Book Review: Isle Of Dogs

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Isle Of Dogs     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon UK HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Patricia Cornwell
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Judy Hammer # 3
Putnam, Oct 2001, $26.95, 432 pp.

Superintendent Judy Hammer and State trooper and Internet columnist Andy Brazil are still assigned to Richmond, where there are rooting out corruption in the police department. The Virginia Governor assigned them to clean up the state trooper office, but Judy is finding this difficult since she has trouble communicating with the Head State official. Neither Judy nor Andy knows that somebody close to the governor is blocking all attempts for the trio to talk to one another.

The troublemaker in the governor's office is in collusion with a gang of road pirates, the leader of who has a score to settle with both Andy and his boss. On a lighter note, the people of Tangier Island, fed up with governor's antics, kidnap a dentist and declare their independence from the state of Virginia. In a dazzling climax, all problems are resolved in a most original manner.

Although ISLE OF DOGS is nothing like the Kay Scarpetta medical thrillers, it is a fine work that deserves equal praise, as the author's more renowned tales receive. Ms. Cornwell has written a satirical police procedural that allows the audience an insider's look at the workings of the police department. Andy is wonderful as an Internet writer ferreting out corruption in high places and some really low ones too. There are actually moments that readers will laugh out loud at a dark criminal scene. Read this superb book to understand how this is possible.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner