Isle of Dogs

A quietly, darkly humorous take on the usual Dr. Kay Scarpetta investigative murder mysteries. And while most of the humor is not the "laugh out loud" variety (until Trip, the seeing-eye mini-horse comes on the scene), this book and its characters throw out many humorous instances even in the dark parts.

As is usual with Cornwall's books, there are several threads going around: a string of unsolved murders and mayhem; a psychopath or several; a woman at the top of the Police Department; and a political player who works every angle to secure his position.

Add to this the arrangement of a young police/investigative officer who has gone on an extended leave of absence in order to research subjects for a proposed "Trooper Truth" website (as show more was common in the early days of the internet), a nearly blind governor whose intestines are riddled with discomfort, and the independently-minded folk of the Island of Tangiers, right off the Virginia coast, and you have ingredients for a wry look at mayhem and the impossible happening just the way we always hope it would. show less

I read the 3 Andy Brazil books against advice from more than one person. I wanted to see for myself if they really were that bad. I liked the Scarpetta books (although I thought that the endings of some of those books were too rushed, too contrived). The Andy Brazil books are nothing like those! Hornet's Nest is probably the best of the three, although the characters are shallow and unconvincing and the plot is weak and implausible. There is some humour and some sexual tension which is frustrating for lack of relief. 5/10. Southern Cross degenerates from this. Ms Cornwell seems to be having fun at our expense, but the result isn't really funny or vaguely satisfying. 3/10. Isle of Dogs, well, how much lower can you go? What were you show more thinking, Ms Cornwell? Or what drugs were you on? This book was ridiculous! I persisted to the end of these books because I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Not sure why I bothered. Even if one reads these as tongue-in-cheek romps through the workings of a Police Dept, the final book is hugely disappointing. 1/10. Scarpetta fans who pay full price for these books will feel angry and very much cheated. Luckily I bought mine 2nd hand. Readers whose first taste of Cornwell is one of these books will never buy another. Whatever you do, don't pay full price for these books! show less

In this third book in the series, Judy Hammer is now the Superintendent of the Virginia State Police, where Andy Brazil works as a State Trooper. Like the first two books, the satire marches on with characters named Major Trader, Trooper Truth, Unique First, and Windy Brees…well, you can see where this is going. The author plays with words, i.e., a stitch in the hand is worth two in the butt, to tell the hilarious story of the quirky residents of Tangier Island fighting an imagined war against the Governor's office while the Troopers try to figure out what's going on but don't have a clue. Dr. Kay Scarpetta appears as an M.E. with proof of spontaneous human combustion. Who has the last laugh? It's hard to tell.

When I realized that this is the final novel in the Andy Brazil series, I was saddened. This is a terrible book, and I am glad the series is over. The fabulous trio of Hammer, West, and Brazil has disappeared with no explanation and only Hammer and Brazil remain in this escapade. Brazil seems to be in charge and does anything he wants and Hammer seems out of her element. Andy is now a state trooper on detail in the governor's mansion. The governor, a bumping Mr. Magoo character is being poisoned with ExLax by his assistant. Smoke, that terrible and frightening juvenile has escaped from prison and has formed another gang. This time, the girl is Unique, a bloodthirsty maniac. Cornwell has inserted every imaginable character in this story. show more There is Pony a convict serving in the governor’s mansion. Pony, like Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean, has earned his prison time for stealing some trivial item. Another character is the dentist, Dr. Faux, who goes to the Island of Tangier off the coast of Virginia and commits fraud and mayhem with the simple-minded inhabitants. Of course, even Bubba from the last novel makes an appearance. I am reminded of the old Keystone Kops movies where everyone is running around and no one knows what is happening. show less

Another murder story but with a strong humour thread to it, with some quirky imaginative passages that gave it a lighter tone than if they had been missing.

Sometimes reading moves from the sublime to the ridiculous. The experience of finishing Steig Larsson's “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and moving on to one of Cornwell's non-Scarpetta books is almost enough to make one despair.

It takes a while to work out what Cornwell is attempting with “Isle of Dogs”. Let's be clear, this is not another police procedural in the manner of the Scarpetta series, just with a different suite of characters. Herein lies the problem. Since “The Last Precinct” Cornwell has clearly been bored by the formula that served he well, the later Scarpetta novels, and the Andy Brazil series show a distinct change of tone, Scarpetta's story taking a profoundly darker turn, and Brazil representing an experiment show more with magic realism. Having made her reputation with Scarpetta she may well have sought to escape being typecast as just another formulaic crime novelist. As such something like “Isle of Dogs” can be seen as a completely understandable step. The trouble is it doesn't really work.

Read full review at
http://southlondonbook.blogspot.com/2009/01/isle-of-dogs-patricia-cornwell.html show less

suspense/crime/adventure fiction (3rd in Andy Brazil series, can be read as standalone if you don't mind an irregularly implausible plot premise) - picked up from little free library

(abandoned, p. 108 of 413) The nice thing about little free libraries is you can find books by authors you've long heard of but never read, but the downside is sometimes they are not the best books, even by that author -- maybe that is the case here.

This appears to be about a "Trooper Truth" Andy Brazil part time policeman/full time conspiracy journalist who is in the process of revealing a government cover-up somehow related to pirate treasure and an isolated, small-town island off the coast of Virginia. Apparently Trooper Truth, despite having no obvious show more skills or resources (maybe I should have read the previous two books first), has the secret approval of the state police Superintendent which somehow implausibly finds him financing to do whatever it is that he does, including taking helicopter pilot lessons. But because he's mentioned pirates on his online conspiracy blog, the Governor of Virginia decides to announce speed patrols by aircraft radar on said island, as a distraction -- this was written around 2001, but even then I feel like such signs were fairly common and not worthy of note. Oh, and there's an angelic-looking serial killer/demon entity who has been killing truckers.

I don't mind wacky, but this plot just seems horribly constructed. I'll keep reading to see if it gets better, but Andy's blog posts don't seem like anything that would garner any attention even in this fictional world, as he mostly just hints that he knows things without actually revealing anything significant (unless you are a paranoid buffoon of a governor). His idea of "investigating" apparently involves asking people if they've heard of his secret alter-ego and then encouraging them to read his blog--not a great way to keep a low profile and even an indication that he actually has little idea of what he's looking for. I would think that his character is another joke except that the "funny" parts are exaggerated caricatures--the governor with explosive diarrhea (and Mr. Magoo-level sight impairment), the superintendent's ditzy assistant who constantly speaks in malapropisms. show less