Is there an audiobook of Plum Island?

Yes. Plum Island has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Scott Brick.

How long is the Plum Island audiobook?

The Plum Island audiobook runs 19 hr 43 min.

Is Plum Island on Kindle Unlimited?

No. Plum Island was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 19, 2026.

Plum Island by Nelson DeMille book cover for the Book of the Day mystery book review

Our score

4.3/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Plum Island free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

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EDITION PUBLISHEDJune 2003

Genres

Fiction Mystery Detective

Themes

Institutional distrust and insubordinationOld money versus working Long IslandBuried colonial history resurfacingA detective's instincts against official caution

Plum Island

Name: Plum Island
Price: 9.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Nelson DeMille

Nelson DeMille

A wounded NYPD detective convalescing on Long Island stumbles into a double murder involving a virology lab, colonial land grants, and a killer who's been patient for a very long time, in Nelson DeMille's John Corey series opener.

The Review

Our take

John Corey narrates his own case files like a man who's decided sarcasm is cheaper than therapy, and that voice is the engine of Plum Island more than the plot ever is. Corey is a homicide detective on medical leave, shot on the job, sent out to the North Fork of Long Island to heal and stay out of trouble. He manages exactly one of those things. When a young couple turns up shot on their patio, both employed at the government research lab on Plum Island, the local police chief wants a real detective's eyes on it, and Corey can't help himself.

DeMille builds the case the way a good procedural should, in layers that keep shifting what kind of story you think you're reading. Is it about biological research gone wrong, given the lab's reputation and the island's rumors? Is it about old money and older land disputes, since one of the victims was chasing down a Mayflower-era treasure map? Corey works both threads at once, dragging a reluctant Suffolk County detective and a historian with her own agenda along with him, and DeMille is patient about letting the two investigations rub against each other before showing how they connect.

What sells this book isn't the mystery mechanics, which move at a comfortable, unhurried pace for a modern thriller. It's Corey himself: caustic, insubordinate, constantly picking fights with local law enforcement who outrank him on paper if not in instinct. He flirts, needles, and mostly gets away with it because he's usually right. Readers who want a stoic, humorless investigator should look elsewhere in the genre; Corey narrates his own incompetence and arrogance with equal relish, and the comic timing carries long stretches where the actual clues arrive slowly.

The Long Island setting does real work too. DeMille clearly knows the North Fork, the fishing towns, the vineyards edging out the potato farms, the old-money summer people looking down on the year-rounders, and that texture keeps the book grounded even when the plot ventures into buried-treasure territory that could tip into pulp in less confident hands. The history angle, colonial land grants and a fortune nobody's found in three centuries, gives the mystery a second gear once the biological-weapons red herring starts to thin out.

Why you should read

Wisecracking, first-person detective narrators
North Fork Long Island atmosphere and history
Series openers with room to grow
Slower-burn procedurals over breakneck pacing

What to expect

Heavy first-person voice and dry humor
Two intertwined investigative threads
Strong regional detail and local color
A patient build to a fair-play resolution

The resolution, when it lands, rewards the patience DeMille asks for. It's less a twist than a recontextualizing of everything Corey dismissed as noise along the way, and the book plays fair with its clues even while burying them under Corey's constant commentary. This is the first of a long-running series, and it shows its hand as an origin story: introducing not just a case but a voice DeMille clearly planned to keep writing. On its own terms, as a chunky, character-forward mystery with a strong sense of place, it delivers exactly what it promises.

Reviewed by Quinn · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.3/ 5

Excellent

Listen to Plum Island free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Plum Island?: Yes. Plum Island has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Scott Brick.
Listen to Plum Island free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Plum Island audiobook?: The Plum Island audiobook runs 19 hr 43 min.
Is Plum Island on Kindle Unlimited?: No. Plum Island was not included with Kindle Unlimited when we last checked on July 19, 2026.

Filed underMystery Detective Browse the archive →

Common questions

What is Plum Island about?: John Corey narrates his own case files like a man who's decided sarcasm is cheaper than therapy, and that voice is the engine of Plum Island more than the plot ever is. Corey is a homicide detective on medical leave, shot on the job, sent out to the North Fork of Long Island to heal and stay out…
Is Plum Island worth reading?: We scored Plum Island 4.3 out of 5. A wounded NYPD detective convalescing on Long Island stumbles into a double murder involving a virology lab, colonial land grants, and a killer who's been patient for a very long time, in Nelson DeMille's John Corey series opener.