Tracy Lee Ford has an interesting twist on the creation of modern day dinosaurs in his book entitled Dinosaur Isle. The plot has a Jurassic Park feel to it, but instead of creating dinosaurs for entertainment purposes as attractions at an amusement park, Dinosaur Isle doctors are “growing” dinosaurs to study and observe. A group of three islands off the coast of Guam are being used by DNA, Inc. as a nursery and observation post to observe how the dinosaurs interact with each other and their surroundings. The problem occurs when reports of these dangerous dinosaurs are heard off the isle on Guam in underground dinosaur fights. Jack McConnell works for a new division of the UN whose main responsibility is to track down these rogue dinosaurs, pursue the men responsible, and determine where these dinosaurs are originating. This quest takes Jack and his team across the globe as they follow leads from the very conception of Dinosaur Isle to the current mishaps plaguing the islands.

“He thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into? I took this job to forget about what we had, not get people killed’.”

The plot has a lot of potential; however, it fell a little flat for me. In the foreward, Tracy Lee Ford states that paleontology is a passion of his and one that he has studied for over 25 years. The book is written in a very scientific fashion with less of the Hollywood flare that many of us are used to when reading or watching books and movies about dinosaurs. I did learn some new things; however, the flow was broken for me because of the constant use of the many scientific names of the dinosaurs on Dinosaur Isle. For the layperson, it was very difficult to follow along and understand what type of dinosaur the author was speaking about without a thorough knowledge and interest in paleontology. The mystery of where the rogue dinosaurs were originated and who was involved had great potential and kept me reading until the end, although I was really disappointed with the cliffhanger ending. For someone who has a greater knowledge of dinosaurs, this book may be the perfect mix of scientific fact and mysterious fiction.

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