After 20 or so years, Nelson DeMille is coming out with a squeal to this novel, titled "The Maze" in 2022. So here's my review of his 1997 novel "Plum Island" which introduced his most famous character, John Corey
I really like Nelson Demille and his John Corey novels. John Corey is a really good character, one of those lovable old-fashioned guys who talk tough and sees women as objectable figures, but also can work with one without problem, and seems he would never commit anything more than some stupid comments towards them. However, when it comes to the bad guys, Corey has no problem going after them.
This is the first novel featuring DeMille's signature character, and the mystery reads differently today than it did in 1997. Basically, two friends of Corey, Tom and Judy Gordon turn up dead. It's unclear why exactly this young yuppie Long Island couple would befriend an old, right-wing guy like Corey. The explanation isn't great. He hit on the wife at a bar, and instead of walking out in disgust, the husband and wife are charmed and befriend him? Er. Sometimes DeMille's book reads a bit like an old-fashioned, conservative fantasy world, which is unrealistic, even for the mid-90s way before woke culture and the MeToo movement. However, the plot is they are murdered, and at first, there's suspicion that they were trying to sell chemicals to create a mass virus that infects America then they could become rich selling the cure to it. That's the part that reads differently today. However, there's a twist that their murder actually has to do with lost treasure buried on Long Island. Corey makes a ton of cracks and says some stupid things. His love of the death penalty, even for a right-winger, comes off more creepy than conservative un-PC humor. However, I like Corey and I like the writing of DeMille.
He is the middle-aged guy's Nicholas Sparks, as in the total opposite of Sparks but read by middle-aged guys for the same reason women read Sparks. It's a male-centric fantasy where every attractive younger woman wants to sleep with an overweight, old-school, and much older former cop on Long Island. Also, this old-school former cop breaks a ton of rules to catch a killer, then simply walks away with a quiet deal to go on with his life. Corey is the opposite of every male character Sparks ever wrote but is read for the same reason women read about men in Sparks characters. He's a fantasy figure in a fantasy world where everyone is having an instant-made relationship for not a ton of reasoning.
The main problem with this book, and a lot of DeMille's books, is they really need an editor. I mean this was almost 600 pages, and this being a pretty basic mystery, THAT IS WAY TOO LONG. By the end, you do want this guy to wrap it up, and he doesn't. This isn't a Stephen King or fantasy novel or some historical novel that needs a ton of explanation or world-building. I grew up on Long Island. I get it. Even if you never been to Long Island, it's not that hard to figure out. I was torn between three and four stars, while not ever thinking five. However DeMille has a whatever, it's all great and cranky charm I like and you don't see much in thriller writers anymore. However, because his book was so weirdly long to the point it became torture by the end, it is bumped down to three stars.
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