Product Details

• Published on: 2007-11
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 431 pages

From Publishers Weekly
What a pleasure to find a novel with an upbeat hero paired with a reader who is more interested in telling a story well than in demonstrating the outer limits of his vocal range. Far from the usual cynical, borderline-depressed investigator, Virgil Flowers is a likable, hang-loose sort of sleuth who enjoys life and seems to relish handling the hard stuff for his boss, Lucas Davenport (Sandford's Prey series hero makes a brief cameo). Flowers's assignment is to investigate several gruesome murders in a small town. Unlike the harder-edged Prey series, Moon is more of an entertainment, allowing Flowers to supplement his determined quest for justice with witty conversation and several romantic interludes. Conger matches the lighter moods with a mellow, almost mesmerizing matter-of-fact delivery, adjusting his vocal range just slightly to differentiate speakers. But when the action demands it—such as the grim opening murder scene or the suspenseful storming of the cult leader's encampment—Conger's voice takes on a properly hardboiled intensity.
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From AudioFile
Bluestem, Minnesota, is a quiet town where everybody knows everyone elses business and murder is unheard of. But now someone is killing off a generation of old-timers, and Virgil Flowers, of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, is in town to find the person responsible. Eric Conger uses a careful, edgy baritone to build the suspense in this clever thriller. Congers reading and Sandfords tight and evocative dialogue render the characters as fully developed individuals, be they a washed-out trailer park mom, ex-con preacher of hate, or handsome Virgil Flowers himself. Fans of Sandfords Prey series will appreciate the tie-ins to that series and the occasional appearance of its hero, Lucas Davenport. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Headed to rural Bluestem to assist local law enforcement with the seemingly motiveless murder of an elderly couple, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers happens upon a raging house fire on the edge of town. The house's owner, Bill Judd, killed in the blaze, was an elderly recluse who, back in the day, ran an elaborate pyramid scheme and simultaneously bedded half the women in town. He escaped conviction on the fraud charge, and the money was never recovered. There have been no murders in Bluestem for a half-century, and now there are three in a couple weeks. Virgil is not an advocate of coincidence and so begins digging for a connection between the victims. Complicating matters is his affair with the sister of the local police chief. Sandford's plotting and dialogue are as crisp as ever, and the emergence of Virgil Flowers gives the author another idiosyncratic, thoroughly ingratiating hero to alternate with the ever-popular Lucas Davenport. Flowers, who made his debut as a secondary character in the Davenport thriller Invisible Prey (2007), is a low-key loose cannon whose wardrobe consists of alternative-rock t-shirts carefully chosen to match his agenda of the day. The appeal of the Davenport series is mainly tied to the hero's wit and self-deprecating humor, but this first Flowers entry is more about action: an adrenaline rush peppered with laugh-out-loud moments. Lukowsky, Wes