Plum Island by Nelson DeMille is a mystery thriller involving deadly diseases and buried treasure. Plum Island is the first book in the John Corey series. John Corey is a detective who knows all the rules but will bend and break them in the name of justice. John Corey is a cross between Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch and Columbo the TV detective. John Corey’s approach to being a detective is to joke and annoy until the suspect lets their guard down. Corey could be described as funny and horny. He is relentless in finding clues and very meticulous. The story stays with Corey the whole time, and the audience knows exactly what Corey does about the case. Corey did know the victims before but the novel does a good job of catching the reader up. The pace of the book is a little slow in the first part but it is setting the scene so the audience will know everything, the second half moves very fast and leads to a very exciting ending. The ending is an intense 100 pages that feels like an action movie more than a mystery. The ending to one character is pretty brutal and will stick with me for a while. The overall mystery is great with some clever twists and turns. Plum Island was a reread for me, I liked it a little better the second time, but not enough to move my star rating. Plum Island is a big mystery at 576 pages, I feel the book could have lost 100 pages and still told the same story. Plum Island was first published on April 1, 1997.

Plot Summary: John Corey is rehabilitating in Long Island after getting shot 3 times in the act of duty as a New York City detective. Max the sheriff of the small Long Island town has a murder rate of zero and has a double murder on his hands, a couple that John Corey knew. Max enlists Corey to help as well as bring a young detective from the mainland Beth. The Gordons are the couple that got murdered at their home, but what makes the case interesting is where they work and what they do for a living. Gordon’s work on Plum Island which is a government-owned island for animal to human diseases like Covid (the novel was written before Covid but it made the scenario all that real). The FBI gets involved in the case due to the potential threat. Did the Gordons die selling a dangerous disease or something else?

What I Liked: I liked how the red herring was set up in the plot, and kept the reader busy. I think with Covid a disease that originated in bats and transferred to humans made the whole scenario very real and more scary. The buried treasure plotline was great and one of my favorites. John Corey as a character is a little hit and miss but where he worked for me was the way he interrogates, it was both funny and effective. The ending was intense and kept the intensity for a long time. I liked the character of Emma and her relationship with John Corey. I liked it when John Corey was by himself detecting instead of with the group.

What I Disliked: The pace was very slow at the beginning, there’s way too much detail for scenes that do not matter. There’s a driving scene that lays out the town that takes forever, the audience doesn’t need to know that much about the town and the radio stations. This book could’ve cut 100 pages and been so much tighter without changing the story at all. John Corey’s antics do not always land, When They land they’re great but when they don’t they make me wince.

Recommendations: The overall story of Plum Island is great. The mystery is fun with a clever crime. The bad pace was too much for me to recommend even if liked the story. I think readers like Harry Bosch will have a good time with Plum Island and enjoy the clever mystery.

Rating: I rated Plum Island by Nelson DeMille 2.8 out of 5 stars.