The book starts out with a Dean Koontz flavor. Unique First is 18, beautiful, and deadly. She turns invisible by rearranging her molecules. She is a reincarnated Nazi. She kills people with a box cutter. You can read part of chapter one here.
Soon, however, the reader meets Andy Brazil, a handsome state patrol officer who is operating undercover as Trooper Truth, posting essays about the history of Virginia on a Web site that somehow takes the state by storm. Everyone is reading Trooper Truth. The essays are in the book. They deal with mummies, a history of Tangier Island (where the people, descended from pirates, talk "backwards"), cannibalism, spontaneous combustion... Oh yeah, and the end of ever essay has a short paragraph about finding a missing dog, keeping an eye out for bad guys, some actual law-related stuff like that. I failed to see a) why the public would be drooling over the next Trooper Truth posting, and b) what any of it really had to do with crime. It seemed more like a contrived way to have bad guys and good guys communicate using modern technology. (After all, Trooper Truth uses instant messaging!)
If you've seen Minority Report, you might be able to relate to this criticism: It seems like Cornwell had a really good foundation for a story, but then couldn't decide if it was supposed to be a comedy, a commentary, a history lesson, or a crime story. It's too much for one book and I really didn't want to finish it, but I did it for you, dear Reader.
The character names were even a little annoying - Dr. Faux, a cheating dentist; Major Trader, a treacherous press secretary to the governor; Hooter Shook, a saucy tollbooth operator; Popeye, a hostage female Boston terrier. It's reminiscent of a good Hiaasen book, without the pacing and action.
Of course, I'm sure there are some people out there who would like the book, after all it made #14 on Publisher's Weekly's bestsellers list for 2001 (625,202 copies sold - I got mine at the library).
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