deadline

deadline
virgil flowers #8
john sandford
fiction/mystery/suspense
putnam adult
published 2014

In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end.  The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues.  "Issues" is correct.  The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter.  The vote is four to one in favor.  Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier - a team of dognappers supplying medical labs - when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport.  A murdered body has been found - and the victim is a local reporter.

Now I'm not saying that Deadline is going to keep you at the edge of your seat.  Or that you'll be stunned by the ingenious ways of the bad guys.  There is just something about Virgil that keeps me highly entertained.  He's funny for one, but most of all, the stories seem so real.  The characters are not caricatures of people, they are almost real life people.  Flawed, sometimes ditzy, sometimes cunning, simple, complex, nice, greedy, and real.  The conversations Virgil has with people is almost mundane, but somehow it's fascinating.

And really, let's be honest, Jenkins and Shrake should really have their own series by now.