Reviews for Heat Lightning (Virgil Flowers Series #2)

The average rating for Heat Lightning (Virgil Flowers Series #2) based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-08-25 00:00:00 Mario Rossi This is the second entry in John Sandford's series featuring Virgil Flowers, an investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Virgil is an unconventional detective, who looks more like a surfer than a gifted investigator. He wears his blond hair down to his shoulders, dresses in tee shirts bearing the names of often-obscure rock bands, and rarely carries a gun. Virgil loves to fish, writes articles for outdoor magazines, and often tows his boat behind his pickup as he roams about the rural Minnesota countryside, chasing killers. He also loves women and is attracted to lots of them, many of whom return his interest. His principal method of investigating crimes involves walking around and talking to lots of people, and out of these conversations a solution usually occurs, often with deadly consequences. This case begins when a man walking his dog is killed by a sniper who is assisted by a spotter. The body is then left in front of a veterans' memorial in Stillwater, Minnesota, with a lemon stuck in the victim's mouth. Several other men are killed in the same fashion and left at other veterans' monuments around the state. Virgil discovers that the victims had connections back to the war in Vietnam, and that becomes the thread that he will follow through to the end of the chase. (This book was published in 2008, thirty-five years after the events in Vietnam, and the victims are middle-aged men.) Truth to tell, the plot is pretty far-fetched, but that doesn't really matter here. Most people read these books in order to spend a few hours in the company of "That F***in' Flowers," and it's always a joy to do so. Virgil's boss, Lucas Davenport, makes several cameo appearances here as to Shrake and Jenkins, two other members of Davenport's crew, and it's fun to see them all in action together. A very entertaining novel.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-11-14 00:00:00 William Abrams "When the going gets tough, try to unload it on that fuckin' Flowers." This philosophy is put into practice when several men are murdered and the bodies are left prominently displayed on various veteran's memorials with lemons in their mouths. With Minneapolis about to host the Republican National Convention it's a bad time for a bloody murder spree. Since Lucas Davenport is wrapped up with all the convention planning he puts his man Virgil Flowers on the case. Virgil finds connections that indicate the killings are linked to Vietnam veterans, but bodies keep dropping. I liked but didn't love the first three Virgil spin-offs from the Prey series when I originally read them, but this one gets a big boost from a reread of it. There was a lot more action than I remembered, and Virgil's laid back manner is severely tested in interesting ways by the increasing pressure to solve the crimes. I particularly liked how seeing Davenport in his role as Virgil's boss makes him seem like more of a bastard than usual. The ending brings about some unexpected twists, and there was a lot more of the tense action and sense of momentum that Sandford is so good at delivering. All in all this another remarkably solid thriller that adds a lot to the on-going adventures of Flowers.