Heat Lightning (Virgil Flowers Series #2) by John Sandford

From Barnes & Noble

When the telephone rang, Virgil Flowers was lying in bed, sharing the company of ex-wife number two. Other preoccupations notwithstanding, Virgil could not resist a call about a homicide that bore the mocking tags of a publicity-seeking serial killer. Working on this nightmarish case, the Minnesota Bureau investigator begins to realize that the Twin Cities murderer is working from a long list of targets, and the cops have little hope of catching up. Only he can stop the bloody skein.

From the Publisher

A killer is leaving a puzzling calling card in the mouths of his victims. And in the middle of a steamy Minnesota summer, Virgil Flowers of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension finds himself embroiled in an investigation with no easy answers-and no easy way out.

Publishers Weekly

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). (Sept.)

Karen Kleckner - Library Journal

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 killings-the 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, LJ5/1/08.]

Kirkus Reviews

Sandford, who seems determined to keep Lucas Davenport's latest cases secret, allows him to be upstaged once more by his junior colleague Virgil Flowers, though this time there's no great honor in star billing. The Stillwater police call Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to the veterans' memorial where the body of building inspector Bobby Sanderson has been deposited. He was shot twice with a .22 and found with a section of lemon in his mouth-all details that echo the recent death of title searcher Chuck Utecht in New Ulm. The two murders are clearly the work of the same killer, but who is he, and why has he taken such ritualistic care to incriminate himself by emphasizing the similarities between two crimes that ordinarily wouldn't have been connected? More to the point, are these two crimes only the beginning? For readers new to this sort of fiction, Sandford helpfully provides brief conversations indicating that Chippewa Indian Ray Bunton and ex-cop John Wigge, a VP at a private security agency, had better watch their backs as well. Prompted by Lucas and driven night after sleepless night to assemble the facts, Virgil (Dark of the Moon, 2007, etc.) learns at length that all the targets on the kill list served together in Vietnam, where they shared a secret worth killing for nearly 40 years later. The suspects include Ralph Warren, Wigge's sinister boss at that security firm; Professor Mead Sinclair, a lefty researcher on the Vietnam War who just might be in bed with the CIA; his half-Vietnamese daughter Mai, who makes her extracurricular interest in Virgil plain from the get-go. Although the prose sounds like Sandford, the plotting is a letdown: The trail to the lastact is rich in incident, but not original, urgent or compelling. On the other hand, the very last surprise, climaxing a turf war between the BCA and the Department of Homeland Security, is a honey.

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