October 15, 2008

Plum Island

Rating:
Awards:
Author: Nelson Demille
Narrator: David Dukes
Category: Mystery
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: 1997
Length: 4 Hours
Abridged

An overview:
Plum Island (includes a brief interview with author, Nelson Demille)

The potential hazards of the federal Animal Disease Research Center on Plum Island are frightening—but they are not to blame for the string of murders suddenly plaguing a small town nearby.

John Cory is a New York City homicide detective recuperating from three bullet wounds to the chest at his uncle’s shore house on the tip of Long Island, directly across the bay from Plum Island. His convalescence is cut short when he is asked to help the local police solve a double murder. As narrator,

Cory bluntly explains that they don’t have their own homicide detective “out here” because “so few people get iced.” Get used to the language, Cory has been around too long to talk pretty. His sarcasm and disparaging (though witty and often funny) remarks run rampant.

Cory had met Tom and Judy Gordon, the unlucky dead couple, when he arrived in June. He knew both had worked as biologists on Plum Island, and he thought they were good people. Why would someone want to kill them? He really didn’t want to jeopardize his disability compensation, but the case was interesting enough for the bored detective to put down his beer.

With big-city smarts, and an attitude to go with it, Cory delves into the case ignoring what everyone else believes to be obvious. The feds are involved, talk of terrorism abounds, and fears of deadly anthrax-like viruses being smuggled and sold seem rational—but Cory is not buying any of it. He didn’t believe the Gordons would do something as horrendous as to sell germ warfare capabilities to foreign governments for any price.

But, he had to admit; they could have been involved in a drug deal gone sour. How else were they affording the house they were leasing, on government pay…and what about that expensive speedboat out back? Adding to his vexation is Elizabeth Penrose, a young ambitious beauty brought in on the case from the county homicide division. They butt heads right away—but, “wink, wink”, there is an attraction.

While the others hash over the most likely scenarios, Cory goes off in his own direction discovering ulterior motives, which have something to do with the ancient folklore he’s become privy to, and charming another beautiful woman to take the place of his fumbled chances with Elizabeth.

Fast-paced and factually interesting, Plum Island is a good mystery. However, I would tire of Detective Cory and his seeming contempt for everything (except beautiful women), if this were a longer book.

The Narration:
Dukes may have put the NYC thug-like accent on a little too thick… and there were times I didn’t know whether the narrator was impatient with the text, or John Cory was just being bored and blasé again.

Audiobook reviewed by Dawn Fagan