“Plum Island” by Nelson Demille – Looking for a Black Cat in a Dark Room

John Corey, the NYPD’s best homicide detective, is taking a well-deserved rest as he recuperates from the grievous wounds he received while in the line of duty. 

However, it seems that our heroes can never get even a bit of rest as Corey is hired as a consultant on a very strange case: the murder of two biologist brothers who worked at the site of animal disease research for the Department of Agriculture, on a paradise known as Plum Island.

Naturally, Corey immediately suspects that things aren’t what they seem as he discovers that the brothers had a missing ice box and were spending far more than their salaries allowed it. It didn't help that the FBI and CIA have gone to great lengths to sanitize Plum Island. And so, with the help of his partner who is working her first case, Beth Penrose, he sets out to find God-knows what on an island where anyone could be an enemy.

Such is the premise of Plum Island by Nelson Demille, and yes, it’s just as exciting as you would expect it to be. As is the tradition with this author, we are thrown into a vast and complex plot which involves a myriad of different characters all of which breathe a sense of variety into the novel. 

Each and every page of the book gives us something different from what we already had, and in my opinion that is the main factor which makes the story so interesting; it only moves forward, and at a pretty fast pace too. Add to that a vague and yet intriguing mystery, and you have the winning formula which launched Demille to the number one New York’s Bestsellers list a while ago.

Though I do admit that some parts of the book were predictable and a few attempts at humor were cringe-worthy, on the whole I still loved this book. I kept reading on to find out why the brothers were killed more than anything, but you may find plenty of other reasons in this complex story… perhaps you’ll be excited at the unveiling of the culprit, or maybe you will be more drawn to the development of the side plots and relationships between the characters. 

All in all, this murder mystery has something for everyone (thrills, mysteries, romance, blood and humor), and though this may have caused it to fall short in a few instances, on the whole it remains a very fulfilling read very few will ever regret.

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Nelson DeMille Personal site Nelson DeMille is an author of American origin who pumped out countless thriller novels during his heyday. Also known as Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner and Brad Matthews, DeMille has published many bestsellers such as Plum Island and The Lion’s Game.