Rough Country

An off-beat detective with a penchant for vintage rock t-shirts and a bad habit of pulling a boat behind a state vehicle, Virgil Flowers really just wanted to enjoy his well-earned vacation. Too bad someone had to murder a guest at a fancy northwoods resort catering to a very special sort of clientele....

Lesbians, violent-tempered musicians, crazy people... lots of suspects and not nearly enough time for fishing. Poor Virgil, lucky readers.

A rare 4.5 for a detective mystery. He hit all the right notes setting, characters, some humor, some philosophy, and a not too outrageous hero. And even though you figured Slibe "dunnit" thetwist at the end finished it of well as did our frustrated hero leaving Sig's house. That said Virgil gets laid a little too easily.

Great read.

This is my second Virgil Flowers novel. It got off to a slow start but picked up the pace partway through and delivered.

Virgil "F%$!ing" Flowers is a detective with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He is on vacation when he gets a call from his boss, Lucas Davenport (the main character in John Sandford's Prey series) to take a case about a woman murdered at a nearby lodge. A lot of the narration focuses on the fact that the lodge caters to gay women. Despite the sexual preference of the suspects, it's the same love/sex triangles that get in the way for heterosexual characters.

I liked Heat Lightning better, but I like the Flowers character and can't wait to read another book!

A woman named McDill is murdered while kayaking at a lodge in the woods of Minnesota. Flowers is called into investigate because the victim had some political clout. He quickly discovers this lodge isn't like most others. It caters to mostly women, and women who prefer the company of women. Flowers is first flustered by the number of female suspects. But he soon narrows in on a few characters, including Wendy Ashback, a wannabe country singer, and Zoe, the accountant who hopes to buy the lodge someday. There are many more suspects and there is a lot of money, jealousy, and secrets to be unvieled.

My complaints would be in the handling of the points of view. Sandford writes mostly from Flowers' point of view, but switches to the killer on show more occasion. This usually works, but I thought perhaps the killer was revealled too early in this one. Also, the whole "whodunnit" and the reasons why, and the way in which Flowers figures everything out, wasn't one of Sandford's best. But the journey to get there was great.

I haven't read a bad John Sandford novel yet. He's been one of my favorite authors since I began reading him. This is a great book and a must read. show less

The hallmarks of a Virgil Flowers are quite familiar by this, the third novel featuring this character. Virgil has an endless supply of t-shirts featuring obscure bands, he drives back and forth between various Minnesota locations (and even flies to Iowa) in this novel, and he apparently has never heard of laundromats. His irresistibility to women a la Jack Reacher is also apparent in this novel but circumstances constantly interrupt the effort to actually have sex. Actually, that part is somewhat humorous and more interesting than in previous novels when the coupling is described in routine manner.

One quite troubling aspect of this novel is that Virgil essentially causes an innocent man to be killed. You can attribute the murder to show more Virgil's cluelessness, but it is quite apparent to the reader that the man will be killed unless Virgil wakes up and exercises a teeny, tiny bit of caution. I'm sure Sanford does not mean to depict Virgil in such a negative manner so this seems to be more the consequence of a poorly thought out plot element than a feature attributable to Flowers' character.

In any event, the book is still a more or less enjoyable read. This is the fourth novel I have read featuring Flowers and I would rate it lower than Heat Lightening (my favorite so far), and Dark of the Moon, but slightly ahead of Mad river. show less

Caught with a long-wait situation and no book at hand, I did something I hate doing. I started a series in the middle. This is the third Virgil Flowers book. I was glad to discover that Flowers is a different character than Lucas Davenport, Sandford’s more famous series protagonist. But the book was pure Sanford. The clues are openly and honestly presented, even if they are more of the foreshadowing variety than the fairplay kind. But if executed correctly, the journey is often as interesting as the destination. In this case, both were worth the time.

Another winner from the Virgil Flowers series, with a little bit of a twist for poor Virgil - most of the women seem to be gay in this one, not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-).

Some people are getting killed, possibly over the course of years, and the common denominator seems to be either a women's vacation spot out in the wilderness, or an all-woman band nearby, especially the star of the band. So to make more people look suspicious, everyone is trying to hide things because it might hurt business or make someone look bad that has nothing to do with the case anyway, they think. But of course, Virgil finds out about all of it, and puts it all together, finally.

All in all, another fast and fun read with humor and interesting show more people. show less