Dark of the Moon

This is the first Virgil Flowers novel and it is a good one. It has a good plot and interesting characters. If you like Sandford's work, this is worth the read.

The first novel in the Virgil Flowers series, author Sandford has created a spinoff from the Lucas Davenport-Prey series. An enjoyable and suspenseful investigative story with intelligent characters spanning all the typical small town folks such as former sheriff, undertaker, businessmen, newspaper guy, farmer (she) etc. Sandford is a master at creating multiple characters that could have murder motives keeping the reader on his/her toes. Always an adventure with Sandford stories, never a moment when you are feeling things have slowed down. In fact, I found myself having a hard time processing clues faster than they were flying at me!Now, about the story...Virgil Flowers is a different guy. He's hired by Lucas Davenport at the BCA, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, to take on some of the more challenging cases. As I said, Flowers is different. He is sensitive to the hurt and additional killings that sometimes occur in the course of an investigation. Charming in his own tough way, he seems to get noticed by women whether he is in the middle of an investigation or during idle time. An avid outdoorsman, he has a budding side career as a writer for a hunting and fishing magazine. He frequently tows his boat with him on cases and he usually leaves his gun under the seat of his truck. He seems to know when the person he is interrogating is lying and he's adept at piecing complex, seemingly disjointed clues together in his pursuit of the truth. All that at Mach 1 speed. What you might not like about him is his outwardly and verbal appreciation of womens' body shapes. If that offends you, it will likely color the book, so pass this one by.So Virgil is dispatched to a small town in southeastern Minnesota, near Worthington, to investigate an elderly couple's murder. He arrives to find there is a second murder to investigate (the most hated person in Bluestem) and subsequently another. It always amazes me when the sick minds of murderers find the most distasteful ways to display their work. You will have to read this to find out more.

This is only my second John Standford book and I must say this writing is engaging. I like the character's in this book and the relationships were great. Virgil is quite the lawman or should I say ladies man. I liked that Davenport from another of Sanfords series was a part of this story. The plot was interesting , I was thinking this was a who done it but it is just a good old fashioned cop story. I look forward to reading more from this series.

Great Detective fiction, All American in every way. Really enjoyed it. Thank heavens, no DEI or PC stuff like more recent novels.

Haven't read Sandford for a very long time, and it was nice to come back! I was mostly a Davenport fan, but I fine that I LIKE Virgil. Lots of suspects and action.

I had read all the other Virgil Flowers book except this one (and all the Prey books), so I was prepared to like it - and I did. I didn't notice (until I read other reviews) that it was co-authored.Several reviewers have noted some problems with the book - most notably, the lack of explanation about why the killer shot out the eyes of his victims and posed them facing east, and a reference to how the killer's adoptiveparents had died. I found another rather glaring mistake - read it several timesbecause I couldn't believe something could be so wrong and make it through editing.One of the characters, Russell Schmidt, is about to be murdered. He sees headlights in his bedroom, there's a knock on the door, and as he goes downthe stairs he's hoping it's not a deputy with bad news about his son in Minneapolis or his daughters in Alberta Lea and Santa Fe.Two or three pages later, Virgil is viewing the body and asks if the family is there yet. The reply is ".... They never had any children." Talk about poor editing.That being said, I really enjoyed the book, with all its faults, maybe because I had already come to know and like "that f-----g Flowers". I might have had a different reaction if this were the first Virgil Flowers book I had read instead of the last.

It is classic Sandford with complex characters and plot twists. Virgil Flowers develops into an intriguing character and I have the feeling that Davenport hooked himself into another series.

I accidently stumbled upon John Sanford's 'Prey' series last year and proceeded to devour the 25 books one after the other and this spin-off series does not disappoint. They are somewhat similar to James Patterson's Alex Cross books but I kind of fell out of those as I was getting tired of the same old formula- Sanford's books however are just more well thought out and intricate and the characters so well developed you can't help but to care about them- and though you needn't have read the 'Prey' series to enjoy this spin-off series, I would suggest doing so just because of that character development. Though Virgil Flowers is a somewhat minor character in the 'Prey' series, you'll have a much better understanding of where he came from and what kind of person and detective he is. I won't give anything away, but overall 'Dark of the Moon' is a great read- well thought out and written with many well fleshed out characters and story lines that keep you thinking and interested, and if we're lucky enough to get another 20+ books from this series then I will certainly read them all. I hope you've found this review helpful! Happy reading!

Relaxation reading

pleasure

Bon auteur.

ok

I liked the characters and think they can grow into some endearing personalities. There is some work to be done in the series to make them into real hero’s, but I’m willing to give it some time.A good storyline, but could have been made even better.I’m looking forward to reading more books in the series.