51. Sleep Tight by Anne Frasier

read on Kindle 

2003
400 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 5/20/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.10 - 4486 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Contemporary Minneapolis

First line/s: "He hovered over the unmoving girl, deftly drawing a thick black line on her eyelid, curving it up at the corner."

My comments: A mesmerizing mystery that I tried to read here and there whenever I could.  Giving glimpses into the minds of several of the characters, it was interesting to be able to put pieces together so that although you knew what was happening by whom, you were there for the ride.  Anne Frasier is quickly become one of my favorite mystery writers.

Goodreads synopsis:  WAKE UP, LITTLE DARLING. DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?

He's looking for the perfect woman. Someone who won't disappoint him, like so many have before. Someone who'll love him ... someone who won't have to die for her mistakes.
          GIVE UP, LITTLE DARLING....
FBI agent Mary Cantrell has been called to Minneapolis to hunt down a killer. Her reluctant return home is shaking her to the core, reviving dreadful memories. Years ago, her best friend was murdered. Now the man convicted of the crime, Gavin Hitchcock, is free--and Mary's own sister, Gillian, a local cop, has befriended him.
          NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM BUT ME.
As each clue to the new killings leads them closer to Hitchcock, Mary and Gillian put their differences aside and set themselves up as the perfect target--and the perfect trap. Unless Mary's own past has blinded her to an unimaginable truth ... and will plunge them into a waking nightmare....

23. Roam by C. H. Armstrong

read on my iPhone through Kindle
2019
320 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 3/18/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.03 - 649 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Rochester, Minnesota

First line/s: "I hate this town already.

What I posted on Goodreads:  Homelessness.  Good story, with a lot of positivity, perfect boyfriend, symbolic mean girl.

My comments: Homeless high school senior and her family leaves Omaha for Minnesota after scandal humiliates her family and leaves them jobless with only a van and little else. She has to figure out how to begin her senior year - in a new school - without letting anyone know that she's living with her family in a van.  Excellent story, leaves you with very positive vibes.

Goodreads synopsis:  Seventeen year-old Abby Lunde and her family are living on the streets. They had a normal life back in Omaha, but thanks to her mother’s awful mistake, they had to leave what little they had behind for a new start in Rochester. Abby tries to be an average teenager—fitting into school, buoyed by dreams of a boyfriend, college, and a career in music. But Minnesota winters are unforgiving, and so are many teenagers.

          Her stepdad promises to put a roof over their heads, but times are tough for everyone and Abby is doing everything she can to keep her shameful secret from her new friends. The divide between rich and poor in high school is painfully obvious, and the stress of never knowing where they're sleeping or where they’ll find their next meal is taking its toll on the whole family.
           As secrets are exposed and the hope for a home fades, Abby knows she must trust those around her to help. But will her friends let her down the same way they did back home, or will they rise to the challenge to help them find a normal life?

97. Heidi's Guide to Four-Letter Words by Tara Sivec

Listened to on Audible Escape
narrated by Andi Arndt
Unabridged audio (6:15)
2019
197 pgs.
Adult RomCom (ADULT -with definite steam)
Finished 6/17/20
Goodreads rating:  4.04 - 3973 ratings
My rating:  3
Setting:  Contemporary Minnesota - including accents and terminology

First line/s:  " 'Hello, everyone!  Welcome to Heidi's Discount Erotica Podcast, Episode Number Ten.' "

What I posted on Goodreads:  Stupidly unbelievable and totally fun.

My comments:  Very, very humorous story once you get over the overprotective, ridiculous mother.  It's about a 25-year-old that goes from super straight, innocent (almost ridiclously so) to over-the-tio sexual innovator.  Throw in befriending one of the hottest actors in America and his steamy romance author wife as your close friends and a too-good-to-be-true next-door  neighbor hunk and there you have it.  Totally unbelievable and totally fun.

Goodreads synopsis:  Cowritten by USA Today best-selling author Tara Sivec and award-winning narrator Andi Arndt, a hysterically funny, heartfelt romance about starting over and taking chances.
          Nothing good ever comes from drinking a box of wine alone. So when I decided to entertain my drunken self by setting up some hand-me-down podcasting equipment and reading the steamy parts from romance novels, I never thought anyone would actually listen. The fact that I admitted my huge crush on my sexy next door neighbor made the whole thing even more mortifying. But sometimes life surprises you, and that’s how my podcast, Heidi’s Discount Erotica, was born.
          Now I, Heidi Larsen, a sweet former kindergarten teacher in Waconia, Minnesota, lead a scandalous double life reading erotic novels to the listening world. And with each episode, I find myself embracing my new alter ego more and more. Now I’m starting to feel more comfortable in my own skin and do things I never would have dreamed of - like kissing my neighbor.
          Look out, Waconia, because Heidi’s on the loose! She’s in your ears, in your hearts, and down your pants...wait, that didn’t sound as good as it did in my head. Well, you get the picture, don’tcha know! 

49. Heart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis Graves

listened to Audio - free from Audio Escape
narrated by Kristin Condon
Unabridged audio (8:44)
2015
340 pgs.
Adult CRF
Finished 3/9/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.05 - 8715 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  Contemporary Minneapolis, MN

First line/s:  " ' The babies are going to starve,' Helena said."

My comments:  I found these two main characters to be incredibly well developed, which was only enhanced by a wonderful narration.  A good, though predictable, story with just a bit of heat.  This is the second I've read by this author and I've enjoyed both very much.  Looking forward to more.
     Here's a good quote from another GoodReads member:   "Heart Shaped Hack is a refreshing and beautiful read, it doesn't employ any of the New Adult Express tropes, has genuinely likeable, if not loveable lead characters, witty banter and good writing."

Goodreads synopsis:  When Kate Watts abandoned her law career to open a food pantry in Northeast Minneapolis, she never dreamed it would be this difficult. Facing the heartbreaking prospect of turning hungry people away, she is grateful for the anonymous donations that begin appearing at the end of each month. Determined to identify and thank her secret benefactor, she launches a plan and catches Ian —a charismatic hacker with a Robin Hood complex—in the act.
          Ian intrigues Kate in a way no man ever has. But after learning he’s snooped around on her personal computer, she demands retribution. Impressed with her tolerance and captivated by her spirit, he complies and begins to slowly charm his way past her defenses. Time spent with Ian is never boring, and Kate soon finds herself falling for the mysterious hacker.
          But Ian has enemies and they’re growing restless. In the hacking world, exploiting a target’s weakness is paramount, and no price is too high to stop an attack. And when Kate learns exactly how much Ian has paid, she’ll discover just how strong her love is for the man who has hacked his way into her heart.

100. Bloody Genius by John Sandford

#12 Virgil Flowers
read on my iPhone bought it on Audible
narrated  by Eric Conger
Unabridged audio (10:21)
2019, G. P. Putnam's (Penguin Audio)
384 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery, from a series
Finished 10/14/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.33 - 6,989 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Minnesota state university

First line/s:  "Barthelemy Quill led his companion through the murk and up the library stairs towards his personal study carrel."

My comments:  I've got to admit that I had figured out the bad guy pretty early on, although I was surprised I did - just a little too much foreshadowing I guess.  And I'm still not happy about Frankie, don't know her at all, not enough, not for Virgil.....

Goodreads synopsis:  Virgil Flowers will have to watch his back--and his mouth--as he investigates a college culture war turned deadly in the latest thriller from #1 New York Times-bestseller John Sandford.
          At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of PC culture. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right?
          Then someone winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate . . . and he soon comes to realize he's dealing with people who, on this one particular issue, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs.

99. Leave No Trace by Mindy Mejia

listened to Audio, borrowed from Bosler
narrated by Patricia Rodriguez
Unabridged audio (9:56)
2018/Atria Emily Bestler Books
352 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 10/13/2019
Goodreads rating:  3.60 - 3640 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Contemporary Minnesota

First line/s: "By the time the boy in ward four attached me, I'd already nicknamed him "the Lost One" in my head."

My comments:  Set mostly in a mental hospital, this story is the tale of two young people and the mental legacies they receive from their parents.  As their stories begin to intermingle, my mind was in a constant state of "what would I do in this situation?"  I was quite caught up in the story. 

Goodreads synopsis:  From the author of the “compelling” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis) and critically acclaimed Everything You Want Me to Be, a riveting and suspenseful thriller about the mysterious disappearance of a boy and his stunning return ten years later.
          There is a place in Minnesota with hundreds of miles of glacial lakes and untouched forests called the Boundary Waters. Ten years ago a man and his son trekked into this wilderness and never returned.
          Search teams found their campsite ravaged by what looked like a bear. They were presumed dead until a decade later...the son appeared. Discovered while ransacking an outfitter store, he was violent and uncommunicative and sent to a psychiatric facility. Maya Stark, the assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection with their high-profile patient. No matter how she tries, however, he refuses to answer questions about his father or the last ten years of his life
          But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she’s drawn closer to this enigmatic boy who is no longer a boy, she’ll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world.

54. The Body Keeper by Anne Frasier

#3 Det. Jude Fontaine
listened on Audible
read by Emily Sutton-Smith
Unabridged audio (9:10)
2019 Thomas & Mecer
300 pgs.
Adult Detective Series
Finished 6/14/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.53 - 1097 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting: Contemporary Minneapolis

First line/s:  "Once the bodies were loaded, she slid into the driver's seat, turned the ignition key --- and heard nothing but a terrifying click."

My comments:  Frasier is a superb writer and storyteller.  She puts you directly into the heads of each of her characters so that you can see and feel what they’re thinking and why they’re doing what they’re doing.  The icy cold Minneapolis winter setting is also a solid character in the story, and she has flushed out its attributes as clearly as those as her characters. I certainly hope that this does not finish the series for Jude Fontaine, though it does wrap up really nicely and well. I so want to re-engage with these characters. A brilliant book that I greatly enjoyed.

Goodreads synopsis: The Thriller Award–winning series continues as Detective Jude Fontaine finds a decades-old connection to missing children that will freeze her blood. A boy’s frozen body is found trapped in the ice of a Minneapolis lake.

28. The Body Counter by Anne Frasier

#2 Jude Fontaine
listened on Audible
Read by Emily Sutton-Smith
Unabridged audio (8:31)
2018, Thomas & Mercer
297 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 3/17/19
Goodreads rating:  4.36 - 2107 ratings
My rating:4.5
Setting:  contemporary Minneapolis/St. Paul

First line/s:  "The woman in the apartment upstairs was screaming again."

My comments:  I remembered quite a bit about the first novel as I listened to this one, even though I read it quite a bit ago.  Jude Fontaine is difficult to forget, the corrupt governor's daughter, up-and-coming detective in the Minneapolis police who had been abducted and held captive in a dark cell for three years.  Discovering her father  and brother too, I think) was cruel and corrupt, she had killed him/them in the line of duty.  That was book number one.  In this book she is pitted against a serial killer who is following the Fibonacci sequence in his bloody slaughters.  Very bloody....  Fascinating story - one of those truly gritty, horrifying serial killer tomes.  Jude Fontaine is fascinating, as is her partner, Uriah Ashby.  Looking forward to number three.
     An added note to remember before reading number three and forgetting all the nitty-gritty of this one:  at the very end we discover that Elliot Kaplan, her downstairs neighbor and photo-journalist "friend" - and even suspect at one time for the murders - is actually her illegitimate brother.  She does not know.  Apparently her father had had an affair with or raped Elliot's mother.  Alsto, the relationship between Jude and Uriah is getting a little bit interesting in a vague way.  (Elliot is just out of the hospital.  He had been locked into "her" cell for three days and left for dead, but she realized it just as they were starting to demolish the house, which she had purchased.)

Goodreads synopsis:  From a New York Times bestselling author comes the chilling follow-up to the Thriller Award winner The Body Reader.       
          Months after discovering the mastermind behind her own kidnapping, Detective Jude Fontaine is dealing with the past the only way she knows how: by returning to every dark corner of it. But it’s a new, escalating series of mass slayings that has become her latest obsession at Homicide.      
          At first, Jude and her partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, can see no pattern to the seemingly random methods, the crime scenes, or the victims—until they’re approached by a brilliantly compulsive math professor. He believes that the madman’s next move is not incalculable; in fact, it’s all part of a sequential and ingenious numerical riddle. His theory is adding up. The body count is rising.
          But when the latest victim is found in Jude’s apartment, the puzzle comes with a personal twist that’s going to test the breaking point of her already-fragile state of mind. For all she knows, her number may be up.

63. Deep Freeze by John Sandford

#10 Virgil Flowers
listened to Audio - borrowed from Library
2017 G. P. Putnams
399 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 7/15/18
Goodreads rating:  4.21 - 10,035 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Minnesota

First line/s:  "David Birkmann sat in his living room with an empty beer can in his hand and stared sadly at his oversized bachelor's television which wasn't turned on."

My comments:  Ahh, did not disappoint.  I love Virgil, still!

Goodreads synopsis:  Class reunions: a time for memories—good, bad, and, as Virgil Flowers is about to find out, deadly—in this New York Timesbestselling thriller from John Sandford.
          Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt—and as it turned out, homicidal—local school board, and now the town’s back in view with more alarming news: A woman’s been found dead, frozen in a block of ice.
          There’s a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of twenty-five years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, and so, wrapping his coat a little tighter, Virgil begins to dig into twenty years’ worth of traumas, feuds, and bad blood. In the process, one thing becomes increasingly clear to him. 
          It’s true what they say: High school is murder.

16. Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger

listened on Audible - read BEAUTIFULLY
2013 Atria Books
307 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 2/14/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.15 - 48,224 ratings
My rating:  4.5
Setting:1961 New Bremen, sourthern Minnesota

First line/s:   "All the dying that summer began with the death of a child, a boy with golden hair and thick glasses, killed on the railroad tracks outside New Bremen, Minnesota, sliced into pieces by a thousand tons of steel speeding across the prairie toward South Dakota."

My comments:  This story is about a minister's family in New Bremen, Minnesota in the summer of 1961, told in the first person by the middle child, a 13-year old named Frank, called Frankie by his family.  The story examines faith and the "awesome grace of God."
     I am genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.  Usually I go running in the other directions - screaming - when I discover a book contains ruminations about religion.  This one never ever shoved religion down my throat, and the minister father, Nathan Drum, was everything anyone could ever want in a minister.  It certainly game me lots to think about, particularly about grief.  It also made me ponder so many people's unquestionable belief that anything that happens is "God's will."  And, if anything, it strengthened my own beliefs. 
     So many strengths here - wonderful characterization, beautifully crafted plot, and really lovely writing.
     So many great things bout this book, but the best for me?  I really like the relationship between Frank and his stuttering younger brother, Jake.

Goodreads synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger comes a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961.
         New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were at the ready at Halderson’s Drug Store soda counter, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a summer in which death assumed many forms.
          When tragedy unexpectedly comes to call on his family, which includes his Methodist minister father, his passionate, artistic mother, Juilliard-bound older sister, and wise-beyond-his years kid brother, Frank finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal.
          On the surface, Ordinary Grace is the story of the murder of a beautiful young woman, a beloved daughter and sister. At heart, it’s the story of what that tragedy does to a boy, his family, and ultimately the fabric of the small town in which he lives. Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, it is a moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.

50. Escape Clause - John Sandford

Virgil Flowers #9
listened to on Audible
read by Eric Conger
2016, GP Putnam's Sons
400 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 8/24/17
Goodreads rating: 4.21 - 10,751 ratings
My ra ting:  4.5
Setting: Contemporary Minnesota

First line/s:  "Peck popped a Xanax, screwed the top back on the pill tube, peered over the top of the bush and through the chain-link fence, and in a hoarse whisper asked, "You see the other one?"

My comments: 

Viva Virgil Flowers! My favorite serial good guy. Eric Conger is definitely the voice of Virgil Flowers. Add in John Sandford, who created Virgil, and you have a perfect trinity. I could listen to Virgil problem-solving and telling about his escapades for days on end. The beginning of this (book 9 in the series) started out just a tiny bit slowly. However, I didn't despair because I knew it would get more interesting quickly. Yup. There were two main plot lines happening - a personal one involvi Viva Virgil Flowers! My favorite serial good guy. Eric Conger is definitely the voice of Virgil Flowers. Add in John Sandford, who created Virgil, and you have a perfect trinity. I could listen to Virgil problem-solving and telling about his escapades for days on end. The beginning of this (book 9 in the series) started out just a tiny bit slowly. However, I didn't despair because I knew it would get more interesting quickly. Yup. There were two main plot lines happening - a personal one involving Virgil's girlfriend, Frankie and her sister; and one involving his job as the head investigator into the robbery/kidnapping of two endangered tiers from the Minnesota Zoo. Both got stickier and stickier and it's Virgil's job to keep his head above water and his paces closer and closer to the perpetrators. Good reading

Goodreads synopsis: Whenever you hear the sky rumble, that usually means a storm. In Virgil Flowers’ case, make that two. The exceptional new thriller from the writer whose books are “pure reading pleasure” (Booklist)
          The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large, and very rare, Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they’ve been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others -- as Virgil is about to find out.
          Then there’s the homefront. Virgil’s relationship wi th his girlfriend Frankie has been getting kind of serious, but when Frankie’s sister Sparkle moves in for the summer, the situation gets a lot more complicated. For one thing, her research into migrant workers is about to bring her up against some very violent people who emphatically do not want to be researched. For another…she thinks Virgil’s kind of cute.
          “You mess around with Sparkle,” Frankie told Virgil, “you could get yourself stabbed.”
           “She carries a knife?”
           “No, but I do.”
Forget a storm – this one’s a tornado.

29. Immoral by Brian Freeman

Jonathan Stride #1
listened on Audible, mostly in the car on the drive to Maine
Read by Joe Barrett - did the Minnesota accent okay, female voices not quite so well (but okay)
2005 St. Martin's Minotaur (741 pgs. HC)
2006 Headline (471 pgs.)
Audible 13 hrs. 30 min.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished Wed., May 17, 2017
Goodreads rating: 3.87 - 5262 ratings
My rating:  3.9....
Setting: Duluth MN and Las Vegas

First line/s:  "Darkness was a different thing in the north woods than it was in the city.  He had forgotten."

My comments:  Rating?  Not quite a four.  This was a little slow for me at the beginning, sped up a bit, then slowed down again during a long trial (which I have discovered that I do not enjoy in a book).  There were things to like a lot as well as things to dislike.  The plot twists and turns were huge, and I discovered that I missed some of the major clues at the beginning.  All the loose ends were eventually wrapped up, though in a somewhat weird way.  Setting - Duluth, MN and Las Vegas, NV - both places I have been to more than once, were believable and well written.  Because of the nature of the story, some of the characters weren't as fleshed out as others, which was a setback for me, although minor.  Stride's attraction to and fascination with Serena was difficult to believe and understand.  So, all in all, what do I look for in a good mystery?  A plot line that keeps me guessing.  Check.  Little surprises along the way.  Check.  A setting that is interesting and an integral part of the story.  Check.  Characters that are believable and seem real.  Not quite so much.  Writing.  Freeman strayed a few times from the protagonist's point-of-view, which was a bit disconcerting.  Will I read another in the series?  Sure, this was the first and he's up to seven with two novellas in between.  Bet he's gotten better.  All in all, a good find.

Goodreads synopsis:  In Duluth, Minnesota, a young woman, Rachel Stoner, has gone missing. Cop Jonathan Stride, a sharply focused detective despite the stresses of his troubled personal life, is quick to suspect her stepfather of murder. And yet, he has his doubts. Even for a man accustomed to power, the accused seems remarkably convinced he'll go free. Could he be telling the truth? While Stride endeavours to make sense of the conflicting pieces of evidence, a young woman's body lies half-buried deep in the woods. But if it's not the body of Rachel, where is the missing girl? Is she dead, or is the terrible, unexpected fate that awaits Graeme Stoner one he does not deserve? In this dark, involving mystery, nothing is as it seems, and readers will be gripped to the very last page as the shocking truth gradually emerges.

45. Deadline - John Sandford

Virgil Flowers #8
listened to cd in the car
2014 G.P. Putnam
388 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 7/25/15
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 3
Setting: contemporary southern Minnesota

First line/s:  "Dark, moonless night in the dog days of early August.  A funky warm drizzle left the world quiet and wet and close."

My comments:  Same old wonderful Virgil Flowers....clever and funny and smart.  This one seemed to drag a bit, though.  I do love the way that Sandford adds the perspective of the antagonist/s as well as the protagonist, but much of this seemed repetitive and unnecessary.....or maybe it was just the mood I was in as I drove....

Goodreads synopsis:  In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to personnel issues. “Issues” is correct. The proposal up for a vote before them is whether to authorize the killing of a local reporter. The vote is four to one in favor.
          Meanwhile, not far away, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping, which seems to be turning into something much bigger and uglier—a team of dognappers supplying medical labs—when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found—and the victim is a local reporter.

28. Boundary Waters - William Kent Krueger

Cork O'Connor #2

Listened on my iPhone through Audible

Audio read by David Chandler

(10:52)

book - 1999, audio - 2010

416 pgs.

Adult murder mystery

Finished 4/24/2014

Goodreads rating: 4.06

My rating:   4.5

Setting: contemporary Minnesota; late fall

My comments:  4.5 Interesting personalities and a semi-complicated plot with a bit of a surprise here and there made this book a great read (or listen-to).  I greatly enjoy the protagonist and I loved the way that the reader got to look at what was going on in three different places throughout the story. So.....excellent plot, characterization, and setting!

Goodreads book summary:  The Quetico-Superior Wilderness: more than two million acres of forest, white-water rapids, and uncharted islands on the Canadian/American border. Somewhere in the heart of this unforgiving territory, a young woman named Shiloh -- a country-western singer at the height of her fame -- has disappeared. Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire Cork O'Connor to find his daughter, and Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on her trail as well -- men hired not just to find her, but to kill her.
A           s the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town's snowy streets. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork's team of searchers loses contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a Minnesota blizzard, death -- violent and sudden -- stalks them.

18. Rules of Prey - John Sandford

#1 Lucas Davenport (a very lengthy series)

Read on my iPhone/through Kindles

1989

479 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 3/1/2015

Goodreads rating: 4.14

My rating: 4

Setting: Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) MN

1st sentence/s: 

My comments:  After reading (and loving) all of Sandford's books about Virgil Flowers, I decided it was time I tried out a Lucas Davenport.  My son, who has read them all, told me I should really start from the first title.  So I did!  Published in 1989, and without some of the modern technology that I've been used to having included, the story or Davenport's pursuit of Mad Dog is cleverly intricate, looking at things from both protagonist and antagonist's points of view.  Lucas Davenport is so cocky, street, savvy, and just-plain interesting that he intrigues me....but not as much as Virgil!  Rules of Prey is plot-driven and character-driven, and I look forward to more in the series written in this vein.

Goodreads book summary: The "maddog" murderer who is terrorizing the Twin Cities is two things: insane and extremely intelligent. He kills for the pleasure of it and thoroughly enjoys placing elaborate obstacles to keep police befuddled. Each clever move he makes is another point of pride. But when the brilliant Lieutenant Lucas Davenport--a dedicated cop and a serial killer's worst nightmare--is brought in to take up the investigation, the maddog suddenly has an adversary worthy of his genius.

69. Storm Front - John Sandford

#7 Virgil Flowers

Audio read by Eric Conger

8 unabridged discs (9.5 hrs)

2013 Penguin audio

384 pgs. (HC edition)

Adult mystery

Finished 11/4/2014

Goodreads rating:  3.81

My rating:   3-I liked it

TPPL

Mostly in and around Mankato, MN...but the beginning and ending took place in Israel

1st sentence/s: "His bags were packed and sitting by the door.  Nobody thought that was strange because four diggers were jammed into each small living suite.  With two tiny bedrooms feeding into a tiny kitchen area and even tinier bathroom there was hardly any place to keep clothing, so they kept it in their bags."

My comments:  This installment DID seem different. I listen to these read so well by Eric Conger, who has become the "voice" of Virgil for me, but the story seemed disjointed and even appeared to have some small parts missing. I liked the mystery - a lot - but the plot jumped so quickly from character to character and locale to location that at times I didn't even try to follow it, just went with the flow. Virgil's quick humor was present and very much appreciated. His lust for "Ma" was SO Virgil, but it never quite fully went into why he was so taken with her, other than she was ... built ... and perhaps because she had an IQ of 151? Of course, that was just slipped in, and I'm thinking this would matter to our Mr. Flowers. Okay, so maybe not on par with other Virgil Flowers books, but since I want them to keep on comin', I won't complain too loudly..... (And 3-stars means I DID like it.)

Goodreads book summary:  In Israel, a man clutching a backpack searches desperately for a boat. In Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a message from Lucas Davenport: You’re about to get a visitor. It’s an Israeli cop, and she’s tailing a man who’s smuggled out an extraordinary relic—an inscribed stone revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon.
          Wait a minute, laughs Virgil. Is this one of those Da Vinci Code deals? The secret scroll, the blockbuster revelation, the teams of murderous bad guys? Should I be boning up on my Bible verses?
          He looks at the cop. She’s not laughing. As it turns out, there are very bad men chasing the relic, and they don’t care who’s in the way or what they have to do to get it. Maybe Virgil should start praying.

38. Shock Wave - John Sandford

#5 Virgil Flowers

Audio read by Eric Conger

2011

388 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished on the road to Maine 6/20/2014

Goodreads Rating: 4.14

My Rating:  5/Fantastic story

TPPL

Setting:  Rural Minnesota

Goodreads Summary:  The superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants, fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands.
     The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart's headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage-and they do. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers's job to find out . . . before more people get killed.

My comments:  It's official - I have such a crush on Virgil Flowers.  I need another fix, soon.....

37. Orphan Train - Christina Baker Kline

read on my iPhone/Kindle

2013, William Morrow Paperbacks

304 pgs.

YA/Adult CRF/HistFict

Finished 6/15/14

Goodreads Rating:  4.08

My Rating: 4.5/Super story

Setting: 2011 MDI, Maine and 1929 (+) Minnesota

1^st sentence/s:  "I believe in ghosts.  They're the ones who haunt us, the ones who have left us behind."

My comments:  4.5  I love books that flip back and forth in time, as this one does.  One orphan in 1929 Minnesota and another in 2011 Mount Desert Island, Maine.  (What a hoot reading about Somesville OneStop, Bar Harbor, MDI High School, and even the Island Explorer bus).  Which town is Spruce Harbor - Southwest Harbor I'm guessing.  I couldn't put this down - such trials and heartbreak each of these protagonists have endured.

Goodreads Summary:  The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.

     Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.
     Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
     The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.
     Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are

48. Mad River - John Sandford

Virgil Flowers #6

Audio read by Eric Conger (he is definitely now the voice of Virgil Flowers!)
8 unabridged cds (10 hours)

2012, Penguin Audio ($39.95, borrowed from TPPL)

387 pgs.

Adult murder mystery

Finished 10/22/2013

Goodreads Rating: 4.09

My Rating:  4.5 - it was a good one

Setting: southwestern Minnesota, in the prairie/cornfield area of the state very near where Virgil grew up

1^st sentence/s:  "Jimmy Sharp stepped back from the curve and impatiently waved the car by."

My comments:  This book was written a bit differently than some of the previous Virgil Flowers titles, in that every so often the setting and point-of-view switched to the bad guys.  I like this a lot.  I also liked that Sandford didn't gloss over the foibles and atrocities committed by cops, at least not completely.  When a book you're reading produces strong gut reactions...well, that's a good book!

Goodreads says:  Bonnie and Clyde, they thought. And what’s-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns.  The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it captured on the killers’ cell phones and sent to a local television station, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down. But even he doesn’t realize what’s about to happen next.

46. Rough Country - John Sandford

Virgil Flowers #3

Audio read by Eric Conger

2009, Penguin Audio

388 pgs.

Adult murder Mystery

Finished 9/23/2013

Goodreads Rating: 4.05

My Rating:

Loved it (4)

Acquired: PBS

Setting:  Rural Minnesota

My comments:  I adore Virgil Flowers.  He's taken over first place: I'm having to move Harry Bosch to second (Cork O'Connor stays in third). I'm discovering that after reading the first in this series, it doesn't matter the order your read them in.  This foray is full of lesbians..... interesting..... and even if this particular story didn't grab me quite as much as the others I've read, it's still Virgil Flowers, and the way he acts and thinks and dresses help me still like the book a LOT.

Goodreads Review:  Virgil's always been known for having a somewhat active, er, social life, but he's probably not going to be getting too many opportunities for that during his new case. While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, he gets a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a murder at a nearby resort, where a woman has been shot while kayaking. The resort is for women only, a place to relax, get fit, recover from plastic surgery, commune with nature, and while it didn't start out to be a place mostly for those with Sapphic inclinations, that's pretty much what it is today.

Which makes things all the more complicated for Virgil, because as he begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented country singer. The more he digs, the more he discovers the arrows of suspicion that point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, fear. Then he finds that this is not the first murder, that there was a second, seemingly unrelated one, the year before. And that there's about to be a third, definitely related one, any time now. And as for the fourth . . . well, Virgil better hope he can catch the killer before that happens. Because it could be his own.