Shock Wave by John Sandford

 

Virgil had a degree in ecological science, he was a committed green. But he met quite a few people over the years who'd come into the green movement from other, more ideologically violent movements-- people who’d start as anti-globalization protesters, or tree spikers as opposed to tree sitters, who thought that trashing a McDonald's was a good day's work, people who talked about Marx and Greenpeace in the same sentence.

The greenest people Virgil knew were hunters and fishermen, with Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited and Pheasants Forever and the Ruffled Grouse Society, and the Conservancy and the National Wildlife Federation and all the rest, people who put their money and their time where their mouths were; but these others…

Another volume in Sandford’s seemingly effortlessly written Virgil Flowers series.

Flowers is a good ol’ boy investigator who always finds time to fish or hit the woods. It is in the vein of many recent outdoorsy thrillers, C.J. Box and Craig Johnson come to mind.

But…for my money, Sandford’s Flowers has them beat hands-down. There is a perpetual forward momentum in these novels coupled with Virgil’s lazy female-appreciating charm.

Strikes me as a Walton Goggins’ Netflix series waiting to happen.

Not classics of literature, but a masterclass nevertheless in how to entertain and make 400 some odd pages fly.

No mean feat, that.