We like road trips. We take a lot of them. Driving along highways. Through cities and farmland. While we drive we listen to audiobooks. We get these books through Audible, our local library and Chirp. Our first Virgil Flowers novel was from the library. That was June of 2020. We are fans of the author, John Sandford. And the book sounded interesting. Turns out, we loved it. We got another one and loved it, too. We became Virgil Flowers’ greatest fans.
Virgil
You see, Virgil is unconventional. He works for the Minnesota Department of Criminal Apprehension. He wears his blonde hair long. Always in a t-shirt, jeans and boots, Virgil likes music and fishing. His collection of t-shirts depicts popular rock bands. He’s been married and divorced 3 times.
Virgil is also honest and kind-hearted. The son of a minister, he talks to God most nights before going to sleep. He keeps his gun in a safe in his truck. Virgil’s friends and co-workers all agree that’s the best place for his gun. Virgil is a poor shot with a pistol. When things get dangerous, he calls down the muscle. Jenkins and Shrake.
Sidekicks and Cases
Jenkins and Shrake are mostly literate and dress in suits and ties. They are hard-drinking thugs that often take the night shift surveillance jobs. They like to tease Virgil whenever possible but they always have his back.
The crimes Virgil investigates are also unconventional. A shootout with Vietnamese spies made headlines. There’s the dog snatchers who sell the full blooded dogs to breeders and the mutts to labs. A mating pair of rare tigers are kidnapped for their body parts. Sold off for medicinal purposes. The cases are many and often more than one in each novel.
Characters
A quote from Holy Ghost:
“Wardell Holland, the mayor of Wheatfield, Minnesota, was sitting in the double-wide he was renting from his mother, a Daisy Match Grade pellet rifle in his hands, shooting flies.”
Each story is filled with rich characters and humorous scenarios. That’s why we looked forward to hopping in the car for a listen. Even if we were just going to the market. Unfortunately, we have listened to all 13 novels.
Now we must carry on without Virgil. So, in parting:
Dear John Sanford, Please write more Virgil Flowers books. Regards, Virgil's Greatest Fans
Until next month, enjoy.
Note: This blog is sponsored by me, Karen J Adams. Any recommendations or suggestions are purely my own opinion without the exchange of money.
Unpublished work © 2021 Karen J Adams
