Neon Prey by John Sanford

Lucas Davenport keeps doing what he does best, chasing the bad guy, in John Sandford’s latest installment in the series.  The bad guy this time is Clayton Deese, a hired killer thought to cannibalize some of his victims.  As Clayton moves west to join his brother’s home invasion outlaw gang in L.A., the FBI investigates Clayton’s Louisiana home and finds several bodies buried in the swap behind his house.  Lucas now a U.S. marshal and his posse, Rae Givens and Bob Matees join him in pursuit of Deese.  They find Deese, his brother and their gang but upon closing in, Lucas is shot and the gang (less two dead members) moves on to Las Vegas.  After a couple months of convalescence, Lucas is back on the trail.  As the gang again feels the marshals closing in, they begin looking for one last big score.  But desperation leads to bigger chances and a climbing body count.

If you are a fan of John Sanford’s prey series, there’s nothing here not to like.  The same old Lucas Davenport, rich in lifestyle, clever in politics, and persistent in pursuit make for great entertainment.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.

Twisted Prey by John Sandford

Financially, Lucas Davenport doesn’t need to work.  He gained wealth early in his career by successfully starting a computer game company then selling it for a ridiculous profit.  Plus his wife, Weather is a well-respected surgeon.  Lucas’ law enforcement career could have ended with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension where he solved many of the toughest cases.  But with his political connections Lucas was able to land a job as a U.S. Marshall with the luxury of working only the cases he finds interesting… a way of scratching his itch for the thrill of the hunt.  Lucas didn’t know when he took the job, however, he’d get pulled into a dangerous fight between the two Minnesota U.S. Senators that would threaten his reputation and his life as well as the lives of his family.

Senator Porter Smalls is injured when his vehicle driven by a female aide is forced off the road near his remote cabin in the mountains of West Virginia.  His aide is killed and the senator is convinced the murderers were hired by his nemesis Senator Taryn Grant and intended to kill him.  Senator Grant has aspirations to be president and knows Smalls will stand in her way.  Years earlier she had anonymously planted kiddie porn on Smalls’ computer to defeat him in a senatorial election.  Smalls has since proven his innocence and subsequently was elected to the second seat for Minnesota senators.  But Grant is careful and sneaky.  She has connections to some ex-military special ops guys who are professionals in covert operations and in covering their tracks… an apparent mismatch for a former state cop now U.S. Marshall Davenport.

Lucas does what he does best… collaborates with and uses the resources of several law enforcement agencies to gather evidence… this time about the accident.  But as Lucas closes in, he and his wife become targets.  Lucas must put his life on the line to find evidence that leads through these professionally trained mercenaries to the twisted Senator Grant.

Twisted Prey is number 28 in John Sandford’s prey series and is just more of what his fans love… Lucas Davenport chasing the bad guys and charming everyone else along the way.  I wouldn’t categorize this one as a page turner but a solid, enjoyable read… pretty much what we expect from John Sandford.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Deep Freeze by John Sandford

Virgil Flowers, ace investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is called from vacation to Trippton, Minnesota, a small river town south of Minneapolis.  An attractive middle-aged woman who owned the local bank has been murdered and her body has been deposited in the frozen Mississippi River.  She had hosted a high school class reunion organizational meeting the night before so several of her former classmates as well as her estranged husband and his boyfriend are prime suspects.  Virgil’s inquiries send him through the private and business life of the deceased.  As in all Sandford novels, the killer is revealed to the reader and we see the criminal's motivation and efforts to cover up the crime well before Virgil does.  The killer’s effort to cover up includes the murder of a second woman and deadly warnings directed at Virgil.

To complicate Virgil’s investigation, his boss asks him to casually attend to another matter in Trippton, this one of interest to the governor.  Apparently a small group of women in Trippton are altering Barbie dolls by installing erotic noises and selling them online.  The Mattel Corporation, a political supporter of the governor and maker of Barbie dolls wants this to stop immediately.  Virgil is ordered to assist a private detective already in Trippton to find the doll manipulators.  Virgil soon learns these women are desperate for the extra income and are protective of their co-conspirators.  While Virgil clearly sympathizes with the women, he is duty bound to stop their operation.

Flowers’ laid back investigative style is all wrong according to every crime show on TV.  He is open with information which tends to get back to the suspect but somehow always works out in Flowers’ favor… thus the universal response from those who know he’s coming, ‘That f…ing Flowers.’  Sandford’s protagonist is unorthodox but likable and effective, the perfect combination for a good investigator and the perfect character for a good read.

Golden Prey by John Sandford

Lucas Davenport has moved on from his job at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to a deputy US marshal position.  His relationship with some high powered politicians not only landed him this job but some extraordinary perks.  He is allowed to pick and choose his assignments, gets to bypass much of the bureaucracy, and is given personal upgrades when he travels… not a bad deal particularly since Lucas just wants to hunt down criminals.  The downsides are the travel to unfamiliar parts of the country which takes him away from his family and of course the danger involved.

Garvin Poole, is a lifelong outlaw who, with the help of his friend Sturgill Darling, robs a Central American drug cartel of several million dollars and kills everyone in sight including an innocent child.  Lucas takes the assignment to find Poole and starts by interviewing his family near Nashville, Tennessee.  But the family is also the target of the drug cartel’s mercenaries who torture and kill Poole’s parents.  While chasing the mercenaries, Lucas wrecks and totals his Mercedes SUV.  His boss assigns two more US marshals to Lucas to help even out the firepower… Bob and Rae.  Bob is the stereotypic tough-guy federal cop but Rae, although just as tough, is a tall muscular, smart Black woman who formerly played basketball for UConn.  Lucas’s skills in ferreting out and confronting the bad guys and his willingness to share his perks with his posse soon gain him their respect.

But the mercenaries are smart and deadly, too.  They quickly figure out the US marshals are closing in on Poole and start monitoring Lucas’ cell phone.  The hunt soon turns into a race to find Poole and Darling in Texas leaving a plethora of dead bodies along the way.

Golden Prey has all the plotting, pacing and action we’ve grown to expect from Sandford’s Lucas Davenport series.  But I feel like Sandford is trying too hard to extend the series… milk the last dollar out of the character.  Lucas is now in his late fifties and the physical punishment he incurs and quickly recovers from no longer rings true.  At one point, Lucas challenges Rae to a one-on-one basketball game.  After one win each they set off to apprehend a suspect… a bit implausible for our aging hero.  This has been a fantastic series but perhaps it’s time.

Escape Clause by John Sanford

In John Sandford’s ninth mystery in his Virgil Flowers series, our protagonist is assigned to the case of the kidnapped Amur tigers from the Minnesota zoo.  This rare and endangered animal species is known in the Chinese culture for medicinal value of its body organs and bones.  Authorities are worried the tigers are being slaughtered for their body parts so anyone suspected of dealing in black market animals is on the list to be interrogated.

 

As usual in John Sanford novels, a parallel story line follows the antics of the criminals.  A disgraced doctor has mastered minded the caper and his accomplices are two brothers skilled in animal slaughter.  As Virgil closes in, those close to the crime begin to die, one by one, an apparent attempt to conceal the offense.

Virgil gets sidetracked by his latest girlfriend, Frankie and her family problems.  Virgil has become serious about a longer term relationship with Frankie and has moved into her ranch house.  Frankie’s mischievous sister, Sparkle has also moved in for the summer to complete her research on working conditions of migrant workers.  Not everyone welcomes her intrusion, including Frankie when Sparkle turns Virgil’s wandering eye.

Escape Clause is more less an airplane book… not much intrigue or mystery since the author keeps you clued into what the villains are doing.  But the likability of the easy going, Virgil Flowers who sports a vintage rock band T-shirt and dusty cowboy boots and frequently forgets his gun, keeps you engaged to the end… unpretentious, high quality entertainment.

Extreme Prey by John Sanford

Lucas Davenport is enjoying life after a career in law enforcement with the Minnesota BCA.  He is independently wealthy due to a software company he founded then sold in his twenties and his wife is a surgeon.  So he has spent his first summer in retirement at his cabin in the back woods of Wisconsin, fixing it up and adding floor space.  He doesn’t miss the politics or bureaucracy of public life but he does miss chasing the bad guys.  So when the governor of Minnesota calls him and asked for his help, Lucas is on it.

The governor is running for President and is campaigning in Iowa prior to the caucus.  His people pick up at one of his rallies that someone is plotting to kill his competitor, Michaela Bowden.  Ms. Bowden is the presumptive candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination and the governor is running with the idea of landing the VP spot.  So he wants to make sure his potential running mate remains safe.  Lucas is the man for the job.

Lucas heads for Des Moines and starts visiting various radical political groups around Iowa.  They are mostly Vietnam era groups with farm backgrounds wishing the Federal government would stay out of their lives.  But none have taken any action in decades.  Then the head of one of these groups is murdered the evening after Lucas had interviewed him.  Lucas tries to find the other members of the group and keeps stirring the pot.  A gunman is spotted at a Bowden rally in Davenport but he doesn’t fit the profile of the radical group… too young.  Lucas and his Iowa law enforcement comrades decide that Bowden will be most vulnerable at the Iowa State Fair.  Tradition has presidential candidates walking in the open on the fair grounds.  But can they cover Ms. Bowden in the crowds and how many others are at danger in this setting?  Lucas with no official authority has to play nice with the real cops and find the conspirators before it’s too late.

John Sanford has found a way to extend his Lucas Davenport series for at least one more novel.  And why not?  The handsome, neatly dressed, rich guy with the cowboy disposition has all the characteristics of a protagonist to love.  Especially, with his tenacity for chasing the bad guys.  I suspect Sanford will find more creative ways to keep Lucas Davenport in the hunt.  Let’s hope so anyway.

Gathering Prey by John Sandford

Gathering Prey is John Sandford’s twenty fifth novel featuring Lucas Davenport, the handsome well-dressed investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension with a spectacular case solved rate and a history of pissing off his superiors. In this latest book all of Lucas’ deep seated misgivings with the agency seem to fester as he quarrels with his boss over case assignments and side steps bureaucracy to join the multi-state manhunt for his latest prey, a murderous traveler calling himself Pilate.

While in college at Stamford, Lucas’ adopted daughter, Letty befriends Henry and Skye, a young man and woman who call themselves travelers.  Free in spirit, they travel around the country with a larger group in broken down old cars, panhandling for food and peddling dope for gas money. Now home in Minneapolis for the summer, Letty gets a distress call from Skye.  She is in Sturgis, North Dakota at the annual motorcycle rally and is terrified.  Henry has disappeared and Skye thinks the traveler’s leader, Pilate has murdered him.  Letty advises Skye to board a bus for Minneapolis and gets Lucas involved.  He contacts the Sturgis authorities and learns that Henry has indeed been murdered and through additional networking discovers this Pilate is wanted in connection with a similar murder in L.A. 

Skye thinks the travelers are headed to a Juggalo gathering (a festival for fans of the Insane Clown Posse) in Wisconsin so she hitches a ride to the event and Letty follows. Before Lucas can arrive to save the day, Pilate manages to kidnap Skye, beat up Letty, and kill another victim.  Pilate orders his troop to scatter and rendezvous in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at another Juggalo gathering the following week.
  

Lucas is out of his jurisdiction and his boss tells him to back off. But Lucas is personally invested now.  Through cell phone use monitoring, he anticipates where the travelers are headed.  He arrives at the isolated town near Sault Ste. Marie in time to organize the local law enforcement.  He finds a competent sheriff but with mostly volunteer deputies. Can they outwit and overpower the elusive and now desperate Pilate before he kills again?  Even if Lucas is successful, what will be the consequences of his insubordination when he returns to Minneapolis?

Gathering Prey is classic Lucas Davenport.  He can play by the rules until they get in the way of protecting his family or getting his man... then they just don’t matter.  But how much longer can Lucas survive in a bureaucracy when he has this attitude?  We see a transition taking form in Gathering Prey.  Lucas is evolving.  He’s getting too old to chase down criminals… the part of the job he loves… and has nearly had his fill of the politics and the paperwork. So what’s next for this maverick?  I can hardly wait to see. 

Field of Prey by John Sandford

John Sandford is one of the most prolific crime novel writers of his time, and while I think some of his books are formulaic, this one certainly is not – it’s Sandford at the top of his game. Field of Prey is the 24^th book in the Prey Series, written in 2014, and it’s a Lucas Davenport Novel. If you love this genre, you’ll find this story spellbinding, very hard to put down.

The novel begins with the attempted kidnapping of what would turn out to be the fifth of more than 20 young blonde women who were taken, raped, killed, and dismembered. The early murders were done by an efficient two-man team, R-A and Horn, and the women didn’t stand a chance, until number five, Heather Jorgenson. She had a Leatherman tool in her pocket and used it to cut her way to freedom and then repeatedly stab Horn as he drove away from the kidnap scene. R-A couldn’t see that happening since he was just getting in the chase vehicle. Heather got out and ran for help, and then Horn was never seen again. Some of the cops thought he was dead, some thought he had just escaped and gone into hiding.

But unbeknown to the police, the killings went on. R-A and Horn were so effective in choosing their victims that no one was aware that a serial murder was operating in their midst. No pattern to the disappearance of these women in rural Minnesota was apparent for years until a young couple, out in the country on a tryst, came across a powerful stench which came from, as the press called it, the Black Hole of Goodhue, a cistern where 23 skulls and other body parts were discovered in the most gruesome of scenes. That’s when Davenport was called in, a detective with Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The massive database of crime facts that had to be assembled was turned over to one of Davenport’s colleagues, Bob Shaffer, who had more tolerance for such detail work while Davenport got to consider the bigger picture. And, it was Shaffer’s pursuit of the details that led to the first big break in this case which was dominating the national news during the months the case went unsolved. Unfortunately, the break came in the form of Shaffer’s death as he stumbled into R-A in the course of the investigation before he realized this was the killer. Then R-A developed a fixation for Catrin Mattsson, a Goodhue County investigator, a beautiful and formidable woman who kept appearing on the news as a spokesperson.

And so the story goes – great character development, believable and gripping plot. This one started out with intensity and it never let up. Sandford has a lot of books to choose from and I’ll immediately download another, this time one of the Virgil Flowers series.

Deadline by John Sanford

Deadline is number eight in John Sanford’s series featuring Virgil Flowers, an investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.  Flowers is the outdoorsy, country boy type complete with cowboy boots, Wayland Jennings length hair, and vintage rock band t-shirts.  His laid back style and folksy manner compel witnesses to open up to him.  He prefers to work alone but many times solicits help from civilians.

Virgil is invited to rural southeast Minnesota by his buddy Johnson Johnson.  Seems some dogs have gone missing in Johnson’s small Mississippi River town of Trippton and he hopes Flowers can help.  Dog napping is not a serious enough crime for Virgil’s job description but he jumps at the opportunity to do some fishing with his friend.  While looking for the dogs on a remote ridge near the river, Virgil stumbles upon a commercial meth cooking operation.  He calls another buddy of his in DEA and a raid is planned.  The morning of the raid, a local newspaper reporter is found shot to death near his run down mobile home just outside Trippton.  The reporter has a sketchy drug related past but appears to have straighten out his life and was hot after a story concerning a conspiracy to embezzle funds from the local school system.  As Virgil contemplates how to proceed, one of the suspected meth cookers who got away is found murdered… same way as the reporter.  Virgil surmises that this second murder was a diversion attempt and focuses on finding the weakest of the conspirators who are mostly school board members.  Meanwhile a local twelve year old boy leads him to a remote holding pen for the stolen dogs and plans are laid to apprehend the dog snatchers.  Flowers learns of a nearby meet scheduled for dogs to be sold for medical research.  Then the school’s security guard is found dead and school board members begin to disappear.  Heavy on suspicion, light on evidence, Virgil must quickly uncover the conspiracy before more good… or not so good… citizens are murdered.  And then there are the dogs.

Deadline is a good read complete with numerous colorful characters and a three pronged plot.  Although the plot is not always plausible (doubtful that medical research companies source dogs from poachers with the humane societies over burdened with unwanted dogs) the bigger-than-life characters carry the story for a truly fun read.  While the outcome is predictable, the adventure makes it well worth the trip to the finish. 

Stolen Prey by John Sanford

Stolen Prey is John Sanford’s 22^nd in his prey series featuring Lucas Davenport.  By this point in his career with Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Lucas handles politically sensitive and media frenzied cases… and pretty much whatever else he chooses.

Lucas is out jogging one evening and stops at an ATM to withdraw $500.  A pair of tweekers who smell of horse manure mug him breaking his wrist and bruising his ego.  He is between big cases worthy of his skill set so he hyper focuses on finding the petty but smelly thieves.

Then in Wayzata, a small upscale suburb of Minneapolis, an entire family is violently tortured and murdered… husband, wife, two daughters and their dogs.  The brutality of the crime suggests drug lord revenge killings and the husband’s vocation, owner of a Spanish language software company, implies Mexican money laundering.  The DEA sends auditors to inspect the company’s books and the Mexican Federale send two of their own investigators.

Financial forensics reveal a group of hackers employed by a Minnesota bank has diverted $22 million away from a Mexican drug cartel.  The cartel has sent a trio of vicious assassins to find the hackers, retrieve their money and kill everyone remotely associated with the heist.  Lucas’ tenacity in hunting down the killers ultimately makes himself and his family targets of the cartel… much more personal than he ever imagined.

 

Stolen Prey is just one more good read in what we’ve grown to expect from John Sanford.  His self-important, over confident protagonist, Lucas Davenport, once again redeems himself by delivering on the big case.  But more importantly we feel for him for what he risks and almost loses to get there… great entertainment.

Buried Prey by John Sanford

Buried Prey is one of John Sanford’s later works in his Lucas Davenport series but herein reveals the younger, hungrier Davenport at the beginning of his career with a taste for fast cars, fine clothes and attractive women.

In present day Minneapolis, the bodies of two young women are discovered at a construction site near the university.  Davenport recognizes the bodies from his first big case twenty five years earlier.  He flashes back to his brief time as a patrolman destined for greater things.  His tenacity in the kidnap investigation gains him temporary detective status and leads him to a person of interest, a homeless schizophrenic living down by the river.  Pursuit of the suspect results in the police fatally shooting the homeless man and the kidnapping is conveniently pinned on the deceased.  But Davenport doesn’t believe the homeless guy capable of the crime yet politics and media attention demand a quick solution.  Davenport vows to find the real killer but his natural savvy in manipulating the news media and politicians in solving crime catapults his career leaving his first case a distant memory.  Now 25 years later with evidence the girls were murdered, Davenport feels his complacency may have unleashed a serial killer.  His ego fueled by regret, Davenport will stop at nothing to find the real killer.  But his family and friends worry that his unleashed obsession will make him ignore police procedure and legalities that will mar his career if not cost him his life.

Buried Prey is a good starting point for readers not so familiar with John Sanford’s prolific Lucas Davenport series.  We see the young Lucas Davenport developing his own brand of justice… following the rules where necessary but skillfully manipulating the system to get the desired results… a dangerous but effective formula.

Field of Prey by John Sanford

Field of Prey is the latest in a long standing series by John Sanford featuring favored protagonist, Lucas Davenport.  Yet it is my first venture into this series and left me with a feeling of ‘Wow, what have I been missing!’  Too often authors lose their edge when a series spans several decades but I found this installment relevant and current. I even felt connected to it personally on more than one front.

Lucas Davenport is a seasoned investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).  His exemplary record should have propelled him past his current station as lead investigator but his independence and preference for front line action have caused him to turn down many promotions.  While his record in solving high profile cases affords him a personal relationship with the governor, his dislike of bureaucracy and of department politics has capped his advancement.  Davenport is independently wealthy from a software company he founded in his younger days and is married to a surgeon.  This affords him the luxury of maintaining his out of the box thinking and maverick style of investigating that has made him successful.

In Field of Prey, a cistern full of human remains is found at an old abandoned farmstead near Redwing, MN.  Forensic investigation concludes that at least fifteen bodies were in the cistern from a time frame that spans over 20 years… the latest is less than a year old.  Lucas is somewhat relieved he is not assigned to the case initially.  He knows this type of investigation will require a tedious accumulation of data by a large staff of technicians… better left to the bureaucrats.  His colleague Bob Shaffer is put in charge but Lucas follows the case as it develops.  After several weeks, Shaffer is frustrated by their lack of progress but follows a hunch and is killed, presumably by their mass murderer.  Davenport is asked to take over the investigation but declines the administrative role to enable him to independently pursue the perp.  He engages the help of Goodhue County deputy Catrin Mattsson.  Mattsson is smart and motivated and knows many of the locals.  Plus she is young, pretty, and blond all commonalities with the victims.  As Davenport closes in on the murderer, he is distracted by the shooting of one of his direct reports, Del Capslock who was working an unrelated case in Texas.  Del is also a friend and colleague so Lucas summons the governor’s private plane to jet him and Del’s wife to El Paso.  While Lucas is away, Catrin is abducted by the mass murderer in Redwing.  So the clock starts… can Lucas sift through all the clues in time to discover the killer’s identity and save Catrin’s life?  It’s all there in the data, he just has to connect the dots.

I highly recommend Field of Prey to the readers of this genre.  Sanford creates an interesting plot and rolls it out in a way where the reader connects all the dots long before the characters.  The suspense is in anticipating when the characters will discover what the reader already knows.  Plus Sanford develops likable slightly flawed characters… flawed in ways that endear them to the reader.

I personally related to this story on multiple levels.  First, from my heritage of growing up on a farm, I am familiar with old farmsteads and cisterns.  A cistern is a concrete structure just below the ground’s surface that is filled by rain water from the spouting on the house roof.  A farmstead also has a well for drinking water but that water is often hard from iron, sulfur or other elements in the ground.  The rain water is the source of soft water for bathing and washing clothes on a farm of olden days.  Having cleaned out a cistern or two in my youth, the thought of human remains in there is revolting.  Second, I can totally relate to Lucas aversion to bureaucracy and workplace politics.  In my own professional life I often found myself like Lucas focused on the task at hand rather than following established protocol.  Anyway, I loved this book and will pick a few from Sanford’s Prey series to enjoy… suggestions are welcome.

Silken Prey by John Sandford

This is the seventh John Sandford book that has been reviewed in the blog, and that in itself is a pretty favorable comment about this author. This is the most recent of the “Prey” series, the 23^rd, published this year. Lucas Davenport is the detective extraordinaire who has moved up to the weirdly titled BCA, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Davenport now takes special assignments from Minnesota’s Governor Henderson. This crime novel is built around a political intrigue. The incumbent Democratic senator Porter Smalls is expected to win reelection against the newbie politico, Taryn Grant. But, only days before the election, kiddie porn is found on Smalls’ personal computer. After only a couple days, Davenport figures out that the porn was planted there. All evidence points to Grant’s campaign as being the ones who would mostly likely benefit from a Smalls’ election loss. Grant is not a woman that is easy to like – a billionaire by inheritance, beautiful, and only interested in her own well being. Henderson directs Davenport to look further into the matter, and Tubbs, the guy who planted the kiddie porn, turns up dead. Then, there are more deaths, seemingly aimed at cutting of the trail that would lead to Grant.

Although the book started out a little slow during character development, it picked up speed quickly. The entire book covered a period of a week, and takes the reader right through election day events. Sandford included his usual cast of characters. He writes a good story, and I’d give this one an A-.

Mad River by John Sandford

#6 in the Virgil Flowers thread.

Jimmy Sharp. Becky Walsh. Tom McCall. Modern day Bonnie and Clyde and that third guy. A prominent doctor's wife goes to her high school reunion splashing around a killer diamond necklace. Jimmy, Becky, and Tom are dead broke and decide to burgle the lady's home for the jewelry. Jimmy goes right in through an unlocked window, but it goes bad and he kills Agatha O'Leary when she freaks. In the process of escaping, Jimmy kills a guy for his car and they are now on the run. In the process, they kill Jimmy's dad, Becky's parents, a cop during a Credit Union robbery, and commit a number of other random acts of senseless violence. 

Virgil, an investigator for Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (and works for Lucas Davenport-the lead character in Sandford's Prey series), heads for rural southwestern Minnesota where he has to work with Bare County's Sheriff Duke, a Boss Hog kind of cop with a stranglehold on law enforcement on his corner of the prairie. Virgil wants to take the three alive, but Sheriff Duke would just as soon blow them away in retaliation for the murder spree across his beloved county. He and Virgil operate under an uneasy alliance. 

The county cops, with help from neighboring counties and the National Guard, are all trying to track Jimmy, Becky, and Tom to keep them from killing again and possibly getting away. The problem is geometry. A=2(pi)r means that if they've gone 40 miles, the good guys have nearly 250 square miles to search.

Only puzzling thing is that window. How did Jimmy know that particular window would be open? Was the necklace the real target?

Virgil criss crosses the SW corner and the state trying to get some slight edge on the three.

Sandford is one of the most consistent authors out there, offering nearly equal time for Flowers and the 3-on-a-spree. His Prey series is up to 24 books and you don't get that amount of books out there if you aren't any good. I have read only 1 Prey novel and didn't want to like it too much so I wouldn't feel obligated to read the entire series. But, I have read the Kidd series and I think this is my 3rd Virgil Flowers book. This was real easy to get into and before I knew it, I had read 100 pages. The presentation is deliciously readable. Flowers has just enough small town, folksy familiarity with the region that I couldn't help but see a little of Elmore Leonard's Raylen Givens (of the FX TV show 'Justified') as he questions locals who pretend to be bikers 'in a hygenic Minnesota sort of manner.' I know West Coast Don was sort of cool to his venture in an earlier Virgil Flowers novel, but I found this one easily sucked me in right until the the last line. For me, a satisfying escape.

East Coast Don

Heat Lightening

This is the second book in the Virgil Flowers series by the remarkably prolific John Sandford. The plot involved some Minnesota boys who traveled to Vietnam to steal some catepillars and other heavy equipment, just as the Vietnam War was ending, equipment that the army was going to abandon. But, in the course of going back, one of the Americans went crazy, raped a girl, and killed most of her family. Now, nearly 40 years later, that family has come to power in Vietnam and they want revenge. They make a deal with Homeland Security to turn over info about an Al Queda plot, but in exchange, they get the right to murder the men who were implicated. Vietnam sends a team of agents to do the assassinations, but then they run into Virgil Flowers.

This was just an average read, which I nearly abandoned at the halfway point. I thought the plot was a bit far out there, even for the sort of thriller books we read. The pace started out pretty good, went lethargic in the middle, and picked up in the end. The book is okay, not one that I would steer you away from, but not one that gets a strong recommendation.