TW/CW: Blood & Gore, implied sexual activities, drug abuse, animal kidnapping, animal harm, animal death, murder, dismemberment, mutilation of bodies, guns
Book Blurb (GR)
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.
Review
It's the ninth book in the Virgil Flowers series and 'that fucking Flowers' is back at it again. Having started off as a spin-off from the main, Prey/Lucas Davenport series, nine is a huge number. It means he's got nine adventures to his name and not one has let me down so far. Having just recently come off a case where he investigated a corrupt school board, which happened to take place in the same area and town as a local dog-napping case, Virgil's got himself a nice round up of achievements and quite the reputation. Having managed to track and save those missing dogs...?
Exactly the skill set we need, because we have a HUGE problem.
A pair of tigers have been tiger-napped from the zoo, two gorgeous and very rare Amur tigers. Best case scenario? Some animal-rights activists wanted to take the tigers and broadcast about saving them from the horrors of zoos. Worst case? The beautiful cats could end up slaughtered and turned into traditional medicine and the longer the cats are gone, the more bleak the outcome seems to be.
As with most of Sandford's other books, the readers already know who the big bad are. Sometimes names are given, sometimes just initials, but in Escape Clause we all know, in the very first chapter, who they are, names included. It's just a matter in waiting and seeing if Virgil can guess on who they are. It adds to a layer of the suspense because, knowing the exact moves of the antagonists at all times, we know which direction both parties are taking and the colder Virgil gets, in the case, the more panic starts to bubble in your stomach. If they get away with it, well...it won't be the first case that Virgil lets a few criminals slip into a territory that he has no control over. So even though we know whodunit upfront, it doesn't guarantee that Virgil will ever find them.
The plot was outstanding and while I was a little skeptical at first, Virgil included, this ended up being an amazing read. Here is, what seemed to be another animal-napping case (and Virgil hopes he won't end up with a reputation where all animal cases ends up at his desk), but when the bodies start piling and stakes are starting to look very high, things start to pick up and snowball.
The antagonists here were written really well, especially as the plot begins to get moving. This time around, I especially loved one of the handful of antagonists, him being the mastermind and all. The man pops his Xanax pills like it's a handful of candy and it was interesting to watch him go from a controlled calm to downright desperate. I've seen plenty of bad guys start losing their minds when anxiety gets to their head, but the downward spiral here was especially steep that it almost felt maddening. This time, both sides are having it rough and the anxiety and fear is just seeping through. The way Sandford wrote his declining mental stabilities (and abilities) was one of the heart-racing moments of the book.
Like with his other books (at least the Virgil Flowers ones) there's a main plot and one or two side plots/cases happening at once. This time around, Virgil is reaaally feeling the effect of multiple cases (eyeballs on him, breaths down his neck, and such). He's exhausted his energy from poor sleep and starting to exhaust his leads and ideas too. Besides the tiger case, he also has to sideline in tracking down a couple of people who had beaten his girlfriend, Frankie, up, having mistaken her for her sister, Sparkle. Sparkle was in town investigating a case on her own, for her thesis, and there are people who really don't want her exposing things.
In this case, being personally connected to the victim, it'd be trouble if Virgil investigated himself and thus, comes a cross-over and returning character! One of my favorite characters from the small handful of Prey/Lucas Davenport books I've read, Catrin Mattson had helped Davenport on a case, her involvement and aid so impressive that she'd been recruited into the BCA. She's BADASS and I was elated to see her show up here in Virgil Flowers.
Now speaking of returning characters, Shrake & Jenkins, the BCA's "thugs" are back to help lend a hand anytime Virgil needs manpower or just a set of "mafia looking men" to help intimidate sometime into spitting out some clues or verbally squeezing truths out of people. I always love these three's interactions because it's somewhat amusing and funny; the perfect breather to nonstop action and emotional grime.
"As they drove away from the medical examiner's office, Jenkins said to Virgil, "Better you than me." "What?" "Giving those guys your business card. They got nothing to contribute, but they're gonna call you every fifteen minutes." "Don't think so," Virgil said. "You saw them, how freaked out they are," Jenkins said. "I got a hundred dollars that they'll call you fifteen times a day. At least fifteen times a day." "You're on," Virgil said. Jenkins examined him for a moment, then said, "You're too confident." "Because I gave them one of Shrake's business cards," Virgil said. Shrake, in the backseat said, "What? What?" Jenkins snorted and said to Virgil, "You're my new role model." "You really couldn't do much better," Virgil said. Shrake's phone rang and Jenkins started laughing.
One thing I particularly liked was that Virgil is finally getting serious with Frankie. Previously, I'd mentioned that I read the Prey books out of order and most of what I know about Davenport is when he was in his older, calmer, and settled stages in life (and so was pretty surprising and interesting to go back and read the first books where Davenport had been more...wild with women). Similarly, most of what I know about Virgil (as I at least read most of this series' books in order) had been him hitting up nearly every chick in sight. It got to be somewhat annoying as time passed on, so to see him start turning down date invites because he's now in a serious relationship? I like this new Virgil.
Final Thoughts
All in all, a great book. Started out somewhat slow with Virgil stuck, leaving him somewhat idle and able to investigate into Frankie/Sparkle's case, but not participate due to connection with victim reasons. When things pick up, it really picks up and Virgil goes from sitting around to losing sleep as one thing happens after another. The climax and ending was one of the best parts because you're pitting a man who's so doped up with drugs, exhaustion, and desperation to save himself against a just as desperate [to solve the case] and exhausted man. If the beginning were small tea spoon sips, the climax and ending were giant gobbles.
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