Virgil Flowers will have to watch his back–and his mouth–as he investigates a college culture war turned deadly in another one of Sandford’s “madly entertaining Virgil Flowers mysteries” (New York Times Book Review).
At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of science and medicine. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right?
Then a renowned and confrontational scholar winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate . . . and as he probes the recent ideological unrest, he soon comes to realize he’s dealing with people who, on this one particular issue, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs.
Virgil Flowers investigates a miracle–and a murder–in the wickedly entertaining new thriller from the master of “pure reading pleasure” (Booklist)
Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of seven hundred souls, for which the word “moribund” might have been invented. Nothing ever happened there and nothing ever would–until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: “I’ll Do What I Can”) and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. They’d heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They’d all get rich! What could go wrong?
When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that’s only the beginning of their troubles–and Virgil Flowers’–as they are all about to discover all too soon.
Class reunions: a time for memories–good, bad, and, as Virgil Flowers is about to find out, deadly–in this New York Times–bestselling thriller from John Sandford.
Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt–and, as it turned out, homicidal–local school board, and now the town’s back in view with more alarming news: A woman’s been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There’s a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of twenty years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, and so, wrapping his coat a little tighter, Virgil begins to dig into twenty years’ worth of traumas, feuds, and bad blood. In the process, one thing becomes increasingly clear to him. It’s true what they say: High school is murder.
Virgil Flowers faces double trouble in this exceptional thriller in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series
Whenever you hear the sky rumble, that usually means a storm. In Virgil Flowers’ case, make that two.
The first comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large Siberian tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are very concerned that they’ve been stolen for their organs. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes their parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get—and keep—what they need. As Detective Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension is about to find out.
Then there’s the homefront. Virgil’s relationship with his girlfriend Frankie has been getting kind of serious, but when Frankie’s sister, Sparkle, moves in for the summer, things get a lot more complicated. Sparkle has a roving eye, and it’s fixed right on Virgil.
In southeast Minnesota, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed to only a few—for personal issues. The remaining members vote on the fate of a local reporter. And it’s unanimous…
Kill him.
Meanwhile, Virgil Flowers is investigating a dognapping crime wave in a Mississippi River town when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A corpse has been found, and the victim is local reporter Clancy Conley. Virgil has no idea where this is all headed. All he knows for sure is that things are getting nasty in Buchanan County.
An ancient relic is unearthed during an archaeological dig. A Minnesota college professor is keeping a secret that could change the world’s history as we know it. For Virgil Flowers, the link between the two is inescapable—and his investigation, more dangerous and far-reaching than he can possibly imagine.
They were average kids looking for something to do.
Today they started killing people.
A modern-day Bonnie and Clyde are on the run through rural Minnesota—victim by victim they’re having the time of their lives. But when Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the hunt for the thrill-hungry kids, things take a shocking detour.
The fifth Virgil Flowers novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford
A billion-dollar superstore has its sights set on a small Minnesota river town for its next outlet. Two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants, fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests are ignored, until a bomb goes off at the megastore’s Michigan headquarters—the first of a series of explosions.The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage and utmost fear. They do. Virgil Flowers has been enlisted to find out who’s behind the dangerous acts, but the answer he uncovers may be the biggest shock of all.
The fourth thrilling novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series.
Two bodies in two days. One is murder. The other is suicide. Virgil Flowers never imagined that discovering the connection would lead him into the perverse history of the Minnesota farm community, and almost unimaginable darkness.
The murder of a successful advertising executive leads Detective Virgil Flowers to the unlikely scene of the crime: a peaceful and bucolic wooded resort with as many suspects as it has secrets…
While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, Virgil Flowers receives a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a brutal murder at a nearby resort for women only. As Virgil begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented and popular country singer. The more Virgil digs, the more he discovers the arrows of suspicion point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, and fear.
Then Virgil discovers something that sends his investigation reeling. This is not the first murder connected to the Eagle Nest Lodge. Nor will it be the last…
Virgil Flowers hunts a killer responsible for a strange string of murders in this thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.
On a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A body has been found near a veterans’ memorial in Stillwater with two shots to the head and a lemon in his mouth—exactly like the body they found two weeks ago.
Working the murders, Flowers becomes convinced that someone is keeping a list—with many more names on it. And when he discovers what connects them all, he’s almost sorry. Because if it’s true, then this whole thing leads down a lot more trails than he thought it did—and every one of them is booby-trapped.
The first Virgil Flowers novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.
“Virgil Flowers, introduced in bestseller Sandford’s Prey series, gets a chance to shine…The thrice-divorced, affable member of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), who reports to Prey series hero Lucas Davenport, operates pretty much on his own..”*
He’s been doing the hard stuff for three years, but he’s never seen anything like this. In the small rural town of Bluestem, an old man is bound in his basement, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Three weeks before, a doctor and his wife were murdered. Three homicides in Bluestem in just as many weeks is unheard of. It’s also no coincidence. And it’s far from over…
