Storm Front

Sandford writes terrific thrillers, which are often very dark. Virgil Flowers is not a dark character, but he has confronted massive child abuse cases, organized attack squads and vicious criminals. Storm Front is different. It is lighter and more humorous; and a good read.

There are bad guys and good guys in the book, as well as bad good guys and good bad guys. In this story, Flowers is trying to track down a stolen engraved stone from an archaeological site in Israel that is purportedly from the time of Solomon and threatens currently accepted history. The thief is an elderly minister who is dying of cancer and who seems to be smarter than anyone else in the book. In the action with Flowers are Israeli agents, Hezbollah terrorists, show more Turkish assassins, media hucksters, and beautiful and brilliant con women.

The pacing is good, a Sandford strength. The involved plot is complicated, but not tortuous. Virgil Flowers is the most like-able of Sandford’s heroes and, for this book to work, his character has to make decisions that drive the story as well as react to inevitable misfortunes any thriller hero faces. He makes ethical decisions, even if they might not be the smartest; he is aware of this we he makes them. The dialog is good and very funny in places. Sandford does not go as far as Hiaasen in the humor department – his hero is smarter than most of Hiaasen’s – but is does have a farcical tone.

I am not certain that I want all of Flowers future adventures to be like this, but this one is good. show less

An artifact that could re-write the ancient history of King Solomon and the nation of Israel has been discovered and stolen by a Minnesota antiquities expert who is dying of cancer. Hezbollah, the Mossad and various US government agencies have an obvious interest in recovering the item, but the professor wants to sell it in order to provide for long-term care for his wife, who is demented. Virgil Flowers is chosen by the Minnesota BCA to interface with the Israeli's in particular in recovering the object.

The characters were all individuals with their own clearly defined personalities and the plot worked. Storm Front reminds me of a Carl Hiiasen caper, containing the kind of expert dialog that Elmore Leonard wrote. I thoroughly enjoyed show more this funny and lighthearted romp and raced through the book, laughing aloud in spots. I enjoy John Sandford's ability to write novels of such vastly different moods. The last Virgil novel was so tragic. This one is comic. show less

I love Sandford's novels, but i was getting the sense that some of his latest titles were not as well crafted as some of the earlier ones, and I thought I might lose interest. This one really hits the mark, though, so he's still one of my favorite authors.

Virgil Flowers novels are fun since there's less of the political stuff that's in the later Lucas Davenport novels. I prefer reading a mystery featuring a cop than one featuring a bureaucrat. Part of the flowers mystique is that he is the man of Murphy's Law, which is why he's known in the state as "that f*****g Flowers"; trouble just seems to follow him around.

The plot of this story was a lot of fun. The basic story is that a minister on an archaeological dig in Israel digs up an show more important stone with writing on it, and he absconds with it and ends up in Flowers' territory. The stone might change the way the Bible is interpreted. The Israelis want it back. Some people who don't like the Israelis want it. Some fortune hunter TV personalities want it, too. And a woman Virgil is investigating in an unrelated case gets involved as well.

Right from the beginning, it's like a Blake Edwards film. These people are trying to pull a fast one on those people, while these other people just want to steal the money. There's a quasi-accidental kidnapping, some crazy secretive ex-Marine federal agents, the possible romantic interest (which must occur in every Flowers novel), and general twists and turns and 'gotchas' that you'd expect in a Sandford novel.

As I always say to people when recommending these books, this is not the Great American Novel. But it's a damn fun read and I highly recommend it. show less

I have read every one of John Sandford's Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers books, and this one is just as good as all the others. There's a good bit of humor, some snappy repartee, and lots of action [although I sometimes wish Sandford would quit sending his detectives and readers on wild-goose chases and just GET ON WITH IT].
Virgil Flowers is the "star" of this book and he is assigned to find a Lutheran pastor who has allegedly stolen an Israeli relic from an archeology dig. This relic could change the course of history, we're told, and an Israeli woman purporting to be from an Israeli Antiquities Authority ... only, a couple of days later, another woman calls Virgil claiming to be that same woman. (Oh, and several people have told show more Virgil that IAA Woman looks more like Mossad.)
Lots of twists and turns -- some of them unnecessary, to my mind -- before we get the story untwisted. The characters in this book are a little broad, if not clichéd [the relic-hunter from Texas is particularly galling to this Austinite], but the banter is funny and the plot moves quickly. I recommend this one. show less

Audiobook: A Lutheran minister steals a stela from a dig in Israel and returns back to his home in Mankato. He has an incurable illness and then disappears. Virgil is asked by his boss, Lucas Davenport, to liase with an Israeli antiquities investigator who has come over to get the stella back. Its importance soon becomes clear as the inscription on the stela seems to imply that King Solomon may have been an Egyptian pharaoh. So, of course, everyone wants to get his hands on the stela for political and monetary reasons. A couple of Turks, a Mossad agent, a gun-toting (don’t they all?) Texan, an Indiana Jones wanna-be and a fake IAA investigator are all after this thing and to top it off “Fucking” Flowers has to deal with “Ma” show more Nobel a local institution who’s selling fake antique lumber and keep everyone from killing each other.

Classic Virgil Flowers and this may be the best of the series. Some of the dialogue is LOL funny. I really like him as a character, and Eric Conger reads magnificently.

I ran across this interesting tidbit in Biblical Archaeology News that pertains: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bi... show less

Spoilers in 2nd paragraph.

This time out, Virgil gets a crime in his hometown of Mankato and so doesn’t have an excuse to hitch the boat to the company car. With so much going on, he doesn’t have time to fish anyway. He thinks about it though. And the case. That’s a similarity between him and Davenport although their approach to casework is different. They both just sit and think. That and the sexy times. Well the old Davenport sexy times anyway. I still think that’s one of the reasons Sandford created Virgil, so he could write that guy again.

Yael-1 had my antennae twitching right away, but not because she turned out to be a ringer, but the way Sandford wanted me to react to her; as a Mossad agent and not some antiquities show more department agent. He totally got me. I liked the overall set-up with all the parties competing for the stele, but not that Jones would have been capable of it at the time. It should have been earlier. He was literally falling apart once he got to the US and I didn’t believe he’d have been able to pull off all the gun fights, chases and other physical stuff he got himself into. Not when the rest of the time he’s hobbling, complaining and bleeding all over. Oh and the up-to-the-eyeballs-in-pain-killer bit, too. It just didn’t check up with a late-stage cancer victim. The motivation I bought, having experienced first-hand what good elder care costs and what bad elder care looks like, too. I was glad that the whole scam was revealed though. Virgil (and others) were right that the discovery was too convenient and Jones’s actions too quick and purposeful to not have been engineered by him. I liked the paleographer’s involvement, although I wish it hadn’t felt so tacked-on. show less

Desperately seeking stele...

A dig worker in Israel steals a chunk of rock bearing a mysterious inscription, hops a plane back home to Minnesota, and proceeds to hold an auction, and suddenly BCA Investigator Virgil Flowers is neck deep in Israelis, Hezbollah agents, Turkish nut-cutters, TV personalities, and one very stacked Minnesota blond with something more (or less) than legal activities in mind.

Up front, this was an ARC I received via LibraryThing Early Reviewers, and I received nothing but the book in return for a review. That said, Sanford does not disappoint. The dialogue, storytelling and characters ring true to just a shade larger than life. This would easily stand alone if you've not encountered Sanford's Minnesota before, show more but falls nicely into place among previous cases. show less