August 25, 2008
At the start of bestseller Sandford's solid second thriller to feature officer Virgil Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (after Dark of the Moon
), a gunman shoots Bobby Sanderson as he's walking his dog one night in Stillwater, Minn., then places a lemon in the dead man's mouth. Sanderson's killing is one in a series, and Flowers soon discovers that all the victims served together in Vietnam. When Flowers learns that Vietnamese firing squads stuck lemons in the mouths of their human targets, he pursues leads in the local immigrant community, where he hooks up with the attractive daughter of a radical professor who'd written a paper about Agent Orange. Eventually, he settles on the owner of a security company involved with the upcoming Republican National Convention as his prime suspect. While the less than credible plot builds to a highly unlikely resolution, most readers will enjoy spending time in the company of the genial Flowers.
September 1, 2008
Virgil Flowers, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) investigator, returns after "Dark of the Moon" in this fast-paced thriller. As Minneapolis/St. Paul tightens security for the 2008 Republican National Convention, dead bodies are being posed at local veterans' monuments. BCA Chief Lucas Davenport (last seen in "Phantom Prey") assigns Flowers to investigate the assassination-style killingsthe victims, all men linked to the last days of the Vietnam War. To learn what exactly these men had in common, Flowers contacts a former 1960s radical and begins romancing the man's Vietnamese daughter. Working with Davenport and his BCA colleagues, Flowers is led on a high-speed chase through the Northwoods that ends in a breathless, pitch-black shoot-out. With his long, blond hair and vintage band T-shirts, outdoorsman Flowers is a disarming and sometimes charming investigator. This book will appeal to readers of Sandford's "Prey" series as well as fans of adventures like those by Lee Child. Highly recommended for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 5/1/08.]Karen Kleckner, Deerfield P.L., IL
Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2008
Two bodies turn up at the Vietnam War Memorial in Minneapolis with lemons inserted in their mouths. Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers can find nothing linking the victims to Vietnam or each other and no explanation for the lemons. But one of the victims had recently been attending support-group meetings at the local veterans center and, according to his girlfriend, had also taken to carrying a gun when he walked his dog. Virgil, an unconventional investigator whose improvisational skills compensate for lack of an overall strategy, looks into the support group and turns up a link between the two victims and their involvement in a decades-old scam to move abandoned heavy equipment out of postwar Vietnam. Mix in the suspicious death of an old spy in Southeast Asia and the last-minute meddling of a couple of officious Homeland Security twits for a typically entertaining Sandford caper. Flowers, who began his literary life as a bit player in Sandfords Prey series, is more than capable of carrying the load as he makes his second featured appearance. He may even be more interesting at this point than Prey star Lucas Davenport, who knows who he is and is very settled in his life. Virgil is still feeling his way along, and its fascinating to observe his metamorphosis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)
October 27, 2008
Sandford follows up Virgil Flowers’s first time in the center spotlight (2007’s Dark of the Moon
) with this captivating mystery. While investigating a brutal murder in suburban Minnesota, Flowers discovers the killing is part of a series of murders of Vietnam veterans who all served together. Eric Conger’s gritty reading is perfectly suited to Sandford’s literary world. His voice is at once serious and invigorating, drawing listeners into the story and setting loose the all-out anarchy that Sandford meticulously crafts throughout. Conger refreshingly underplays Flowers, opting to steer clear of stereotypes and offers a character so real and flawed that he creates an instant connection with listeners. A Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 25).