Rating: 
Summary: Painful. A total waste of time!
Review: I've read all of Cornwell's books and I really got into them. "Blow Fly" is the exception. What a downer! "Isle of Dogs" simply blows. I picked up the book a year ago and could only make it through a couple of chapters. Being a fool for punishment, I went to the local library last week to find a book on tape and I decided to give "Isle of Dogs" another try. What a rotten book! I enjoy listening to books on tape in my truck on the way to and from work and I usually go through a book per week. I have had "Isle of Dogs" for over a week and I have not yet finished the second tape of ten. I listen for a while then I've got to try to catch the baseball game, a talk show, anything. This book SUCKS! Why? Cornwell is trying to be funny but she's no Carl Hiaasen. It just doesn't work. If you want to read a really good, funny book get Hiaasen's "Lucky You." I was giggling like an idiot while I read it. The reader on the tape version has an airhead voice and I grow weary of her attempts to speak like black house servants, dumb white guys, or residents of Tangier Island. I'm tempted to try to finish it to see if it gets better, but judging from most of the reviews I would be wasting my time.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the time to read!
Review: So disappointing! I look for books with a good plot, intriguing story that is well written. In this book (which boasts the same cast as the Scarpetta series), we have modern day gypsies (street thugs), a talking dog, a blind governor and all kinds of really stupid side stories that make you think you are watching afternoon TV. So bad for a Cornwell novel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: It Should Have Come With A Warning Label
Review: Talking fish and typing dogs?
As a dedicated "Scarpetta" fan, Isle of Dogs was a huge letdown. It has been billed as a "dark comedy" but seems more like a bad psychedelic drug flashback. Incoherent at best.
I admire the work Patricia Cornwell has put in to base good crime fiction on real crime facts. This book, however, totally missed the mark.
My advice: SKIP IT.
Rating:
Summary: This book should be thrown to the Dogs
Review: This book is pure drivel - without question. It's so ridiculously bad I don't even know where to begin! It was all I could do just to get through it. If I could've given zero (0) stars I would have but I'll have to settle for one (1) if only for Ms. Cornwell's effort to put pen to paper. I'm absolutely mystified that any reputable editor would ever let this go to print. I can only assume it did because of Ms. Cornwell's previous successes. Frankly, I found the dialog to be absurd, the characters completely implausible and the plot wandering and lifeless. The story makes every person in the entire state of Virginia, with few exceptions, out to be a blundering dullard. Any attempt at comedy (if that was ever her intent) is so forced it's pathetic. With character names like Wendy Breeze, Hooter, Unique and a girl named Ragina (rhymes with vagina!!??) it's no wonder this book is bad. And, there is no suspense whatsoever. A third of the way into the book and you'll still be guessing what the story is all about. Please take my advice and don't waste your time. I wish I'd read these reviews before I started to read this book. I mean, a state governor who's nearly blind and can't see unless he uses a big magnifying glass??? And his wife and butler play silly games by hiding it from him? Should I state the obvious like why not just using glasses instead? And then to suggest the governor get a seeing eye HORSE??!! Yes, you read that right, a horse. I mean it's just plain idiotic. Inconsistencies abound. I thought the book had hit rock bottom when the crabs and trout started "talking" to one another and plotting their escape, and they could understand humans. But no, I was wrong. The worst was yet to come. Probably, the scene where the "Major" is trying to shoot his zipper off with a 9mm pistol in the back alley next to a bar named "Freckles" so he could take a pee, with a Blackhawk helicopter circling overhead took the cake. I could go on but I hope I've made my point clear. Take my advice, if you're not a HUGE Patricia Cornwell fan, leave it on the shelf. And even if you are I'd still leave it on the shelf.
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