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Deadline
Deadline
Virgil Flowers Series, Book 8
The thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times–bestselling series.
In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. "Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. The vote is four to one in favor.
Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier—a team of dognappers supplying medical labs—when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found—and the victim is a local reporter. . . .
In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. "Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. The vote is four to one in favor.
Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier—a team of dognappers supplying medical labs—when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found—and the victim is a local reporter. . . .
The thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times–bestselling series.
In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. "Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. The vote is four to one in favor.
Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier—a team of dognappers supplying medical labs—when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found—and the victim is a local reporter. . . .
In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. "Issues" is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. The vote is four to one in favor.
Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier—a team of dognappers supplying medical labs—when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found—and the victim is a local reporter. . . .
Reviews-
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Starred review from August 11, 2014
In Thriller Award–winner Sandford’s stellar eighth Virgil Flowers novel (after 2013’s Storm Front), the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent, who works for Lucas Davenport, the hero of the author’s other major series, helps friend Johnson Johnson with a little problem that keeps growing in the Mississippi River town of Trippton. Johnson’s neighbors are concerned about a series of dognappings by hillbillies who live up by inaccessible Orly’s Creek. Roy Zorn, a “small-time motorcycle hood,” might also be manufacturing some meth up that way. If Virgil can’t solve the dog problem, dog lovers may shift to open warfare. Meanwhile, the members of the Buchanan County Consolidated School Board, fearing they’ll all go to prison, vote unanimously to kill reporter Clancy Conley, who “inadvertently discovered that the school board was stealing the school system blind.” Virgil doesn’t get much help from Sheriff Jeff Purdy, but 12-year-old McKinley Ruff and high school janitor Will Bacon provide critical assistance as panicky board members escalate the violence. Sandford is an accomplished and amusing storyteller, and he nails both the rural characters and terrain as well as he has skewered urban life in past installments. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. -
Eric Conger's voice is perfect for Virgil Flowers, the Bureau of Crime Apprehension agent who goes from one crime to another in rural Minnesota. Conger's raspy baritone is evocative of the crimes that are at the heart of this police procedural as Flowers attempts to secure justice for his friends, whose dogs have gone missing. There's a lot of dialogue, and listeners may struggle to keep the various speakers clear as Conger give the male characters little differentiation. Multiple gruff voices make it challenging to keep up with who is saying what in a complicated chain of events. M.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
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Praise for Deadline
"Another brainy thriller from a prolific author, 'Deadline' fulfills readers' expectations of Sandford's fiction: tense, smart and character-driven." — Richmond Times Dispatch
... Praise for Deadline
"Another brainy thriller from a prolific author, 'Deadline' fulfills readers' expectations of Sandford's fiction: tense, smart and character-driven." — Richmond Times Dispatch
"Rich characters [and] the descriptions of small-town life, politics and corruption and the concurrent trails of action make for a fast and entertaining read."—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Sandford's best Flowers book to date. . . . There is a lot of drama and mayhem in this story and readers of traditional Sandford books will be satisfied for sure. Still if you like a little humor in your plots, this book will more than sate that desire. This book is the most fun I have had reading in a long time."—Huffington Post
"There's a lot going on in Deadline . . . The biggest joys of this series are Flowers himself (his boss is Lucas Davenport from the Sandford's Prey novels), the cast of eccentric supporting characters and the humorous dialogue."—Shelf Awareness
"Sandford keeps one last surprise up his sleeve for the denouement of the dognapping case, and it's a doozy. Exhilaratingly professional work by both Virgil and his creator that breaks no new ground but will keep the fans happy and add to their number."—Kirkus Reviews
"Stellar . . . Sandford is an accomplished and amusing storyteller, and he nails both the rural characters and terrain as well as he has skewered urban life in past installments."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Sanford balances straight-talking Virgil Flowers' often hilariously folksy tone and Trippton's dark core of methamphetamine manufacturers and sociopaths; the result is pure reading pleasure for thriller fans."—Booklist
Praise for Storm Front
"John Sandford has the Midas touch. [Storm Front is] exciting, complex and funny all the way through. Virgil is a unique character [and] the beauty of Sandford's writing is that the narrative of the book is told in perfect harmony with Flowers' personality . . . Entertaining reading all the way." —The Huffington Post
From the Hardcover edition.
