About this title: Newly installed superintendent of the Virginia State Police, Judy Hammer, and her right hand and confidant, Andy Brazil, are at their wits' end trying to protect the public from the politicians - and vice versa. And amid the mayhem an island off the coast of Virginia declares UDI - claiming its independence lies in the history of America's first ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Published: 10/2001
ISBN-13:9780399147395ISBN:039914739X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 432 p. read more
"Just like southern cross there is a huge unexplained gap between books. The story line is basically the same (so far) and it is really really tough to get through this book. it is a shame beause the characters are likable. the story just can't support them."
"Poor explanations of plot line. Ridiculous chapter about crabs talking to each other. Would have been interesting, but felt like someone started writing the book, and someone with no clue finished the book. Not recommended unless you want to pull your hair out."
Let me first say that I have been a huge fan of Patricia Cornwell and her Kay Scarpetta novels. So much so that I began buying up any Cornwell books I found on sale as I figured I'd read them all over time. This is how I stumbled upon her second book series, the Andy Brazil/Judy Hammer books.
That said, I have to say that I believe that either Cornwell suffered a serious mental break in about 1999, or she's no longer writing the books and the ghost writer(s) they hired is just not up to the task! Not only did her Scarpetta novels take a weird and unsettling drop in story quality and writing, but the Brazil novels appeared and have gone from fair, to bad, to the worst.
Isle of Dogs is the third in the Andy Brazil series (Hornet's Nest and Sothern Cross being one and two), and is, without question, Cornwell's worst work I've yet read. In fact, within the first 15 pages, I had already had to resign myself to finish the book, despite how bad it was already becoming.
If I had to guess, I'd say that it's possible Cornwell has attempted to take a break from the, admittedly, exceedingly dark genre of Scarpetta. She may have been trying to come up with a light and satirical tome, like Janet Evanovich, to lift some of that darkness. Unfortunately, unlike Evanovich, Cornwell's stories and characters are neither light nor funny. Instead, it comes off as if everyone in the Commonwealth of Virginia has an IQ somewhere around room-temperature, except Trooper Andy Brazil and State Police Superintendant Judy Hammer, both of whom are brilliant.
The story's premise is that Hammer and Brazil have moved on from fixing all the problems at Richmond, VA PD (First they fixed a department in North Carolina, then moved to Richmond), and are now fixing the State Troopers. Hammer is universally hated, as she is a woman, and everyone hates women, especially stupid people in the South.
Brazil, who started out as a journalist and part time reserve police officer now has four or five years of experience at three different agencies. He decides that the best way to fix this new agency is to put up a website called TrooperTruth.com, wherein he will anonymously publish essays about what's going on with local law enforcement. To do this, he tells Hammer, he must start historically, and will require a year's paid leave to study archeology in various spots around the globe. He'll also need to get trained and certified as a helicopter pilot. His reasons are never all that clear, but he is smarter than anyone else, and so Hammer allows the secret mission.
Back on duty after his year of learning Brazil makes his first post as Trooper Truth, which instantly goes viral and is the talk of the entire Commonwealth of Virginia before noon that same day. In his long winded, highbrow, miandering diatribes, he discusses pirates on the Island of Tangier, mummies, and other items highly pertinent to Virginia law enforcement. Instantly, the half blind Governor believes that Trooper Truth is sending him encoded secret messages in the posts, and all the women in town want to meet him because he must be the man of their dreams. Believable so far?
The characters are equally ridiculous and are named as if they were comic book villains: Major Trader, the corrupt press secretary to the Governor; Windy Brees, the Superintendant's airheaded secretary; Hooter Snook, the overweight, dreadlocked, black, senior tollbooth operator; Dr. Faux, the crooked dentist who has been ruining the teeth of the poor folk of Tangier Island; Governor Bedford Crim IV, nearly blind from birth, but at 70 he still can't find his way from the bedroom to the dinning room; Nurse Carless, the clumsy oaf who leaves her patients far worse off than when they arrived. The list goes on.
Cornwell paints a bleak picture of old Virginia as well. In her mind, it's a place where every "colored" person talks like Stepin Fetchit, Island folks attempt cessation from the state, and dogs, blue crabs, and trout not only talk amongst themselves, but may be called as witness to various crimes. Of course, the blue crabs all speak with pirate accents as they come from Tangier Island.
Oh yeah, and there's also a serial killer. Her given name is Unique First, and she likes to tell people they're going to have "a Unique experience" before she slashes them to death with a box cutter...
My advice to anyone interested in reading Patricia Cornwell is simple. Start with her first Scarpetta novel, Postmortem, and read in order, all the way through Point of Origen. Don't bother with anything from Black Notice on, and bypass the Andy Brazil books altogether. It pains me to say it, as I have been greatly inspired by Cornwell's earlier work; they were excellently written, thoroughly researched and full of great characters and stories."
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