Rating: 
Summary: was she kidding?
Review: I think that I sprained my optic nerve rolling my eyes so much while reading this book! I am convinced that this was a high school assignment of Ms. Cornwell's that was published to meet a quota. I would have rather spent the time it took to read this book at the dentist.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Fiction??? Caleb Carr you are not.
Review: As a million frenzied fans are whenever the great intellect of Patricia Cornwell hits the page, I was first in line at Borders the day it came out. I have eagerly awaited this book for about a year. I followed the progress of the novel via Patricia's web site and couldn't wait to get my hands on it.This was a vain attempt at historical fiction, vainity being the operative motive of the author. She squeezed a vast amount of research, along with her knowledge and love of "Helichoppers", into a weakly organized plot or should I say plots. I can't figure out if the characters belong on the sci-fi channel or an episode of King of the Hill on FOX. Psychotic Nazi chics that rearrange their molecules to become invisible??? My breaking point too was the crab and the trout conversing in the trunk. It was worse than Clarice letting Hannibal nurse on her breast in in the sequel to Silence of the Lambs (skip that one also). I didn't think any character stretch could be worse than that one. There is something to be said for celebrity, if it hadn't been for Patricia's, this manuscript would be collecting dust in her closet. I would enthusiastically welcome a new group of characters, as Scarpetta is nearing her twilight years, but I guess Patricia is better at writing about who she fantizies herself to be rather than creating new and interesting cast members. Venting aside, I think that Cornwell is a woman of immense intelligence and I look to her as a role model and an inspiration to the creative soul. I struggled through this novel, giving third and forth chances only out of repect to Cornwell and to the memory of her past litery accomplishments. I think I will go read Postmortem just to wash the taste of this one from my brain.
Rating:
Summary: Drugs? Or just the *wrong* genre?
Review: I have to join the other reviewers in my disappointment and frustration listening to the audio version of this story. There seems to be a pervasive lack of thought or review that is maddening. I don't know how this got past an editor.
Even more difficult for me personally is that I enjoy both scientific, logical stories (like her earlier books) *and* mystical fantasies (Neil Gaiman, for example, or Richard Bach), and blendings of the two. . .so why don't I like this story? Simply, it's because there is no consistent contextual framework presented to understand the events in the story: A horrific sociopath is presented who is 'directed by evil' and who can 're-arrange her molecules' to be come invisible. I was very interested in this at first, seeing a classic self-delusional psychosis and wanting to see how it would play out. Then the crabs start talking to the trout, and I start to wonder; *is* she some mystical monster? Will Andy find he can re-arrange *his* molecules to become super-strong, or invulnerable? Nothing seems to be too ridiculous for this story, and we are left with no mythology to explain it, no sense of the rules of this reality, just a vague unease that the next chapter is going to feature a discussion between the Governor's helicopter and a NASCAR racecar. On the writing itself, after the third or fourth major plot twist that begins with "through an incredible coincidence..." and/or "inexplicably,..." you start to get the feeling that the 'explanation' is that the author is incapable or unwilling to put the effort into composing a decent storyline and is just throwing characters together for convenience's sake. Another problem may just be my naivete; does every person living in Virginia who doesn't have a Master's degree talk like an Amos and Andy episode (not with slang, just with an embarrassing mangling of common words)? The prominent black male is a very well-endowed man who needs a women who can "stay on, no matter how hard the ride is," the prominent black female is named "Hooter", white female "Barbie",. . .{sigh}. This isn't a comic romp, it's more like a drug (or marketing) induced spew with no consistent rhyme or reason. Properly directed and edited (with broad and generous strokes of red ink) there might have been something here, but its simply pure drivel.
Rating:
Summary: The stupidest book I ever read
Review: This one takes the cake! It is the stupidest book I have ever read. If this is how Ms. Cornwell is going to continue writing, I really don't want to look at another of her books.
Rating:
Summary: What was her editor thinking???
Review: Thank goodness I didn't buy this book. I got it from the library and was truly disappointed. I couldn't even get halfway through it and based on other reviews, I made the right choice. It's one thing for an author to take a new direction, but this book made no sense. There are too many good books out there to waste time on something as bad as this.
Rating:
Summary: Isle of Dogs Belongs on a remote uninhabited Isle
Review: My choice for a rating has no stars!
I have loved her books until now & have read them all. She has been one of my favorite authors.
However,this is pure drivel and if it was supposed to be humorous she failed miserably. I finished reading it only because I had nothing else to read at that time, but kept hoping that it would get better. It did not.
Don't even buy this book second hand, or third hand, actually don't waste your money, to think I bought this new in hard cover, shame on me!
To Pat C.......stay with what you have done and know best. Kay Scarpetta! Hopefully your readers will come back to you.
Rating:
Summary: If you read this book .. it is time you will never get back!
Review: This book is terrible. Don't waste your time cracking it open. The worst part is that it is boring. After you get past that, the characters are paper thin, the humor mundane and the plot dull and plodding. I am also surprised that Cornwell, as a lesbian, would have such a level of homophobia in her novel.
Rating:
Summary: Isle of Dogs by Patricia Cornwell
Review: This book does not follow the traditional style of the author. In fact it borders on the ridiculous. After reading many novels by this author, I was very disappointed in this particular book. I hope that this style of writing was just a fluke!
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time and money
Review: My son and I travel 150 miles two times per week for some reading assistance he needs. We almost always listen to audio books. We have listened to hundreds of books and I have to say that this is the first time we have both agreed to eject it and throw it away. Believe me, we have listened to some less than great books by some poor authors, but nothing this bad. We made it to the point where the crabs and fish were talking and that was the straw that broke the books back (re:wendy breeze). It is possible that it was less tolerable because it was audio...
Rating:
Summary: A Dog!!!!! or (Monkeys typing on a keyboard)
Review: Where to begin. This was truly a horrible book. I have read all of Cornwall's books, and although they have been slowly running downhill, I enjoyed them. So what if the books all seemed the same after a while, they were a solid read. Her first five or so were superb. That said, this book was horrible. Seeing eye horse; talking crabs; trout that play dead; characters that talk backwards; stupid, unreadable, editorial comments from a character named Trooper Truth; the list goes on unbearably.... The plot was bad. It is not simply that the style of this book was different; that would be fine. But the characters were stupid, the plot was virtually absent, the storyline completely implausible and the writing was atrocious. I could barely read this book to the end. The only reason that I suffered through it was in the stunned disbelief that it was so bad and the vain hope that, somehow, the ending would wrap things up and cover for the rest of the book. It didn't...
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