Holy Ghost by John Sandford
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of 700 souls, for which the word moribund might have been invented. Nothing ever happened there, and nothing ever would – until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: “I’ll Do What I Can”) and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. They’d heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They’d all get rich! What could go wrong?

When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that’s only the beginning of their troubles – and Virgil Flowers’ – as they are all about to discover all too soon.

Agent Virgil Flowers is sent to Wheatfield, Minnesota to investigate two shootings. After an apparition of the Virgin Mary appears at the tiny town’s church, pilgrims and other tourists flock to the small township. Though neither shooting is severe, the local police are baffled and the Mayor is determined to have the situation resolve – hopefully with no further harm coming to the many people flocking to the small town. Can Virgin uncover what’s really going on?

I’ve been reading both the Lucas Davenport series and the Virgil Flowers series for many years and I find them both amazingly written. I do admit the Flowers mysteries usually have a keener sense of humour – and often a little bit of absurdity – in them and I was pleased that while both aspects were still thoroughly present, this book isn’t quite as outrageous (or unbelievable) as some of the other Flowers books I’ve read. Readers who have read almost anything previous in either series should have a good idea of what to expect in tone and style of this book. Better still, this book really stands quite well on its own. Readers who are new to John Sandford should be able to easily pick this story up and thoroughly enjoy it.

I enjoyed the plot. As I’ve said this is quite a lighter, more humorous story, but I strongly feel it’s still an excellently written murder mystery. There’s quite a layered plot underneath the “small town gone viral” style of plot and I really enjoyed the strong cast of primary characters. Sandford always does an excellent job of making characters both relatable and interesting.

Readers looking for a high-action or faster paced plot might not find this fits the bill. While there is a good pace to the plot it’s at heart a small town and the characters aren’t magic – so police procedure and ticking the boxes needs to happen. I do feel Sandford makes this journey enjoyable and somewhat hilarious, but this isn’t a high octane adventure thriller. This is absolutely a small town mystery book.

An excellent addition to the Flowers series this book was a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Recommended.

Twisted Prey by John Sandford
Publisher: G.P. Putnum’s Sons
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Lucas Davenport had crossed paths with her before.

A rich psychopath, Taryn Grant had run successfully for the U.S. Senate, where Lucas had predicted she’d fit right in. He was also convinced that she’d been responsible for three murders, though he’d never been able to prove it. Once a psychopath had gotten that kind of rush, though, he or she often needed another fix, so he figured he might be seeing her again.

He was right. A federal marshal now, with a very wide scope of investigation, he’s heard rumors that Grant has found her seat on the Senate intelligence committee, and the contacts she’s made from it, to be very…useful. Pinning those rumors down was likely to be just as difficult as before, and considerably more dangerous.

But they had unfinished business, he and Grant. One way or the other, he was going to see it through to the end.

When Senator Smalls is violently run off the road and his companion is killed he immediately knows who is behind the so-called “accident”. With virtually no proof to what he witnessed and reported, he makes a phone call to the only person he feels will both believe him and be able to help. Marshall Lucas Davenport. Both Smalls and Davenport have delt with this villain before – Senator Tanya Grant. And this time neither of them will underestimate her intelligence, nor her desire to end up in the White House.

It’s been nearly twenty years that I have been reading John Sandford’s books and yet I still feel a thrill of enjoyment when I read a Lucas Davenport story for the first time. This book was no exception. If you haven’t enjoyed this series before I can give it my highest recommendation. Obviously for such a long running series there is a whole bunch of history between the characters, but mostly that shouldn’t impede a new reader picking up any book and having a thoroughly good read.

That said, this book really does pick up a few leftover threads from a book a few previously (Certain Prey) and from the very beginning of the book the readers are shown who the villains are. To be clear – this is not a who dun it style of murder mystery book. Similar to quite a few other books in this series the focus really is more on both unknotting the complicated plot and hunting down the bad guys and getting them caught/imprisoned. The “who” aspect of it is not really part of the mystery. Don’t be swayed by that though, there is still plenty to uncover and plenty of action while that’s happening.

Readers who like a faster paced mystery should really enjoy both this book and this series. There’s often a few fights, chases and quite a decent clip to the pace of the mystery unraveling. This is quite different to a lot of police procedural style books where it isn’t a slow and steady investigation uncovering each step. Something that I always love in Sandford’s books as well is there’s frequent “laugh out loud” moments where reality or coincidence or just something really hilarious occurs and its not uncommon for me to laugh in the middle of some really important scene. The Davenport books don’t have as much of this as the Virgil Flowers books do – but that sense of humour is still present in these books and I love that.

A fast paced and well woven mystery, I love this series and even after twenty years still will automatically buy the next book when it comes out. This is a brilliant author and series and I can highly recommend this book and his works as a whole.