Storm Front by John Sandford

Reviewed by Gerti

I usually don’t read books about ancient treasures or the political implications of found relics. That’s why I avoid writers like Clive Cussler and Dan Brown. But John Sandford snuck one in on me, using protagonist Virgil Flowers as the lure. And I’m glad I did read it, even if I enjoyed the characters more than the plot.

Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent Virgil Flowers is called on to help retrieve a relic stolen from Israel. It’s an ancient stele uncovered during an archaeological dig involving some professors and enthusiasts from America, including Dr. Elijah Jones, professor emeritus from Gustavus Adolphus College in Mankato. Realizing its immense value, Jones uses stealth to bring it back to the US, hoping to sell it and pay for his Alzheimers-afflicted wife’s long-term nursing care. Jones has terminal cancer, so he doesn’t really care what happens to him, but he needs the millions of dollars the object would bring. But Jones is closely followed by bad guys and girls from various international organizations, because the object shows that King Solomon, mentioned in the Bible, was a myth, and the stories about him were really referring to a Pharoah named Siamun (a real historical person).

Virgil travels around with a woman named Yael Aronov, supposed to be from the Israel Antiquities Authority, who ends up being Mossad. When the real investigator (of the same name) arrives from Tel Aviv, Flowers’ realizes he’s been had, and how important and complicated the case really is if these groups who want the stone could delay her flight for days. There are other guys with guns, generally bumblers played for comic relief, and a few “Indiana Jones” wannabes who are looking to find this artifact so they can keep their lucrative TV shows. But the most interesting thing going on in this novel has to do with Virgil Flowers himself, and a local lady con-artist named Ma Nobles. She is a big-busted beauty with a bevy of sons by different fathers (hence the nickname), and Flowers started the book trying to find out where she was aging local lumber to sell it to East Coast snobs at a huge profit.

Instead, the pair begin working together, and against each other, each with their own motivation. Nobles knew Jones as a child, when he was a big, burly preacher who helped her family out of poverty. Flowers’ father was also a local pastor, and that gives Flowers an edge on information about the Holy Land, but he wants to catch Jones and get the stele back to Israel before anyone gets killed, including Jones’ daughter Ellen. I hate the plot, but I love the characters, and Sandford always injects enough humor to keep everything interesting. I would recommend the book, even if you don’t like ancient mysteries, because it’s as exciting as riding a dune buggy over ancient sands, modern fun on ancient ground. Another Sandford winner.

Mad River by John Sandford

Reviewed by Gerti 

My John Sandford obsession has been going on for a few weeks now, and his “Mad River” is the first of his novels that has sounded a sour note for me. It’s the story of 3 teens, dysfunctional as all get out, who begin a crime spree ala Charlie Starkweather because they are just flat broke. The girl, Becky Welsh, knows a local Shinder girl who married well and wore diamonds to a recent party in the town, which Becky helped cater. Becky wants those stones. Her boyfriend, the impotent (or possibly gay?) Jimmy Sharp, was born mean, and he figures out a way to get those diamonds, and make some extra cash on the side by committing a murder for hire. The pairs’ ride-along buddy is named Tom McCall, who at first seems the best natured of the trio, but then turns into a cop-shooting rapist. These 3 inspire a manhunt the likes of which Minnesota has never seen.

Enter Virgil Flowers. While I love this crime-solving character in other Sandford novels I’ve read, he seems a little flat in this book. At one point, he gets the snot kicked out of him by two thugs and ends up with a concussion, but he almost seems to be handicapped from the start! Lucas Davenport, his boss and the subject of several other Sandford novels, also makes a short appearance here in this book, but he also seems toned down. It’s almost as though Sandford is tired of writing cute paragraphs to decribe his two most famous protagonists for those who haven’t read the series before, and so there is very little background information given on the pair. Which is a shame, because in previous books, it has been the details Sandford uses to describe these clever employees of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that have really made his novels sing!

I’m also missing Johnson Johnson, Flowers crazy fishing buddy who always livens up the storyline with his lunacy. Instead, here we have a tight-knit Catholic family of doctors (yawn) and a former high school girlfriend with whom Virgil finally scores. Just like the book itself, the investigation into the spree killers seems to stall. This is the first Flowers novel in which Virgil does not get his man. Several convictions fall through, that of 2 of the kids, and of the local good-old-boy sheriff who ordered their car fired on in ambush style while they were giving themselves up. As a result of that event, Virgil never does get enough evidence against the man who ordered the hit on his ex-wife, so the book, while providing closure in the end, doesn’t provide much satisfaction. It’s like Virgil’s high school relationship with Sally Long – all talk and not enough action. Sandford has written far better books than this one, and fans should seek them out. The journey on this “Mad River” leaves me high and dry.