Escape Clause

Starred review from August 1, 2016
The kidnapping of a pair of rare Amur tigers from the Minnesota Zoo, located in a suburb of Minneapolis and St. Paul, propels Thriller Award–winner Sandford’s outstanding ninth Virgil Flowers novel (after 2014’s Deadline). Winston Peck VI, the pill-popping brain behind the operation, is relying on hired thugs Hamlet Simonian and Ham’s older brother, Hayk, to act fast and process the tigers for ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine—which means Virgil, an agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and his team have little time to waste if they’re to recover the tigers alive. Meanwhile, Virgil’s girlfriend, Frankie Nobles, has a guest, her younger sister, Sparkle. Sparkle’s research for her dissertation into migrant workers at a local canning factory leads to a beating for Frankie when factory thugs mistake Frankie for Sparkle. The rule-bending Virgil must use his wits to resolve the kidnapping and avenge Frankie’s beating in an entry notable for its twisted, inept, and drug-addled bad guys. Plenty of humor leavens the action. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.

Virgil Flowers, of Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, pivots from dognapping (Field of Prey, 2014, etc.) to a catnapping whose victims are really big cats.It's just as illegal in China as it is in the rest of the world to deal in so-called natural medicines derived from slain wild animals, but it's much more common to ignore the Chinese laws, as California mobster Zhang Min does when he hires Winston Peck VI, an M.D. barred from practicing since he groped one too many unconscious patients, to steal a pair of Amur tigers from the Minnesota Zoo, kill them, and mine their bodies for all manner of nostrums. The theft, for which Peck brings in the none-too-bright fraternal pair Hayk and Hamlet Simonian, goes off without a hitch, and one of the cats is soon ready to be rendered, a process whose unlovely effects Sandford describes in exquisite detail. But when Virgil, called in to investigate, finds Hamlet's fingerprint in a place where it definitely shouldn't be, Peck begins cutting his losses by eliminating his confederates, and the race is on: can Virgil find anyone whose evidence against Peck will stand up before Peck puts paid to the informant? Several subplots, from an animal rights activist's vendetta against a dealer in animal products and parts to the beating of Frankie Nobles, Virgil's current lover, are less interesting than the main event and therefore come across as padding. But Peck, who wonders if he's a psychopath or a spree killer and decides that for him, "killing was simply a work-related task," is well worth your time. Perfect entertainment for readers whose hearts skip a beat when they worry that the hero won't be in time to rescue that remaining tiger from certain death. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Two rare Siberian tigers are stolen from the Minneapolis Zoo. With most available law enforcement engaged in protecting the presidential candidates, who are campaigning at the state fair, the job of finding the tigers falls to Virgil Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The clock is ticking; the tigers were likely stolen for their body parts, worth a half-million dollars on the black market. Sandford shifts the point of view between Flowers and the thieves, who are holding the tigers in a rural Minnesota location. The the bad guys' matter-of-fact demeanor as they set about their grisly task is genuinely creepy. Mix in the man behind the tiger snatching, Winston Peck, a drug-addicted MD who went broke trying to start an Internet company featuring personalized nipple emojis, and you have all the makings of another Sandford romp. You can't make this stuff up, but, thankfully, Sandford can. As Flowers tracks down leads, the criminal enterprise begins to splinter. The tiger thieves don't really know what they're doing; Peck's Xanax habit is getting worse as Flowers circles him. Sandford has more New York Times best-sellers than most authors have novels. This will be another. It's imaginative, funny, and thoroughly engaging.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

Not only must Virgil Flowers find the two Siberian tigers that have vanished from the Minnesota Zoo, perhaps stolen for vital organs valued by traditional Chinese medicine, but he must fend off girlfriend Frankie's younger sister, who's taken a sparkle to him. Three of the last four Flowers novels have debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best sellers list.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.