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ISLE OF DOGS
by Patricia Cornwell
G. P.Putnam's Sons, October 2001
432 pages
$26.95
ISBN: 039914739X

A beautiful 18 year old, Unique First, slashes a black truck driver in the parking lot of the Richmond Farmer's Market at 4 one morning. He is beaten up and shot by her gang, who then steal his truck and dump his load of pumpkins in the river. Unique is a very strange girl. She looks like an angel but is a disturbed individual who thinks she is possessed by the soul of a Nazi from Dachau and who believes that she can render herself invisible. She spies on Trooper Andy Brazil and follows him home.

Andy, a handsome young officer, has been working for Superintendent Judy Hammer for the last year, preparing himself to launch a website called TROOPER TRUTH. His first essay is about the founders of Virginia, a group of adventurers who left the Isle of Dogs in 1607 and set sail for the New World. The Isle of Dogs was part of the port of London, and home to working class families, for hundreds of years, until container ships came in during the middle of the 20th century. Now, Canary Wharf stands in the middle of the Isle of Dogs and Docklands is a very desirable, posh section of London in which to live and work.

The governor of the state of Virginia is nearly blind and doesn't realize he is being deceived by his press secretary. Life at the Governor's Mansion is chaotic. Governor Crimm has intestinal problems, his wife is a compulsive shopper who keeps trying to hide her purchases, his daughters are ugly and dumb. The press secretary convinces the Governor to set a speed trap on Tangier Island, and things get more and more complicated, especially when Cornwell, in the guise of Trooper Truth, tries to explain the Tangierian dialect, which may be a holdover from Elizabethan times.

One must assume that this is a satirical novel because that's the only level on which this mean spirited book even partially works. Almost all the characters are really dumb or very naive, except for Trooper Andy, who seems to be able to con his superior into giving him anything he wants. It is very different from Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta (who has a cameo in this book) series.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, October 2001

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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