A review by ericbuscemi
Plum Island by Nelson DeMille

4.0

This book started out needlessly verbose, and languished far too long on its tour of Plum Island, which encompassed six chapters and over 100 pages alone
SpoilerAnd had almost nothing to do with the actual mystery. This showed a hell of a commitment to a red herring, or an inability of the author to pass up sharing research he did on the island
. Add to that, the main character, NYPD detective John Corey, was as irritating and grating to me as the book's first-person narrator as he was to every single character in the book, even the ones he was trying to sleep with.

At one point, these complaints almost led me to abandon the book, unfinished, which is something I rarely do, but, in hindsight, I am glad I didn't. The story began to slowly pick up, building steady momentum as it unfolded, and led to a hell of a crescendo in the final act. I would definitely recommend this book, with the caveat that it is a bit of an investment at a lengthy 600 pages, but taken in its entirety, is a very satisfying mystery that is worth the investment. I hope John Corey turned down the snide commentary in future books though, as he was a bit much to take.