Virgil Flowers Goes Back to School for Deadline (John Sandford)

Deadline (A Virgil Flowers Novel) - John Sandford

Virgil Flowers got the call, just as one might expect, in the wee hours of the morning. Never mind that to reach his phone he had to crawl over the warm, willing female flesh lying in bed next to him, there was  something more important afoot: a dognapper had snatched a pair of Labrador retrievers. Hey, I can relate – that’s damned important! Bright and early the next morning, Virgil found himself addressing a group of angry dog owners in the little Mississippi River town of Trippton. The locals were pretty sure who’d been snatching local dogs, but they needed help getting them back. Virgil reluctantly agreed to help – guess he’s not a dog person…

While investigating the missing pooches, Virgil and his local contact Johnson Johnson (brother of Mercury Johnson, though not of Evinrude Johnson) stumble over a meth-cooking operation. Great: now Virgil has an excuse to be in town! But wait, even while he waits for the DEA to raid the meth lab, a couple of kids stumble over the body of a local newspaper reporter. Something doesn’t add up, though – Virgil’s getting two entirely different stories about what was going on in Clancy Conley’s life, and that discrepancy is tickling his spidey sense. 

If something is rotten in Buchanan County that Fuckin’ Flowers just stepped in it – and with all the dogs in town snatched in the middle of the night, that’s definitely not what he stepped in…

Anna Pigeon Channels Ford, Butler and Willis to Become a "Destroyer Angel"

Destroyer Angel - Nevada Barr

Four years have mellowed Heath Jarrod, onetime ice climber turned paraplegic by a tragic fall. Some of that mellowing is definitely due to the influence of her adopted daughter, Elizabeth, whose presence in her life is a gift from Anna Pigeon. So it’s not unexpected that those two women and the fifteen-year-old would take a week for a long canoe trip off the grid in Minnesota. They’re joined by wealthy wunderkind engineer Leah Hendricks and her adolescent daughter, Katie. The first night in camp Anna heads for the river for some private time with her canoe, but when she returns, her companions are not alone: four men have invaded the campsite, and mayhem is on the menu. 

The four thugs are there to kidnap Leah and her daughter, intending to deliver them to an airstrip some ten miles away through the North Woods. The belief that Heath and Elizabeth can command a handsome ransom too means that they will come along; the trek complicated by the thugs’ lack of wilderness savvy and Heath’s condition… not to mention Anna. Informed that the fifth camper backed out at the last minute, the four men remain unaware that one small, middle-aged female Park Ranger is plotting their demise.