Dark of the Moon is a new book by John Sandford, author of the great Lucas Davenport series. Sandford uses a co-author in this novel that features Virgil Flowers, a cop working with the Bureau of Criminal Aprehension where he is assigned the hardest cases. Flowers has been divorced a lot, is somewhat afraid of guns, and takes pride in wearing quirky t-shirts. The book opens as he is traveling south to investigate the murder of a harmless ederly couple when he drives upon a house being devoured by flames. The house was set on fire to cover up the murder of the ederly, feeble and hated Bill Judd. Virgil teams with Jim Stryker, an old buddy and the current sherriff, and they start investigating the crimes. A lot is going on in this novel. Stanford throws a lot at the reader.
Dark of the Moon reads just like a Lucas Davenport book. Incredible plotting, tons of characters in the small town, you get to know the town and the feeling that everyone DOES know everyone else. Virgil is a funny guy, all Sandford books have an underlying humor to them. You can tell Sandford is having fun when he writes.
Flowers hooks up with Stryker's sister Joan and has a good time with her, while at the same time wondering if Joan or Jim could be the killer. In fact, everyone Flowers encounters has a motive or a reason to be a killer. Sandford fans will love this book. It is fast pace and full of twists. Flowers' wit always keeps you entertained as well.
With a new Davenport book due in the spring, fans of the author won't have long to wait for another great book. Hopefully, Sandford can continue to write novels featuring Flowers as well. Dark of the Moon (A Virgil Flowers Novel)
First, this is not another installment in the "Prey" series that features Lucas Davenport, one of the most fully developed characters in modern fiction. Second, this may be only partially the product of John Sandford. The Acknowledgment states the novel "was written in cooperation wsith my friend Larry Millett . . ." Sounds like Sandford got more than just an idea or advance reading from Sandford. If indeed Sandford has taken on a co-author, he should have the decency to tell us so forthrightly.
Virgil Flowers, a secondary character in recent Prey novels goes solo in this one. He still works for the Minnesota BCA and Lucas Davenport is his boss. But we read very litle of Lucas here and the interchange between the characters is practically non-existent.
So Flowers, the perpetual I'll-do-it-my-way guy is in Bluestem Minnesota helping out his old buddy, Sheriff Jim Stryker, find a murderer who has burned an old man to death and killed another elderly couple, shooting out the eyes of the husband.
Everyone is a suspect. The son of the old man, who happens to be the area's most hated multi-millionaire; the local newspaper editor; the Sheriff's sister (whom Flowers beds without adding to the story); the illegitimate daughter of the dead millionaire who suddenly proclaims her presence and entitlement to a chunk of the expected inheritance; a born-again Christian who used to be a criminal and maybe still is; a father-son brace of deputies who might be murderers and few others. In all, there are about a dozen primary characters, each of whom may be the murderer. Flowers, working almost alone, has to figure out who the bad guy (or gal) is.
In all, it's a good, kind of old-fashioned "whodunit". It's definitely a change from the "Prey" series. The writing is excellent, but different than what I've come to expect from Sandford. The editing, on the other hand, sucks. A couple of times, you have to reread to figure out which character is speaking. In one instance, a couple is referred to as having children - a supposed fact that is contradicted later in the book.
As a character, Flowers lacks the believability of Lucas Davenport. But it took at least a couple of "Prey" novels before Davenport started shaping up and Flowers is definitely off to a good start.
The ending is a bit of a disppointment and because I don't like "spoilers", I'm not going to tell you why. It isn't much of a disappointment, but the close reader will see what I am talking about.
On the whole, this is a good mystery, different in many subtle ways from the "Prey" series. But if you had never read a "Prey" novel, you wouldn't know the differences. Virgil Flowers is off to a good start as a character and I hope the we'll see more of him as a solo character in the future. By the same token, if Sandford has taken to using a co-author, I hope he has the decency to tell us so and to give the co-author proper credit. And I hope as well that we'll continue to see Lucas Davenport in more "Prey" novels. Davenport is still, by far, the more interesting character.
Jerry
Virgil Flowers who is working for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is sent to Bluestem for some investigative work. Virgil's boss, Lucas Davenport the protagonist of Sandford's PREY series only gives Virgil "the hard stuff". Bluestem has some "hard stuff" going on. There's more than one secret, more than one scam, more than one strange character, and maybe more than one killer in the small town. It's hard to know who to trust when every one knows everyone's business.
The first third of the book was very compelling. I was instantly drawn into the story. I loved the character of Virgil Flowers. The storyline was suspenseful. I would give that part of the book 5 stars. After the storyline is set up and the characters are introduced the book runs into problems. The story just started dragging. There were not only too many subplots and tangents, there were way too many characters. A big problem for me, though I liked Flowers a lot, I absolutely did not care about any of the secondary characters. There was so little time in developing them how could you really care. By the last quarter of the book, I couldn't wait for it to end. It was a major disappointment. I do hope Sandford uses Virgil Flowers again as a main character, but next time I hope he tightens up the storyline, make a bit more plausible, use less characters, and make us care about more than one of them. - Kindle - Book Recommendations - Thriller - Suspense'
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