Reviews

I am very late in starting the John Corey series. For a book written in 1997, it held up surprisingly well. Plum Island is an entertaining read. The characters are very well developed. They are likeable or not likeable as designed. John Corey is the main character and he is incredibly sarcastic and funny. If he existed in real life, I’m convinced he would get punched in the face on a regular basis. The reader gets a constant stream of his inner thoughts which are often sexual or insulting toward other characters. This may bother some readers, particularly women. My 70 year old father in law thinks he’s great while I think he’s funny but rolling my eyes simultaneously. His humor did not bother me but got a bit old as there is no stop to it. There is a lot of history in this book. I had never heard of Plum Island and was surprised to learn it was a real place. The story drags in some parts (Plum Island tour, for example) and could really be a more engaging book if it were cut down some. My only problem with the book is John Corey’s boldness in solving the crime. He didn’t follow any kind of protocol (which is his thing). If this were real life, he would be in huge trouble and would compromise the case he worked so hard to solve. I will probably read more books in this series.

noicky's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I found it too long but didn’t want to leave it as a DNF book so I kept going. The story is interesting enough and the plot twist was a bit unexpected.

mikepage7176's review against another edition

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4.0

I’m a bit conflicted. It’s an interesting story that drags in the middle, and it’s lots of filler with the funny, but often annoying main character. His internal dialogue and external dialogue are so annoying but I did laugh quite a bit. It also has little tension as there isn’t a whole lot of investigating so to speak. It’s more of an adventure story that never leaves Long Island.

whaney's review against another edition

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3.0

Started this on Saturday on a road trip to Mitchell, SD (listening to the unabridge audio on my iPod). I'm enjoying it already. I read two other John Corey books, Wild Fire and Night Fall and enjoyed both to them. Thought I'd go back to the beginning and read the first books in the series.

A pretty good audio book, but there were times it really dragged on with stuff that really didn't seem important and I was getting a bit tired of Corey's sarcasam all the time. But it picked up again and had a good ending.

orygunn's review against another edition

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4.0

Scott Brick is one of my favorite audio book performers. I started the Jon Corey series out of order, so enjoyed going "back to the beginning" with him. Interesting story line featuring the world's most loveable smart ass.

sjj169's review against another edition

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3.0

I loved the main character in this book, John Corey. Perfect blend of dedicated, smartass detective. It did drag in some places-hence the four star rating.

johnlway's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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