Product Description

Virgil Flowers heads north to solve a puzzling murder - and finds that the country is very rough indeed. While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, Flowers gets a call from Lucas Davenport asking him 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 and commune with nature. As Flowers starts to ask questions, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim and some local women, notably a talented country singer. And the more he digs, the more he discovers the resort to be a hotbed of jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger and fear. And then he discovers that this is not the first murder, that there was a second, seemingly unrelated killing 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 had better hope he can catch the killer before that happens. Because it could be his own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8694 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Customer Reviews

STUNNING SUSPENSE - FIRECRACKER PROSE
No question that thriller master John Sandford knows how to hook a reader early on. He's done it with 19 Prey novels and he does it again with this, the third in his Virgil Flowers series.

It had been an idyllic day now turning to evening as Erica McDill, who heads an advertising agency, was out on Stone Lake paddling toward what she called the pond. One partner in the agency had died, the other was retired and agreed to sell McGill his remaining stock. She would have "absolute control. So Excellent."

McGill's mind was busy, full of plans, wondering how to get rid of what she called the "footdraggers," workers not pulling their weight. At the same time she was looking for an eagle to return to its nest high in a white pine. "She saw it a half mile out, unmistakable in its size, a giant bird floating along on unmoving wings." That was all she saw - "The killer shot her in the forehead."

At the same time Virgil Flowers along with his pal Johnson is enjoying a fishing tournament not too far away in northern Minnesota. His sport is soon interrupted by a phone call from Lucas Davenport saying Virgil needs to investigate the murder of a woman at Eagle Nest Lodge, an upscale resort for women only. It doesn't take long for Virgil to discover that much of the resort's popularity is due to the privacy provided for lesbian affairs or to have flings with the good-looking underage male employees.

In addition, Erica's murder was not the first to have occurred at the Lodge, another woman died the year before. Motives? There are a slew - jealousy, revenge, love, hate, greed. Erica had been involved with Wendy, the lead vocalist, in a nearby country band. Not a shrinking violet, Wendy had ambition and Erica made some promises but now she was dead. Could Wendy's other lover have been the shooter? The list of suspects grows as Virgil digs more deeply into the lives of the Lodge's employees and guests.

Leave it to Sandford to keep us guessing until the very end and enjoying every minute of it. Suspense readers won't want to miss Rough Country.

- Gail Cooke