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Rough Country (Virgil Flowers #3)

4.03 of 5 stars 4.03 · rating details · 5,284 ratings · 450 reviews

It's a joy to announce that John Sandford is still doing everything right," wrote the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the second adventure of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers. "Virgil acts like the best series protagonists-becoming someone we just enjoy spending time with."

Virgil's always been known for having a somewhat active, er, socia...more

Hardcover, 388 pages

Published September 29th 2009 by Putnam Adult (first published 2009)

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Apr 21, 2010 Kemper rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-mystery, thriller, 5-0, virgil-flowers

"That f------g Flowers."

Virgil Flowers, the Minnesota state cop and spin-off character from Sandford's Lucas Davenport series, returns to solve another mystery and get a little fishing done.

A lesbian is murdered while kayaking on a lake at an upscale Minnesota restort that caters exclusively to women. With that political hot potato getting tossed from hand to hand, Virgil gets his vacation at a nearby fishing tournament interrupted by Davenport who puts him on the case. But there are plenty of...more "That f------g Flowers."

Virgil Flowers, the Minnesota state cop and spin-off character from Sandford's Lucas Davenport series, returns to solve another mystery and get a little fishing done.

A lesbian is murdered while kayaking on a lake at an upscale Minnesota restort that caters exclusively to women. With that political hot potato getting tossed from hand to hand, Virgil gets his vacation at a nearby fishing tournament interrupted by Davenport who puts him on the case. But there are plenty of suspects since the victim was getting ready to fire a large part of her work force, leave her long-time partner, and had hooked up with a local singer who already had plenty of jealous lovers. With so many directions to investigate, Virgil is soon running all over Minnesota, and the killer isn't done yet.

I like the character of Virgil a lot. A Minnesota state cop who wears vintage rock band tee-shirts, usually leaves his gun under the seat of his truck, writes wildlife articles for magazines, tows his boat while working a case, and who uses fishing as an almost zen meditation state to think about his investigation is offbeat and refreshing, but this is Virgil's third book as the main character and I haven't been blown away by any of them. Given a choice between a new Davenport or Kidd novel and a new Virgil Flowers book, I'm picking Davenport or Kidd every time. Maybe it's because Sandford has Flowers picking apart more classic whodunit style mysteries while Davenport usually has a manhunt type plot and Kidd has his rogue computer criminal schemes, and I prefer those type of stories.

Good but not great, and I hope that Flowers and Davenport continue to give each other grief for a while to come. I do have a story complaint about Virgil making a really stupid decision that leads to someone getting killed and not showing any guilt or self-recrimination about it at all. Sandford has always been willing to have his characters make mistakes, sometimes with tragic results, but this is the first time I remember them just shrugging it off.
(less)

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James Thane I didn't want to read your review until I'd written my own. It sounds as though I like the Flowers character a bit better than you do. I've also been...more
Dec 02, 2010 05:27pm

Kemper James wrote: "I didn't want to read your review until I'd written my own. It sounds as though I like the Flowers character a bit better than you do. I...more
updated Dec 02, 2010 06:18pm

Jan 19, 2012 Mark O'Neill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime, detective, fiction, minnesota, murder, thriller, usa

Another fictional outing for Sandford's other main character, Virgil Flowers, who is an investigator for Lucas Davenport. Flowers is on holiday and happily fishing when he gets a call from Davenport to tell him that there has been a murder at a ladies-only resort. A businesswoman has been shot in the head and Flowers soon discovers that there are no lack of possible suspects to choose from. Could it be the partner that she was soon about to dump? The employees she was soon about to fire? A love...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have this annoying tendency to start long-running mystery series in the middle. I'll pick a book randomly at the library because the plot synopsis on the back cover sounds interesting, only to start reading and discover that it's the ninth book in the series. Granted, most mysteries don't always require the reader to start with book #1, but there are often events that happen and characters that come and go that are referenced which, if you aren't familiar with them, may be somewhat confusing t...more I have this annoying tendency to start long-running mystery series in the middle. I'll pick a book randomly at the library because the plot synopsis on the back cover sounds interesting, only to start reading and discover that it's the ninth book in the series. Granted, most mysteries don't always require the reader to start with book #1, but there are often events that happen and characters that come and go that are referenced which, if you aren't familiar with them, may be somewhat confusing to figure out from context. Plus, it's fun to see the evolution of the protagonist, assuming there is any. John Sandford's "Rough Country" is, apparently, the third book in a series featuring detective Virgil Flowers. It's a very good mystery, for one, and Flowers is a pretty likable character (Owen Wilson would, in my opinion, be a good candidate to play him in a future Virgil Flowers movie), but there is a reference to an incident (and a pretty shocking one at that) from, I'm guessing, one of the previous books that is brought up numerous times. It's frustrating. It's like when you're at a party and people mention a guy named Louis, and everyone gets quiet and says stuff like "yeah, I heard, that's awful" or "poor guy", and you don't know Louis at all but are too afraid to ask what's wrong with him, and, most likely, everyone at the party won't tell you anyway. Okay, so it's not totally like that, but you get the idea. Anyway, I really liked "Rough Country" enough to want to read more in the series. There are apparently five now. Flowers works for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) in Minnesota. He basically acts as an on-call detective for Lucas Davenport, the detective in Sandford's other long-running series, when Davenport's case load gets a bit heavy. In this one, a wealthy advertising executive is found murdered at a lodge that caters to lesbians. What may have been a lesbian lover's quarrel may turn out to be something more sinister. "Rough Country" is an exciting mix of action, suspense, and off-beat humor, as Flowers is an unconventional detective, to say the least.(less)

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Nov 14, 2012 Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just wrapped up John Sandford’s third Virgil Flowers novel, Rough Country, and it did not disappoint. Virgil is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, with his hippie looks, quick wit, and vintage collection of rock t-shirts. An investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), Flowers finds himself up north at the Eagles Nest resort and up to his neck in lesbians and murder. His fishing tournament with buddy Johnson Johnson cut short, Virgil is called away to Stone Lake where...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Steve Dennie rated it 2 of 5 stars

“Rough Country” (2009) is the third book starring Virgil Flowers, a series John Sandford started in 2008. Sandford is best known for the Lucas Davenport “Prey” series (each title includes the word “prey”). He started that series in 1989, and has now pumped out 21 “Prey” books. But the Virgil Flowers books are better. Or, at least, Flowers is a much more interesting character than Davenport (for whom Flowers works, out of Minneapolis).

I read the first two Virgil Flowers books back-to-back in Janu...more “Rough Country” (2009) is the third book starring Virgil Flowers, a series John Sandford started in 2008. Sandford is best known for the Lucas Davenport “Prey” series (each title includes the word “prey”). He started that series in 1989, and has now pumped out 21 “Prey” books. But the Virgil Flowers books are better. Or, at least, Flowers is a much more interesting character than Davenport (for whom Flowers works, out of Minneapolis).

I read the first two Virgil Flowers books back-to-back in January 2010, and followed them with two of the Prey books. Plenty of the Flowers free-spirit personality comes out in “Rough Country,” all wrapped in a package which includes shoulder-length blonde hair, a T-shirt from a rock groups, a blazer, and cowboy boots. Before going to sleep, Flowers usually thinks about God.

“Rough Country” finds him fishing in a remote area outside of the Twin Cities. At a lake resort called the Eagle’s Nest, a place which attracts lesbians who want to get away, a businesswoman is murdered while canoeing. Virgil, being nearby, is asked to investigate. The plot includes a promising singer named Wendy and her all-girl band, her father, a very strange brother called the Deuce, some interested local policemen, the hotel’s owner and its prospective buyer, and a continually frustrated love entanglement.

I don’t like books where key clues aren’t divulged until the end, when the protagonist unspins how the murder happened to astonished listeners (one of whom is usually the bad guy). Some of the older writers, like Chandler and Hammett, tended to do that, and you see it a lot in movies. I don’t think that’s playing fair. The reader should have access to all of the clues that the protagonist has access to, and at the same time. We should be privy to the protagonist’s thoughts as he’s putting things together, not kept in the dark until he lays it all out.

In “Rough Country,” when the murderer was finally revealed and Flowers explains to others how he cracked the case, I realized that Sandford had dropped all of those clues along the way. Everything was there, practically staring me in the face, but I hadn’t been smart enough to put it together. That is playing fair, and playing very cleverly–telling me what happened, but without me realizing it.

As in the other two books, Lucas Davenport makes recurring appearances, usually by phone as Virgil Flowers keeps him posted about how the investigation is going.

While I enjoyed “Rough Country,” I liked the first two books, “Dark of the Moon” and “Heat Lightning,” even better. A fourth Flowers book came out in hardback in September 2010, so I can expect the paperback sometime this summer.

Sandford’s real name is John Camp. He didn’t start writing novels until age 45. Before that, he was a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, a job he left after hitting it big as a novel writer. His first book was “Fool’s Run,” the first Kidd book. But then he wrote “Rules of Prey,” which Putnam put on a fast-track because it was so good. The result: the two books were coming out within months of each other. To avoid confusion, Putnam asked him to come up with a pseudonym. He chose his father’s middle name, Sandford.(less)

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May 28, 2011 Larry Darter rated it 4 of 5 stars

A third title I picked up last week. The introduction was interesting, the genre is a favorite, and the price is right. I had the smallest bit of trouble getting into the book at the beginning but the pace picked up noticeably after the first two chapters and then I couldn't put it down. I have been looking for a new author to replace one of my favorites who unfortunately has passed away and John Sandford may just fit the bill.

Rough Country is the third novel in Sandford's Virgil Flower series....more

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Dec 07, 2010 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is only my second book in the Virgil Flowers series but I found it disappointing after Dark of the Moon. The mystery involved in Rough Country is convoluted--although not that difficult to figure out--and the story is intriguing enough. But this time, Virgil Flowers' quirkiness came across as smug to me--as if the author has become too pleased with his creation. For instance, how many different rock band T-shirts can one character wear--or pack in a duffel bag, for that matter--before it be...more

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Jun 19, 2010 Lara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Week 17 marks a first for Lara's Reading Room: I was asked to review a book! Well, actually, Allan of Pop Culture World News was sent the book from the publisher and he passed it to me! Happily, I obliged.

ROUGH COUNTRY is the third in a mystery series (and my first) featuring Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers. Written by John Sandford, this installment has Flowers pulled from a fishing trip to investigate the murder of Erica McDill. Rich, powerful, well-known...more Week 17 marks a first for Lara's Reading Room: I was asked to review a book! Well, actually, Allan of Pop Culture World News was sent the book from the publisher and he passed it to me! Happily, I obliged.

ROUGH COUNTRY is the third in a mystery series (and my first) featuring Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers. Written by John Sandford, this installment has Flowers pulled from a fishing trip to investigate the murder of Erica McDill. Rich, powerful, well-known but not well-liked, McDill was on vacation at the all-female Eagle Nest resort, resting up before taking ownership interest in her firm and slashing positions, two openly known facts. Also openly known were McDill's steady relationship with agency partner Ruth Davies, several sexual entanglements she had at the resort and her interest in promoting a band with a questionable history. Throw in years' old murder that may be connected, a recent murder attempt that may not, a cast of characters with valid motives and a man's-man-ladies'-man investigator, and you've got the makings of a good mystery.

And good mystery it is. Not great, but certainly good.

In 400 pages, Sandford has laid out a well-developed cast of interesting characters and punchy dialogue that moves the story on at a reasonble clip. ROUGH COUNTRY lacked a bit of action, and could have benefited from a few more twists and turns throughout the middle of the story that would have kept me more fully engaged and turning the pages a bit faster. I was also disappointed that the majority of female characters (who were mostly lesbians) seemed to fall into stereotypical behaviors and dialogue, while the commentary from the men about or directed to the women was, at times, cliched. These faults weren't enough to turn me off of the book, but were worth noting. I thoroughly enjoyed the end, which I thought Sandford wrapped up creatively in certainly with a fourth book in mind.

ROUGH COUNTRY is a perfect book for a lazy weekend or when you are lounging on the sand. As breezy and juicy as that umbrella drink you reach for between the chapters.(less)

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Apr 27, 2010 Shawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm on a roll this week, having read books by some of my favorite leisure-time authors. I think Rough Country is a perfect book to knock out on the beach or on spring break, although I did neither, rather read it at home. I like all of Sandford's "Prey" books, and there are a lot of them, maybe twenty. But he's really a good author; I think his characters are likable and much more human than other authors' made-up shit, hence remarkably MORE entertaining than most. And Rough Country is the perfe...more

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Mar 15, 2010 Mary Robinson rated it 2 of 5 stars

I liked this police procedural in a series I’ve never read before, but not enough to read another one. I read this one because it’s on Stephen King’s “Best Books of 2009” from Entertainment Weekly (trying to expand my range!) - and he says it’s a “rich exploration of what it is to be a plain old American guy.” I agree and think that’s going to be a great thing for a lot of readers, but that’s probably the reason it just wasn’t that interesting to me. The detective, a laid-back guy who is pretty...more

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Nov 07, 2009 Gail Cooke rated it 5 of 5 stars

No question that thriller master John Sandford knows how to hook a reader early on. He's done it with 19 Prey novels and he does it again with this, the third in his Virgil Flowers series.

It had been an idyllic day now turning to evening as Erica McDill, who heads an advertising agency, was out on Stone Lake paddling toward what she called the pond. One partner in the agency had died, the other was retired and agreed to sell McGill his remaining stock. She would have "absolute control. So Excel...more No question that thriller master John Sandford knows how to hook a reader early on. He's done it with 19 Prey novels and he does it again with this, the third in his Virgil Flowers series.

It had been an idyllic day now turning to evening as Erica McDill, who heads an advertising agency, was out on Stone Lake paddling toward what she called the pond. One partner in the agency had died, the other was retired and agreed to sell McGill his remaining stock. She would have "absolute control. So Excellent."

McGill's mind was busy, full of plans, wondering how to get rid of what she called the "footdraggers," workers not pulling their weight. At the same time she was looking for an eagle to return to its nest high in a white pine. "She saw it a half mile out, unmistakable in its size, a giant bird floating along on unmoving wings." That was all she saw - "The killer shot her in the forehead."

At the same time Virgil Flowers along with his pal Johnson is enjoying a fishing tournament not too far away in northern Minnesota. His sport is soon interrupted by a phone call from Lucas Davenport saying Virgil needs to investigate the murder of a woman at Eagle Nest Lodge, an upscale resort for women only. It doesn't take long for Virgil to discover that much of the resort's popularity is due to the privacy provided for lesbian affairs or to have flings with the good-looking underage male employees.

In addition, Erica's murder was not the first to have occurred at the Lodge, another woman died the year before. Motives? There are a slew - jealousy, revenge, love, hate, greed. Erica had been involved with Wendy, the lead vocalist, in a nearby country band. Not a shrinking violet, Wendy had ambition and Erica made some promises but now she was dead. Could Wendy's other lover have been the shooter? The list of suspects grows as Virgil digs more deeply into the lives of the Lodge's employees and guests.

Leave it to Sandford to keep us guessing until the very end and enjoying every minute of it. Suspense readers won't want to miss Rough Country.

- Gail Cooke (less)

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Nov 01, 2009 Scotto rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've been reading (and listening to) John Sandford's Prey series since the mid-90's. Lucas Davenport is Minneapolis's version of Harry Bosch and the settings are very familiar to me since I live in the Mpls/St. Paul area. In fact I once used the same stairwell at a parking ramp where a shooting took place in one of his books.

I've always ignored the Virgil Flowers books because I was convinced that he couldn't be as entertaining as Davenport. How wrong was I. I reserved this book from my library...more

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Jun 12, 2011 Deana M rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Rough Country" is the 3rd in the Virgil Flowers series. The book starts with Flowers being in a fishing tournament while on vacation on some lake in MN. A boat pulls up while him and his buddy are fishing with Flower's a guy has his cell phone~he left his cell phone in his hotel room~on purpose. His boss Davenport from the BCA tells Virgil he needs to cut his vacation short because there's been a murder up at Eagle's Nest, which is an all-women's getaway. The murder scene is a woman who was sho...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Carol/Bonadie rated it 5 of 5 stars

That effin' Flowers. This time he's hunting down the murderer of a woman shot while kayaking. This was a rockin' good mystery, with plenty of Flowers and plenty funny.
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I wrote a better review in a post to the M/T Friends board so I'm copying it below.
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I can't begun to tell you how much I enjoyed this continuation of the Virgil Flowers adventures. He is such a bad boy!

The case was interesting, it's location in a retreat frequented by professional women, and the intersection with a loca...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-audio-books, 2011-mysteries

Rough Country, by John Sandford, B-plus, Virgil Flowers no. 3, narrated by Eric Conger, produced by Penguin Audio, downloaded from audible.com.

Virgil Flowers is taking a much-deserved vacation and competing in a fishing tournament in northern Minnesota when he receives a call to investigate a shooting for the state BCA in a nearby resort. The resort is specifically for women, many of the women being lesbians. A woman was shot by what appeared to be a sniper while she was kayaking. As Flowers and...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Wayne Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a fun book, a little lighter than the Prey series and Lucas Davenport only shows up in phone conversations with our main protagonist Virgil Flowers. Virgil is a fun somewhat new main character for Sandford and I like the direction the author is going with him. Virgil is described as looking like a surfer, which seems to make him appealing to the fairer sex and he is the sort of guy that just the right woman would tame.

The book opens with a business woman sitting in a canoe on a lake in...more This was a fun book, a little lighter than the Prey series and Lucas Davenport only shows up in phone conversations with our main protagonist Virgil Flowers. Virgil is a fun somewhat new main character for Sandford and I like the direction the author is going with him. Virgil is described as looking like a surfer, which seems to make him appealing to the fairer sex and he is the sort of guy that just the right woman would tame.

The book opens with a business woman sitting in a canoe on a lake in Minnesota who is shot and killed while watching Eagles in their nest. Virgil is on vacation on another lake in a fishing competition when Lucas Davenport orders him to the scene of the murder. It turns out Virgil loves to fish and is known to tow his boat to places throughout "The Land of a Thousand Lakes" where as basically a state policeman he is sent to solve hard to solve crimes. He is really good at solving crimes to Davenport turns a blind eye to the boat towing and fishing on the job. We get to learn a little about fishing in this book, and Flowers is also an avid Indie Music fan and wears a different band's tee shirt every day.

The woman killed is a successful business woman who is just about to take over ownership of an add agency, so the immediate suspects are the employees who might lose their jobs when she takes over. The main motivation for killing is money or sex according to Virgil and both begin to come into play. The woman killed was on vacation at a resort called the Eagles Nest that was a women only resort. Many of the patrons are gay and if not gay there are beautiful young boys who work at the resort who for a price would entertain these successful women.

All the women who Flowers interviews tend to like him, even the gay ones, and his conversation skills are remarkable. (I need Sanford to write my lines) Anyway, the charming Detective Flowers begins to narrow in on the suspect and it is looking like the suspect is a serial killer. I didn't figure out the killer until just a little bit before Detective Flowers figured it out and in the end it sort of seemed obvious so maybe others might figure it out quicker than I did.

The pace is fast, and I couldn't put the MP3s down. I enjoyed this latest Sanford novel.(less)

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Nov 17, 2009 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: john-sandford

Rough Country, the third book in the Virgil Flowers series, was a fantastic fun read. Virgil Flowers is on vacation fishing a tournament in Northern Minnesota when a call comes in from Lucas Davenport. A body has been found floating in a nearby lake and it requires their attention. Virgil heads off begrudgingly only to discover that the body is a wealthy woman who was staying at a women's only resort with a reputation for relaxed sexuality. Upon further investigation, Virgil uncovers information...more

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Nov 13, 2009 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Mystery fans

Shelves: read-in-2009, mystery

This excellent mystery, the third book in the Virgil Flowers series by noted mystery novelist John Sanford, demonstrates anew that his skills have not flagged. Virgil Flowers, the ex soldier cop and who looks like a surfer dude has to find out why, McGill, a lesbian ad agency executive out canoeing at the Eagle Nest, a woman resort is brutally shot in the head. It turns out that she has befriended Wendy, the singer for a local band, who has outsized talent. Flowers investigates McGill's backgrou...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Daveski rated it 3 of 5 stars

It goes against my slightly OCD nature to read the third book in a series before the other two, but my grandfather lent me this book in a stack of various mystery novels that were all part of one series or another, and this one sounded the most interesting. The main character, Virgil Flowers, is kind of a laid-back dude, and the whole novel has a sort of laid-back feel to it - no melodrama or sentimental crap, just a straightforward story with an interesting mystery, and a bit of a sense of humo...more

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Oct 22, 2009 Ilsa Bick rated it 3 of 5 stars

I want to make one thing clear: This review is not an extended moan about how I wish Mr. Sandford would write more Lucas Davenport books. He hasn't abandoned Lucas--for which I'm grateful--but in his push to establish another series, I think Mr. Sandford would do well to take a step back and re-read one of the interviews he did early on about his PREY series: how he wrote the book in a kind of trance and really was at pains to make Lucas a real, fleshed-out character.

Regardless of reading trends...more I want to make one thing clear: This review is not an extended moan about how I wish Mr. Sandford would write more Lucas Davenport books. He hasn't abandoned Lucas--for which I'm grateful--but in his push to establish another series, I think Mr. Sandford would do well to take a step back and re-read one of the interviews he did early on about his PREY series: how he wrote the book in a kind of trance and really was at pains to make Lucas a real, fleshed-out character.

Regardless of reading trends and attention spans, I honestly believe that readers CRAVE a world into which they can disappear. As Mr. Sandford's career has evolved--and more specifically over the last six, seven years--his writing style has become sparer and sparser and this does not serve him or his books well.

Now, I've not finished this book and I'll likely post another review, but my initial thoughts dovetail with my reservations about all the Flowers books. I've been reading Sandford books from the beginning--in fact, I've read them all and several more than once--and what I've noticed is that he's sacrificed strong characterization and description for name-dropping. This has started to creep into his Lucas books as well, but if you go back and compare the early Lucas Davenport novels to Mr. Sandford's later work, you see a disturbing trend. There is no one better at setting mood and atmosphere; take a peek at the beginning of most any PREY book and you know where you are, what the weather's like, how things feel and smell, what they look like. Furthermore, Lucas Davenport is a complex, compelling character with contradictory impulses. Even the minor characters get their due.

Here and with all the Flowers books, we get names--lots and lots of names. A dizzying PLETHORA of names. But they are merely monikers without faces. Mr. Sandford has continued to cut back on his exposition and focused primarily on dialogue and short takes to propel his chapters. Sometimes this works; most times, it doesn't, and the reading experience becomes choppy and confusing and--most importantly--distancing. (Try getting into a reading rhythm with any of Koontz's latest and you'll see what I mean.) Virgil Flowers remains pretty uninteresting and not at all complex or subtle, and I have NO IDEA--even after several books--of what his "thinking about God" schtick is REALLY about. Yeah, yeah, there's an "explanation" of sorts in the first book, but without more meat to this character, this means as much to me as the name-dropping of bands does: I don't know who the bands are, I don't know what they sound like, and --worse-- I DON'T CARE!!

WICKED PREY was, I think, Mr. Sandford's best Lucas book since BROKEN PREY, and his works that have focused on the weave of Lucas's life are still among his best. Pick up something like WINTER PREY--a hands-down fabulous book because it's all about relationships, man--and then compare that to ROUGH COUNTRY and you'll see exactly what I mean.

Will I buy the next Sandford? Of course, I will because I'm an optimist and Mr. Sandford is a superior writer when he remembers that it's people we care about. And, considering that people don't necessarily retire all that early any more, there's not a reason in the world why Lucas has to go away any time soon. For that matter, giving Virgil Flowers a real life and face would kick this series up another notch and make Virgil someone we can care about.

10/18/09--Okay, so I've finished the book now and my initial impression hasn't changed much. I will echo those reviewers who mentioned that they were way ahead of Virgil by the end (moi, aussi), though I DID not see a final plot twist coming, and that was nicely done. But my points about the dearth of characterization still stand. Lucas Davenport was/is, in part, defined by the people around him. Virgil Flowers, being the lone wolf, simply drifts from situation to situation. T-shirt schtick and surfer hair aside, there's nothing substantive to the guy, and I still don't care about him one iota. The fact that he was unfulfilled at the end? Huge yawn. In every single one of the PREY books, you really CARE about the people--girlfriends, colleagues, etc.--in Lucas's orbit. Here, it's hard to care about anyone. These people read like cardboard cutouts, easily interchangeable, and I'm sure we'll see them again, with different names, in the next Flowers book.

I also noticed that Sandford seemed to have trouble deciding exactly how to handle the killer's POV. That is, we'd get small snippets, a chapter here or there (two or three, I think), but nothing consistent. Now, that's not BAD, but it's not very engaging either. One of the things Sandford does better than any other writer is giving us parallel stories with multiple POVs. In BROKEN PREY, where the thing was a true mystery even though we kept getting the killer's POV, he pulled this off brilliantly. In those PREY books where we know the killer's identity but Lucas doesn't, he does it again--brilliantly. In this book, I see flashes of that technique, but it's not sustained and so fitful in execution that I can't figure exactly why he bothered doing it in the first place, other than for us to understand the why (of a shooting, for example) and then watch/wait for Virgil to catch up. Again, in the PREY books, this works very well. Here, it doesn't.(less)

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Oct 06, 2009 Phogbound rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just got it but the first two in the Virgil Flowers series were terrific so...

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"That f**king Flowers" didn't disappoint. Excellent, eccentric, elaborate plotline that starts with Flowers finally taking some time off (which means that his boat was hooked behind his own truck rather than his state vehicle) to enter a musky fishing tournement. Sorry, Virgil. Inconsiderate people keep getting killed in the damnedest ways and his boss, Lucas Davenport, always has a way to contact him.

Th...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Colin rated it 4 of 5 stars

The best book yet, for me, featuring Virgil Flowers. He is having some well earned days off when there is a murder nearby, and the boss promptly cancels the furlough and assigns Virgil to it. A woman has been shot while out in her canoe, and her murder has a number of motives which appear as quickly as a list of suspects. Amongst the suspects are one or more members of an all woman country group, and Virgil finds out that there was previous murder of another woman, again connected with the band....more

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Oct 11, 2009 Jo rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have read all of Sandford's books and how I miss his early books, especially his "Prey" books. His villain's were creepy, dangerous and totally scary, the stuff from which nightmare's are made. The plots kept me on the edge of my seat and I read the books as fast as I could. Alas, none of these things are true of his books written in the last 4 or 5 years.
The murder that brings Detective Virgil Flowers to a small women's only resort town in northern Minnesota is of the shooting of a gay woman....more

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Mar 15, 2013 ElphabaNewlin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thrillers, reading-list-2013, memoir

A woman is murdered at a resort in Northern Minnesota. Virgil Flowers is the detective on the scene, and he finds himself surrounded by backwoods thugs, country music lovers, and lesbians. Who killed this powerful ad exec? Was it her long time companion? A beautiful country music singer who's climbing the ladder of success? A homophobic bigot? And is this the last murder Virgil will see while in this resort town?

I'm not usually terribly into thriller books. I like some mysteries, like the Kathy...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Dudley Danes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't want to read this book and I never expected to like it! Granted, the cover says something about being a Guaranteed Great Read or your money back, but that's just clever advertising. Nothing more.

Well, let me tell you: this one started off good and never stopped, even to the last sentence. There were moments of greatness sprinkled in there and a couple of laugh-out-louds. Mr. Sandford writes a very realistic male character, foibles and all, that left me both laughing and shaking my head...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-and-humor

Light reading, a bit more humorous and light-hearted than Sandford's Lucas Davenport series. Entertaining for an afternoon like last Thursday when everything was shut down due to a once-on-a-century blizzard (North Texas-style). The roads were impassable, the kids were off at friend's houses, and there was a fire in the fireplace. Just the conditions for a few hours of entertaining reading.

This is the third (I think) in Sandford's Virgil Flowers series, the detective who also writes for outdoor...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Virgil is a laid back, good looking man who exudes charm and cool and he is also the most successful closer in the Bureau. The contrast between his humor and sexuality to his quoting Bible verses when the situation fits makes for an interesting character. I like Virgil and would love to hang out at a bar listening to music with him (and my husband, of course)

This is another solid mystery by Sandford, but I did have an issue with the heavy handed way he dealt with gay women in this one. I know pe...more

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Dec 17, 2009 Neil Collins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rough Country is the third installment in Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series. Set in Minnesota, and a spinoff of his prolific and popular Lucas Davenport “Prey” novels, Flowers is a very different sort of cop; a long haired outdoors sport writer who wears obscure band t-shirts and tends to leave his gun in his truck, but rarely rolls out without his fishing boat trailered behind. Not the usual way an investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension operates.

What Virgil (aka “that f*^&ing...more Rough Country is the third installment in Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series. Set in Minnesota, and a spinoff of his prolific and popular Lucas Davenport “Prey” novels, Flowers is a very different sort of cop; a long haired outdoors sport writer who wears obscure band t-shirts and tends to leave his gun in his truck, but rarely rolls out without his fishing boat trailered behind. Not the usual way an investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension operates.

What Virgil (aka “that f*^&ing Flowers”) brings to the mix is an unassuming presence that gets past people’s defenses quietly while he works out the puzzle in his head. And he usually manages to get hooked up with at least one cutie who just might be a suspect, if not a victim. “That f*^&ing Flowers”

This time around, Davenport interrupts Virgil’s fishing trip to do his special detecting when a prominent women ad exec is found shot in the head at a private retreat in the woods near Grand Rapids. That the resort is an exclusive, women’s only establishment makes it more palatable to Virgil; until he learns that most of the patrons are Lesbians.

The list of suspects snakes its way through the small community, reaching into a local bar where ladies from the resort like to listen to a popular local all girl country band whose lead singer might just be going places. That is either to Nashville or jail depending on which girl’s heart she happens to be breaking that particular night.

The characters are well constructed, and reasonably diverse, at least as diverse as small-town Minnesotans get. The good guys and some of the bad ones are likeable, some in spite of themselves, and the bad guys aren’t nearly as obvious as one might think. The story is interesting on a much deeper level than just figuring out “whodunit”, and provides enough twists and turns to keep most people guessing right up to the big reveal.

I do recommend Rough Country to any who like a good crime novel particularly one with a slightly less macho approach. I also suggest reading the previous Flowers books first, so the main characters have more familiarity.(less)

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Oct 11, 2009 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another fuckin' Flowers book.

Virgil is an official favorite now, along with Davenport. Flowers gets called off his vacation to check out the body of Erica McDill, a woman found shot in the head in the water. McDill was staying at the Eagle's Nest, a women's retreat but also apparently something of a whorehouse, without the madam. Flowers digs deep, almost ends up having sex many times with a suspects sister (doesn't he always?) and finally solves the case. Doesn't he always?

Interesting twist at...more

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Apr 10, 2010 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

John Sandford has done it again. Often, spin-offs lack the appeal of the original series, but not in the case of Virgil Flowers. I've been a great fan of the Lucas Davenport series since book one and also enjoyed Sandford's Kidd novel, though they are now rather dated because of their technology base. Now Sandford is keeping the Davenport series alive and fresh, while giving fans another hero in Virgil Flowers, the detective who works for Davenport and would usually rather be fishing. Rough Coun...more

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About John Sandford

John Sandford was born John Camp on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the public schools in Cedar Rapids, graduating from Washington High School in 1962. He then spent four years at the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in American Studies in 1966. In 1966, he married Susan Lee Jones of Cedar Rapids, a fellow student at the University of Iowa. He was in th...more

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Quotes from Rough Country

“Oh yeah, I heard you got born again.' she said. 'Which you needed since they fucked up the first time.” — 32 people liked it

“So she made no secret about being gay?"
"Why should she?" the little old lady asked. "Nobody would care but a bunch of stuffy old men.” — 4 people liked it

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Rough Country (Virgil Flowers #3)

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