This was the first book I read by the author, and I was immediately hooked by his casual, first person style . Written from the perspective of the protagonist, John Carey is a wise-cracking, semi-retired New York police detective who gets caught up in a mystery involving a legendary pirate treasure possibly buried somewhere on Plum Island, a federal biological research center off the tip of Orient Point, Long Island. I liked it so much, I went on to read all the "John Corey" novels, the "Paul Brenner" books, and a couple of his others as well. "Plum Island" made the rounds in my family soon after it was published, partly due to the proximity of the setting to where we live in Southeastern Connecticut. We knew about Plum Island and the research that went on there, and occasionally speculated or joked about any microbiological organisms that escaped would be carried on the prevailing breeze right into our front yards.