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Rough Country (Virgil Flowers #3)

by John Sandford

3.89 · rating details · 2,381 ratings · 335 reviews

Abridged CDs 5 CDs, 6 hours

John Sandford's "truly captivating" (Richmond Times-Dispatch) new hero goes north to solve a puzzling murder-and finds that the country is very rough indeed.

Audio CD, Abridged, 1 pages

Published September 29th 2009 by Penguin Group (USA)

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Apr 21, 2010

Kemper rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery, thriller, 5-0

"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 o...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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Jan 19, 2012

Mark O'Neill rated it

· 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...more

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Feb 06, 2012

Steve Dennie rated it

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“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-ba...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

· review of another edition

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 Flowe...more

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Dec 07, 2010

Sophie rated it

· review of another edition

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

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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, w...moreWeek 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

· review of another edition

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 Countr...more

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Mar 15, 2010

Mary Robinson rated it

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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

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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 ...moreNo 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

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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...more

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Jun 12, 2011

Deana M rated it

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"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 wom...more

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Nov 11, 2009

Carol/Bonadie rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...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. ...more

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Dec 07, 2009

Wayne Wilson rated it

· review of another edition

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 o...moreThis 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

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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 informa...more

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Nov 13, 2009

Jeffrey rated it

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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 backg...more

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Jan 23, 2011

Daveski rated it

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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 hum...more

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Oct 22, 2009

Ilsa Bick rated it

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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 re...moreI 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

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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 Davenpor...more

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Oct 11, 2009

Jo rated it

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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...more

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Dec 07, 2010

Dudley Danes rated it

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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 shak...more

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Feb 13, 2010

Greg rated it

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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...more

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Dec 17, 2009

Neil Collins rated it

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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 (a...moreRough 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

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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?

I...more

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Apr 10, 2010

Jim rated it

· review of another edition

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 ...more

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Jan 10, 2010

Tracy rated it

Shelves: mystery

Often Sandford's stories are more about the investigation and catching the bad guy than figuring out who he/she is. This most recent Virgil Flowers novel doesn't reveal until quite late in the story.

The murder(s) are neither as grisly nor as numerous as in many of the Lucas Davenport novels.

In this abridgment, there are a few convenient jumps in the story. The jumps are mostly in the interpersonal relationships between characters - not a lot of ground between uneasy ...more

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Jun 23, 2011

Janice rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: brain-candy

Another Virgil Flowers novel where he is pulled away from fishing to solve some crazy crime. This time it's at some resort for all women. Many lesbians, but not all. Just so happens that the latest victim is, so we get to see Flowers be modern and sensitive. Anyway there is confusion whether the dead woman was killed because she was a hard-nosed businesswoman, having an affair, or wanting to back a band.

We get confusion after second murder is found and seems to be about the band a...more

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Nov 30, 2011

Dick Gullickson rated it

· review of another edition

Another Virgil Flowers story, set in Minnesota, where fishing and hunting are king and where the quality of life's pleasures is compared to catching the the 40# muskie. Virgil opens the story unfulfilled as he is diverted from a fishing vacation to catch a killer who's victim is extinguished while watching eagles from a canoe. Virgil ends the novel still unfulfilled after catching the killer in a forgettable and entertaining story. What's not to like about a mystery set in God's country with ...more

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Dec 12, 2011

Paula Hebert rated it

· review of another edition

ah, yes, virgil flowers. mid thirties, tall, blond, lean and well muscled, and the detective with the highest solve rate in the minneapolis police department since lucas davenport left to work for the state. the only thing stopping him from being a total sexy hunk of burning love is a big old chunk of midwestern pragmatism. this time virgil finds himself in a resort town trying to solve a murder at a fancy lodge that caters to wealthy lesbians. throw in a female band, and some quirky locals,...more

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Nov 06, 2011

LaDonna rated it

· review of another edition

Again, Virgil Flowers brings it as the quintessential male protagonist. He has everything I want in such a character, including very human qualities and faults. I love his rebel streaks, his appreciation of women, his sarcasm and humor. Package that with his gifts as a detective and his rough and tumble way of getting in the middle of everything and what is not to love? Tthe women in this book are truly characters, and Virgil's open acceptance of their lifestyles is as it should be. Never ...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.” — 10 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.” — 2 people liked it

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Rough Country (Virgil Flowers #3)

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