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.

December 5, 2016
The ninth book in Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series has Virgil, an agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and his crew hunting a pair of rare Amur tigers catnapped from the Minnesota Zoo. The ’napper is an opiate-snarfing sociopath named Winston Peck VI, whose partners in crime—a pair of brutish, guttural-voiced brothers—quickly become disposable to him. Reader Conger’s semiamused, easygoing delivery sets the perfect mood for this offbeat, at times darkly humorous investigation. As blasé as his Virgil may seem in general, he’s serious about earning his pay. And even more serious when, in a separate subplot, canning-factory thugs brutalize his girlfriend, Frankie, mistaking her for her sister who’s been interviewing migrant workers for a dissertation. Conger’s Peck sounds ever more manic as his scheme to kill the big cats and process their parts for high-end Chinese medical use unspools and his pill use increases. Both author and reader arrive at their suspenseful peak at the novel’s slam-bang moment of truth—involving a weaponless Virgil, an armed, drugged-to-the-max Winston, and a ferociously hungry tiger. A Putnam hardcover.