John Sandford is the current master of the police procedural, and this punchy, economical novel epitomizes the subgenre. A fun read.

Very good ( )

Brisk easy and entertaining read. JS filled the 468 page turner w action and his trade mark wise ass comments effectively. Summer in south Minnesota saw Virgil chasing nutty tiger thief and there were more than enough twists and turns to keep my attention. Though you did know from almost the beginning that the bad guy was gonna get 'et. It wil be a sad day when I run out of Virgil Flowers noverls. ( )

This review originally appeared on my blog at www.gimmethatbook.com.

Many thanks to NetGalley for this review copy!

Seeing a new John Sandford book on the shelf is always a thrill, and even more so when it’s a Flowers outing. Sandford’s Davenport character is well written, but Flowers is truly a joy to experience. It seems to me that the author permits himself to really cut loose in writing about Virgil’s exploits; his writing seems to mirror Carl Hiaasen’s more than his own.

That being said, I love Carl Hiaasen. His character development ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, and so it goes here with ESCAPE CLAUSE.

The main bad guy is a disgraced doctor who pops Xanax like M&M’s. The other bad guys are truly caricatures of villains, even down to how they meet their untimely demise. In fact, I would say that this book by far is the most gory and strange Virgil story yet.

It starts out normal enough: our hero is asked to track down two missing tigers from the Minneapolis zoo. Once he starts shaking the tree, all sorts of things start falling out. We learn about the dark side of traditional Chinese medicine, and also experience a sub plot with wild characters as well – Virgil’s girlfriend has a sister named Sparkle who is dating a priest.

Don’t let the rollicking crazies fool you – this is a serious mystery that will keep you turning the pages. Even though we know whodunit already, seeing them brought to justice (or not) is captivating. Virgil is getting tired of handling animal cases (remember the dognappers from a previous book?) but he throws his all into tracking these rare tigers down with a fervor that will delight the most sensitive animal lover. He truly has fun while on the job, and it shows.

ESCAPE CLAUSE can be read as a standalone novel, but fans of Virgil will delight in all the in-jokes and references to previous adventures. Sandford keeps getting better and better. This was one of the best books I’ve read this year.
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Once again, a very entertaining and humorous book about Virgil Flowers, with the usual dumb and/or crazy villains; where do they find these guys? Oh, yeah, they're made up.

To start with, a group of guys decide to steal a pair of rare, endangered tigers from the zoo to break down into various parts for the Chinese to ingest. Virgil is called in to try to get the guys, hopefully before they kill the tigers. The Chinese buyer is a pretty evil and money-hungry criminal from China, along with his son. The American side is a money-hungry sociopath or psychopath who doesn't mind killing anyone who might be in his way, and doesn't mind killing a few innocents along the way.

There's a side story involving Virgil's girlfriend and her sister, who get beat up because the sister is trying to expose the management of a local sweatshop factory. The two stories are not related, but only confuse the issues because they don't know which group is doing what crimes.

Interesting story with some good lines. ( )