This review originally appeared on my blog at www.gimmethatbook.com.

There is nothing better than a new Virgil Flowers mystery. This one has Flowers investigating a dognapping ring, when he is asked by Lucas Davenport (of the “Prey” novels) to look into the murder of a reporter. As Virgil gets deeper into the case, local school board members start dying. It turns out that certain board members had planned the reporter’s death–but are they now killing each other?

The plot in this installment is not complicated, but it’s full of that great Sandford wry humor that has become the hallmark of the Flowers series. There is a down-home, redneck quality to this one that I thought was funnier than most. Virgil’s friend Johnson Johnson (his father named all his sons after outboard motors, and Mercury, Johnson’s brother, got the better end of THAT deal) calls him to help figure out where all the town’s dogs are going. We encounter a cast of characters and situations that personify what would happen if Deliverance was mixed with the business world: gun nuts, meth heads, embezzlement, backstabbing, and politics. Even though we know who the bad guys are right from the start, the book will hold your interest as the plot advances.

Flowers is helped out by Johnson, of course, who is by far the most colorful of the characters. He’s willing to shoot his gun off at the slightest provocation, and so is young Muddy, a not-quite-teenager who pops up out of the background to give Virgil some hints on where those missing dogs may be. The dognapping side plot is a lighthearted addition to the murder investigation, and gives Sandford a chance to show off those quirky Minnesota rednecks. Some great conversation is had between Virgil and Johnson:

Virgil went carefully back to his truck, climbed inside, and found Johnson with a high capacity Para-Ordnance .45 in his lap.

“Jesus, Johnson, what were you gonna do with that?”

“I saw somebody at the window,” Johnson said. “If they shot you, I was gonna hose the place down.”

Virgil thought about that for a moment, then said, “All right.” He looked up at the porch. Zorn had gone back inside, but Virgil could see him hovering behind the screen. “That’s a bad man, right there,” Virgil said. “Doesn’t even bother to trim his nose hair.”

“That is a bad man,” Johnson said.

The writing from chapter 28 onwards is one of the funniest and well written scenes I’ve ever read. There is a mob, dogs running loose, crazed female anti vivisectionists (called Auntie Vivians), gunshots, wrecked trucks, and plenty of other action. Sandford has raised his own bar with DEADLINE and gotten better, hard as that is to believe. Virgil Flowers is one of my favorite fictional characters, and it feels as though Sandford had a rollicking great time with this one. It’s a great stand alone book, and possibly the best one so far. I hope there are many more in store. ( )

Another fun read about one of my favorite characters, Virgil Flowers, and his redneck friends - or more accurately, his redneck criminal cases.

This one starts out with a lovely character, D. Wayne Sharf, who among his other endeavors, is out stealing dogs - and he's no dog lover. He doesn't seem to be an animal lover. In fact, he doesn't seem to love anyone other than himself. The story intersects one of his other hobbies, cooking meth, but that's more of a side story. In fact, both of these crimes are side stories to the main crime, which is the local school board (all of them) stealing money from the school. Unfortunately, these people are a bit over the top about avoiding capture, and that's where the story gets interesting. Some nosy local newspaper reporter/drunk/druggie has started asking too many questions, and the board calls a private meeting after the public one.

The dognapping case is a strange one. People sometimes hear dogs barking in the early morning up in the hills, then it stops and there's no sign of dogs when they investigate, just an empty caged area. Also, no sign of people moving the dogs. While investigating, they discover the evidence of meth cooking, which adds some danger to the dog napping case. If they come upon meth cookers, there's no telling what might happen. but none of this is as dangerous as a bunch of school board members.

There were a few new interesting characters in the story that I wish we'd see more of. The first one was introduced while Virgil was poking around in the hills looking for dog nappers, named Muddy Ruff. He was a young kid with a .22 rifle, about 12 years old, and knew a lot about the area's topography and people. And he was a good shot with his rifle. He was Virgil's guide for sneaking around, which he excelled at. He also seemed to be part dog, as he could sniff things out like one.

The other interesting character was an old woman who happened to have the school budget that Virgil wanted checked out from the library. Virgil found out about her from someone at the library:

“Janice is a little nuts, so go easy with her.”
“How nuts? Does she carry a gun?”
“No, no gun. A gun isn’t nuts, that’s just Monday in Trippton. Anyway, Janice thinks the school spends too much money on math, science, and sports, and not enough on the arts.”
“That’s outrageous,” Virgil said.
“Like I said, take it easy with her.”

So, he went to see her, an old lady with a cane. She was a little reluctant to let him in, but after a bit, came back and invited him in.

“You found somebody to vouch for me?”
“The sheriff. He said you looked like a hippie who’s lost the faith, or a cowboy who’s lost his horse. That fits.”
“Remind me to shoot the sheriff,” Virgil said, as he stepped inside.

She knew it was from an Eric Clapton song, and Bob Marley before that.

I took a liking to her after Virgil asked her if she was alright, and this exchange took place:

“Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not. I cracked my hip a few months ago and it hasn’t quite healed,” she said.
“Sorry to hear that,” Virgil said, as she limped toward the kitchen. “How’d you do it?”
“I was skateboarding on the levee and lost my edges,” she said.
“You were skateboarding?”
She turned and looked at him and shook her head in exasperation: “No, you dummy, I fell. On the ice. On the sidewalk. Like old people do.”
Virgil: “Oh.”
She shook her head again. “Jesus wept.”

She was a great help with interpreting the budget figures, too. Fortunately, he didn't even need to coerce her, as she seemed happy to help. Not like one of his other possible witnesses who was actually involved, where he needed to threaten him a bit, like with this exchange:

Virgil said, “I’ll give you the number, Buster, but this coupon has an expiration date. If you talk to me five minutes too late, you’re going to the joint. The pen. The big house. The Minnesota Correctional Facility at Stillwater. You get up there, a nice-looking guy like you . . . Well, you know that old country saying, ‘Butter my butt and call me a biscuit’? Well, they’ll be buttering your butt, but not because they think you’re a biscuit.”

All in all, a fun read. Except maybe for the dog cruelty. ( )

Virgil gets all the good lines. Love this series ( )

Virgil Flowers is asked by his buddy Johnson Johnson to help local dog owners catch someone stealing their dogs. Virgil quickly becomes embroiled in breaking up a meth manufacturing operation hidden in the hills and a series of murders related to covering up massive fraud and misappropriation by the local school board. Virgil's friendliness, homey style and determination are his strong points, but his process of sharing his developing theories with non-police personnel seems unlawful and dangerous. I liked some of the pick-up bumper stickers at the local bar in Minnesota: "Got Hollowpoints?" and "Point and click means you are out of ammo." ( )

The school board from Hell. ( )