Rating: 
Summary: Dangerous to Your Health
Review: Absolutely do not listen to this book while driving. While on Tape 4 at 7 a.m. in the morning I dozed off, but managed to spring back awake again to gain control of my car. I promptly turned on the radio. Then I just had to see if my perception was on target that this book is absolutely horrible, and sure enough, most other reviews out of 630 were one-star, and as at least one person said, would have been 0 stars. If I want mystery humor and pets with human-like qualities, I will stick with David Handler and his Stuart Hoag and Lulu series.
And the female narrator on the audio tape, though great with accents, was decidely very bad with male voices, of which there are many, like most of the main characters...part of the problem with putting me to sleep. I think this book would have faired better with a male voice.
It is comforting that Patricia Cornwell has apparently written better novels, so I won't totally write her off.
Rating:
Summary: Do not buy this book.
Review: Do not buy this book. This book is awful, confusing, dull, and unbelievably idiotic. If you recieved it as a gift, I'm sure it was a regift, whoever originally received it palmed it off on you. I would certainly re-examine the relationship of anyone who gave me this book to see exactly what I had done to make them think so poorly of our friendship. Do not buy this book and think twice before you give it away. Perhaps it's best use is a nice winter fire, literally.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain yucky
Review: Having read no Patricia Cornwell novels prior to reading this I didn't know what to expect. Well, I should say I was expecting quite a lot, since the woman does have a fine reputation as a writer. Man, I picked a dud. I know this was meant as rolicking comedy, but nothing I read made me chuckle or amused me in any way. If I could've given 0 stars I certainly would have.
Rating:
Summary: Isle of Dogs is a dog
Review: I bought all of Patricia Cornwell's books after reading Blow Fly. I enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta character and her stories...however after reading more of them I have found that many details are inconsistent from book to book. I read Isle of Dogs after reading three Scarpetta books...it was not believeable which I had expected from this author...so that was ok though...she is taking a turn away from the realistic...no problem...well it was all over the place. Characters are not developed...stories intertwine in a truly unbelievable way...something can be fantasy but should still follow a reasonable path of understanding...the end of the last three books I have read from this author all of a sudden come to a halt...the endings are all of a sudden and just give the full attention to the detail to leave the reader satisfied.
I dont think I will waste my time reading the other Hammer/Brazil books. If they have the fantasy like talking crabs and dogs that can read emails, this just isnt my cup of tea. The bottom line was I expected more. I think blow fly on its own was a good book...trying to tie them all together has not been rewarding.
Rating: 
Summary: An experiment that doesn't quite work
Review: I certainly don't blame Patricia Cornwell for trying something new, but it seems to me that if she's going to go as far as cognizent crabs, it might be a good idea to move out of her usual genre as well. Still, she is such a good writer that I stuck with the book despite its many obvious faults. For example, I was baffled by the content of the Trooper Truth essays, which were part of a web site ostensibly set up to help solve crimes, but seem to be more an opportunity for the author to show off some of the knowledge she's collected over the years. It seemed to me that the editor failed to go beyond copy editing to be sure the story made effective use of its various threads. I'd put this down more to a failure to follow up with care on an interesting idea than bad writing. It would be interesting to see what would happen if Ms. Cornwell took it a step further and changed her venue, sort of like Larry McMurtry does: he uses silly humor to great effect, and doesn't lock himself into the same time period or characters from book to book. She can obviously be funny and insightful, but it doesn't work all that well in the context of morgues and murders, at least in this case.
Rating:
Summary: A monument of bad literature
Review: I could stand every piece of nonsense in this garbage but when the dog read the e-mail...well that was the real cake...I burst into a delirious fit of laughter and closed the backcover softly, vowing never to open it again...I very rarely give up a book but this oversilly item was stealing my time and insulting my brain.
I have already left Scarpetta series forever after the horrible (but I really mean horrible) Blow Fly. But now this book is a landmark for me that puts an end with my entire reading relation with Ms. Cornwell. Goodbye Ms. Cornwell...and never forget that if you go on writing such silliness, you will not find a single reader in future even if you give away your books free.
And another point: if this goes on like that, this book will be the first single-star rated book on Amazon (at least the first one I will see) and it truly deserves that status. After all it is a monument of incredibly poor writing
Rating:
Summary: I did borrow this book and DID throw it in the trash
Review: I have never posted a book review on amazon, however, this time I felt compelled to do so, if only it was to lower the overall rating for this literary disaster.
From page one, this is extremely boring and it's almost impossible to turn to the next page. I am about half way through the book, but will not finish it. If I never hear the term "submarine" again, it will be too soon, thanks to this horrible piece of .....
Rating:
Summary: I coudn't get through it
Review: I picked up the book on tape version of this to keep me awake on my commute, so it didn't need to be a literary masterpiece, but in spite of gritting my teeth and trying to tough it out, I couldn't finish it. I've never read anything else by this author, and I assure you I won't. Her characters are shallow and unsympathetic, animals (dogs, crabs) are smarter than people, and she manages to insult just about every kind of person you can imagine in this novel. Bad writing and offensive, hateful attitudes just made me angry rather than making my drive more pleasant.
Rating:
Summary: I finished it by sheer force of will
Review: I thoroughly enjoy Patricia Cornwell. She makes it OK for a woman to be smart and sexy at the same time. But this....this was god-awful. I tried seeing it as a dark comedy, I tried to visualize everything as tongue-in-cheek. No dice. It seemed like every character (including the author, apparently) got a beating with the stupid stick. I read it through to the end, praying that it would get better, that one of the finest writers I read in years wouldn't do this to me, a loyal fan. She did. Don't waste your money on this book...if you're a die-hard collector and must have it, I'll send you mine - after I dig it out of the dustbin.
Rating:
Summary: Ugh! This was just painful.
Review: I've read 3 or 4 other titles by Patricia Cornwell and found them interesting and creative. This book, however, failed to fall in to either of those categories. The book is full of weak characters and a story line that really never takes you anywhere.
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