments, and 
the reader can figure out who the villain is almost halfway through the story.

The author attempts to create an aura of mystery by leading the reader in all different — and totally unnecessary directions — to distract from the actual murderer, and ends up spinning a web that she gets caught in herself. There are so many unnecessary characters and layers in the book, that even when the story ends, one is left wondering about the status of certain characters.

Even though the book fails as a thriller, the story itself has an interesting plot that, dealt the right way, could have gone into a completely different direction. The author herself has worked in the field of science, and that shines through the little details in the story.

I have not read the other books in this 
series, but this story seems to hold its own and, in that sense, can be read as a standalone. The size of the book, and the tempting description at the back led me to believe it would be a fast-paced and quick read, but it was far from that. It is too muddled to be an intriguing read.

aarti@khaleejtimes.com