Deadline by John Sandford

Deadline by John Sandford

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Better than the previous outing in the Virgil Flowers series. Funnier and more believable.

Virgil is trying to get an assistant DA onside, and the DA says: "If we go to court, we like to have things pretty well wrapped up." Virgil replies "Dave, I've been doing this for quite a while. You don't want them wrapped up, you want a gold-plated guarantee, because otherwise you're afraid you'll screw up your conviction stats."

Plus ça change... In Canada, it's completely different, but the results are the same... US DAs might prosecute a losing case because it's politically necessary, but here the Crown attorney has no need to bolster conviction stats because they're not elected, but they still refuse to prosecute if they think they won't win.

Sandfor has a way with a simile. ‘The woman with a minimal flesh wound “screamed, "I'm dying, I'm dying, where's the goddamn ambulance." She sounded like a blackboard being run through a table saw.”’

Storm Front by John Sandford

Storm Front (A Virgil Flowers Novel) by John Sandford

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Somehow Sandford has transitioned from writing "crime capers" to pure "capers". I found this book more funny than believable, but the laughter was enough.

Ya just gotta love that fuckin' Flowers.

Incidentally, the archaeological find that underlies this whole story doesn't actually reveal anything new: the connection between the Egyptian Siamun and the Jewish King Solomon has been made before.

I am, however, concerned with Sandford's apparent use of co-writers without credit. Michele Cook merely gets a mention in the dedication, but apparently wrote the first draft. C'mon, this is the same sort of thing that has turned "internships" into slavery. If she did the work, credit her as a co-writer!

It's also another example of the execrable work of the folks who write cover blurbs: "… an Israeli cop [is] tailing a man who’s smuggled out an extraordinary relic—a copper scroll revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon." WTF? It was a bowling-ball-sized stone!

Mad River by John Sandford

Mad River by John Sandford

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A little different from the usual Sandford: this is no mystery - we know whodunnit from page one.

And I was disappointed that Virgil was not once referred to as "That fuckin' Flowers", which is the way he is usually introduced.

Still, Sandford's characters are, as always, well drawn and funny, and there's nothing quite like spending a few short hours ripping through another episode in the lives of Virgil, Davenport and their colleagues.