Throwback Thursday: Dark of the Moon by John Sandford

Author: John Sandford
First published in 2007 by Putnam

In the small town of Bluestem, where everybody knows everybody, a house way up on a ridge explodes into flames, its owner, a man named Judd, trapped inside. There is a lot of reason to hate him, Flowers discovers. Years ago, Judd had perpetrated a scam that'd driven a lot of local farmers out of business, even to suicide. There are also rumors swirling around: of some very dicey activities with other men's wives; of involvement with some nutcase religious guy; of an out-of-wedlock daughter. In fact, Flowers concludes, you'd probably have to dig around to find a person who didn't despise him.

And that wasn't even the reason Flowers had come to Bluestem. Three weeks before, there'd been another murder — two, in fact — a doctor and his wife, the doctor found propped up in his backyard, both eyes shot out. There hadn't been a murder in Bluestem in years — and now, suddenly, three? Flowers knows two things: This wasn't a coincidence, and this had to be personal.

But just how personal is something even he doesn't realize, and may not find out until too late. Because the next victim... may be himself. 

This is the first book that focuses on Virgil Flowers, a character that shows up in some of the Lucas Davenport series.  I'll be honest, I really didn't care too much for Dark of the Moon. The story was slow moving and way too long.   The mystery was a little confusing with a few red herrings and twists. There were too many suspects to keep straight.  So, I wasn't too surprised that I couldn't solve the mystery on my own. 

 I also didn't care for Virgil.   I wasn't too impressed with the way he constantly commented on women's appearances, in particular what their behind looked like. It was creepy and made him really unlikable.  Can we for a second discuss the scene at the waterfall involving Virgil and his love interest watching her brother having sex with his girlfriend and getting off on it?.  Eww!  That scene was gross and unnecessary.  Finally, who edited this book?  The amount of run-on sentences, especially during actions scenes, was ridiculous.  They read like a laundry list of how the author thought the scene should go. "and then he did this and then he did that and then and then..."    I doubt I will pick up another Virgil Flowers book in the future.