"Bloody Brilliant" Is A Solid Enough Sandford Mystery

 

John Sandford is known for his thrillers and mysteries, and has been writing the same characters since “Rules of Prey” in 1989, introducing his best known character, Lucas Devenport. In his universe of detective running around Minnesota, however in 2007, he gave a series to a supporting character who sometimes worked with Devenport to solve his cases, Virgil Flowers. These have also spawned a successful series of mystery novels. In his 12^th novel featuring Flowers, “Bloody Brilliant”, Flowers is called to investigate the murder of a professor and surgeon at the University of Minnesota named Barthelemy Quill. The novel opens in the usual Sandford style. Quill is being imitate with a woman in the University library after hours, when a mysterious figure hits him on the head with a heavy laptop, causing his death.

Flowers finds that Quill had made many enemies during his life as a professor and surgeon at the University. A wealthy man, he has several ex wives, a college aged daughter he hardly speaks to, and a professor from the Department of Cultural Science he was caught on camera arguing with during a lecture. Flowers, along with some other local detectives, interviews a bunch of these suspects. Like your usual Sandford novel, the novel focuses mostly on interviewing people and Flowers running around Sandford’s usual setting of Minnesota.

One of the things that Sandford does well is set up many leads. At different points in the novel, Flowers suspects that Quill’s computer had a file that was stolen by a corporate spy, and at another point in the novel, he suspects it has to do with a messy operation at the University hospital that had to do with a man who has a spaniel injury. All of these are solid leads, and then add on top a angsty college aged daughter, an prostitute Quill was sleeping with, drugs found in his house and the generally prickly politically correct environment of academia that Quill didn’t like very much, and you have a lot going on.

Sandford uses the fictional Department of Cultural Science to poke fun at politically correct culture on college campuses. The professor that Quill fought with during her lecture is a woman who sees everything as male privilege. When Flowers clearly just wants information for the case, she keeps suggesting studies she could use to look into a culture problem. All in all, she’s pretentious. She, though, does come off hypocritical as some points, when one of her older grad students says he felt she was flirting with him, despite being close in age.

Sandford doesn’t spend too much time on Flower’s personal life, though the little glimpses of it are nice. Flowers dotes on his now pregnant girlfriend, is considering writing a novel to add to his side career freelance writing magazine articles and even has a barbecue with his friend, Lucas Devenport, his wife and kids. All of this is pleasant enough, and connects the universe of detectives Sandford has created.

The copy I had of this novel lists it as a “Virgil Flowers Thriller” on the cover, but this one came off more as a old fashioned mystery novel. There’s not a ton of action in this one, as most of it is just Flowers interviewing possible suspects and trying to put together the pieces. The real action doesn’t happen until the last few chapters with a big car chase.

The usual things that happen in a Sandford novel happen like Flowers meeting sketchy characters, and other cops and detectives who all pretty colorful types. Sandford, to me, is a writer like James Patterson, Lee Child and Robert B. Parker. However I should add John Sandford is better at the twists and turns than James Patterson is, who tends to throw a twist into his novels without a proper set up.