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A Virgil Flowers Novel, No 5
John Sandford
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Oct. 11, 2011 / ISBN 978-0-399-15769-1
Thriller
Amazon
Reviewed
by Elise Cooper
New York Times bestselling author John Sandford’s latest book,
Shock Wave, brings back Virgil Flowers as the main character.
Flowers, an incidental character in the Lucas Davenport series was
spun-off to become a hero in his own series of books.
This thriller is definitely plot enhanced. The story takes off after
a bomb goes off in the small town of Butternut Falls at a chain
store headquarters, PyeMart, and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
agent, Flowers, is called in to investigate. Sandford skillfully
weaves the plot into a ‘who done it,’ as more bombs
are exploded. There are a multitude of suspects: the local merchants
who will lose their business, the environmentalists, the Mayor and
City Council who were bribed, and those citizens who will gain or
lose from the growth of the city moving west instead of south.
Sandford decided to develop a plot surrounding domestic bombings
from his experience in Iraq. He commented that while in Iraq to
write an article “about a Blackhawk’s squadron, I saw
a lot of mortars being shot at the air force base. I saw a lot of
bomb damage. I became aware of explosives. I decided to research
and was surprised to see that everything I needed to know about
bombs I could find on the Internet.”
Through his research he came across a famous bombing in the Twin
Cities where a chain store was targeted. Sandford wrote the bomber’s
persona as, “A crazy guy who was making himself feel good.
I wrote him as someone making bombs in their basement instead of
now where they are suicide bombers.”
The author explained that the Flowers series, written as a thriller,
does not have a lot of character development. This is true since
the reader does not gravitate towards any of the characters other
than Flowers. He explained, “The essence of this thriller
needs a sense of speed and velocity to move forward. When I write
a mystery you have more time to develop the characters.”
It is interesting how one of the characters, the Mayor of the town,
is described as a foul mouthed, screaming, trashy, corrupt politician
whose name is Geraldine “Gore.” When asked if this was
coincidental or intentional, Sandford stated, “It was something
stuck in the back of my head. The fact being I did not like her
and I do not like Al Gore.”
Sandford enjoys writing two different book series and described
the difference between the two types. The Flower series has a lot
of humor, and the main character is a surfer type who is a wise
cracking, t-shirt wearing sleuth. The antithesis of this is the
Lucas Davenport books, which have more complicated stories, stronger
character development, more intensity, with a heavy emphasis on
dark, violent crimes. The reader can get a glimpse of the Davenport
character on November 6th when the USA channel airs an earlier book,
Certain Prey, starring Mark Harmon. Lucas Davenport will also be
featured in Sandford’s next book, which will be released in
June.
This book involves bribery, cheating, infidelity, conspiracies,
and suspense. Sandford allows the reader to play detective by giving
hints and facts as Flowers is attempting to solve the crime. Although
the book is fast paced, it is not as intense as other thrillers.
The reader can be amused and have fun while trying to figure out
who is the bomber.
Virgil
Flowers
series
Dark of the Moon, No 1 [review]
Heat Lightening, No 2 [amazon]
Rough Country, No 3 [amazon]
Bad Blood, No 4 [amazon]
Shock Wave,
No 5 [review]
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