Yes, I read another Virgil Flowers novel. I’m somewhat
hooked on John Sandford novels. They are gritty, and fast paced and better
written than James Patterson’s mysteries. “Bad Blood” came out in 2010 and the
book went some places I didn’t see coming. The jacket just states simply that
Virgil uncovers a family history that is shocking, but he ends up in the sketchy
backdrop of a crazy religious sect rapt with child abuse. This novel is a nasty
one. This book starts with a murder. A teenager is helping a farmer in an
afterschool job, and next thing you knows, he crushes his skull in, killing
him. Yet again, it’s up to Flowers to go the small Minnesota town with plenty
of secrets. This time the town is Homestead, and as the book said, this one is
a big case he can tell early on and he might be there awhile. It’s up to Virgil
Flowers to solve the case, and this time, the book has something I complained
about the last book lacking which is a bit of romance and a personal side. He
quickly starts sleeping with the divorced, attractive female sheriff of the
town named Lee Croaky. I guess Lee can be a girl’s name too. Even when he meets
her, he sees what Sanford describes as a glint in her eye, and determines she’s
divorced. Err, good detective work Flowers, I guess? I liked the relationship
he had with the sheriff for many reasons. She too is smart, not super young and
still sexy without being dumb.
Anyway,
the teen is named Jacob Flood, and the case just gets worst as Flood kills
himself in prison. Well, things get even worst as Flowers discovers he was gay.
He doesn’t hate gay people, but a small town in Minnesota, that could be more
complicated. Virgil deducts he might have had a relationship with a grown man
named Jim Crocker, who is divorced from a woman. When he goes to question him,
he discovers he had killed himself. Then he discovers years ago a teen girl
working at the Dairy Queen was murdered. She was friends with Flood. Things get
more and more connected, but how? Virgil wonders. Well, it ends up they are all
members of a local church which is more like a cult than a mainstream religion
even it too draws from the Bible. Sandford makes it well known later in the
book he isn’t anti religion per say, as Flowers believes in God, his dad was a
minister, and he visits a very nice minister at the local Lutheran church.
Well,
that’s where this book gets nasty. The church appears to be a cover for a child
abuse ring which might even go back hundreds of years. Sandford novels can be
gritty at times, and this is no exception. Some of the evidence they find is
graphic with child abuse. Sandford doesn’t really skirt on that, nor should he.
This is a crime novel. The church is weird, and so are the people in it who
constantly reject the world of law for the world of the Bible. It’s not that unusual
for religion fanatics. The only real problem I had with this book is the last
couple chapters including a very weird scene where the women and girls of the
church decide to try to make up their own court type of scene. Virgil is trying
to get them to go through normal police protocol, but they want to do the
punishing themselves. In some ways, that makes sense. Fringe religious people
can be distrusting of the normal world, yet it also doesn’t make sense because
they want to escape. Virgil even needs to track down a woman who ran away from
the church and was never seen in town again.
I guess
I’m a bit hooked on these page turners of John Sandford. While it’s not the
greatest literature ever, it isn’t half bad. Even Stephen King gives these
books good blurbs. His books aren’t total throw away novels like a James
Patterson novel. You can tell there is some effort put into the novel with
their twists, turns and likable heroes. However, I wouldn’t suggest these books
for the weak of heart. Sandford doesn’t skim on some of the nasty details, and
due to the child abuse evidence, this was the nastiest of the Sandford novels I
have read yet.
However,
I suggest his books for people who really love mysteries and crime. Chances
are, I’ll read another book by him in the future. This book did make me think a
bit more than his last one. This one made me think about how people can use religion
and rejection of modern society to control people and abuse those who can’t
fight back. I’m not sure if that was Sandford’s intention or he simply wanted
to write another good page turner. I think he probably wanted to write another
good page turner, but that’s the way it goes with these kinds of books. I like
Virgil Flowers, and he seem like a good guy to get a beer with. The best thing
about this book was seeing a bit more of a personal side to him, as Sandford
novels can sometimes be too focused on the mystery side.
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