Class reunions: a time for memories—good, bad, and, as Virgil Flowers is about to find out, deadly—in this New York Times bestselling thriller from John Sandford. Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt—and as it turned out, homicidal—local school board, and now the town’s back in view with more alarming news: A woman’s been … alarming news: A woman’s been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There’s a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of twenty years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, and so, wrapping his coat a little tighter, Virgil begins to dig into twenty years’ worth of traumas, feuds, and bad blood. In the process, one thing becomes increasingly clear to him. It’s true what they say: High school is murder.
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Deep Freeze is the tenth book in the Virgil Flowers series. I absolutely loved it. BCA investigator Virgil Flowers is back in Trippton, Minnesota. This time he’s investigating the murder of Gina Hemming. Gina was rich, pretty, and pretentious, and her body was found frozen in a block of ice, just in time for the winter high school class reunion. In case things aren’t crazy enough in Trippton, someone is anatomically altering Barbie Dolls and posting them around town. Mattel wants it stopped and has sent an LA Detective armed with cease and desist orders. It’s Virgil Flowers at his best.
John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series continues to delight me. This is most likely because I grew up in small towns, and Sandford nails the small town milieu–the type of small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business and talks about it freely. In Deep Freeze, Virgil returns to the town where he saved the dogs, this time to investigate a mysterious death. Whilst there, he encounters a PI from Los Angeles who is investigating a case where person or persons unknown are making shocking alterations to Barbie and Ken dolls. This is good for several laugh out loud moments. Virgil gets beat up by a bunch of masked women. And someone else gets killed. It’s a good mystery, and fun, with lots of local color.
Being a Virgil Flowers fan, I was happy to read of his latest adventures. I’m a little disappointed with his building relationship with Frankie and his role as a father, it takes away a part of his swagger that I liked most about him. I do however, look forward to the next book to see what direction it takes. Will he continue to grow as the family man or will something happen to his recently acquired family, sending him on a mission to find the one or ones responsible for his deeply felt loss?
I thoroughly enjoy John Sanford’s Virgil Flowers series. This 10th book in the series is just as good as the first one. It’s funny, unpredictable and a great mystery thriller. I enjoyed that some of the usual characters, like Johnson Johnson and Frankie, and others were in it. Looking forward to the next one.
Gotta love Virgil. Gotta love John Sandford. One of my favorite authors. Starts a little different than most Sandford books, but then settles into what I am used to from him.
Virgil doesn’t have his boat this book, but does manage to lose his truck, go figure.
Good story. Good characters. Fast paced easy read.
Schrake and Jenkins show up and there is a call from Davenport. The gang’s all here.
The Virgil Flowers audiobooks got me through 2020. ‘That f***ing Flowers,’ as he’s called by his friends and colleagues, is my guy. The son of a preacher, he looks like a surfer dude in cowboy boots, talks to God as he falls asleep, and always forgets to carry his gun. The books in the series get better and better, especially as he acquires a dog and a girlfriend with 5 kids. This is my favorite to date, and as always, Eric Conger is a brilliant narrator.
DEEP FREEZE is fast-paced, funny, packed with quirky sidekicks, and an expose of small-town life–which can be murder.
I love all the Virgil Flowers books. This one is wonderful.
Another entertaining romp with Virgil – this time through the snow and ice (lots of snow and ice) in the small town of Trippton. You’ll remember this town from Deadline, where Virgil was chasing dog-nappers and members of the school board. This time he’s sent to investigate a murder and stop production of altered Barbie sex dolls. Simple, right? Not really, but with the help of his friend, Johnson Johnson, and wife, Clarice, Virgil manages to get the job done. Fact-paced and packed with humor, this story was definitely worth the time invested.
Love Virgil Flowers. Solid story, always a touch of humor with John Sandford.
A fun read part of the Virgil Flowers series
Virgil is almost the best. A close second to Lucas.
Wonderful dialogue between men. Funny, funny
Reading a Virgil Flowers (John Sandford book) is like visiting with old friends. This character never gets old for me. Sandford writes so easily that you feel like you are right there with all the main action happening right around you. From start to finish this was a great read. I even laughed out loud in some places. Keep it going. Looking forward to reading Holy Ghost and Bloody Genius as well as the Davenport books Twisted Prey & Neon Prey!!
Listened to the audio book. Liked it better than the last couple. Sometimes I just had to LOL.
Every Virgil Flowers and Lucas Davenport book has been a treat to read.
Awesome!
This is another hugely entertaining entry in John Sandford’s series featuring Virgil Flowers, an agent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Flowers usually works in the small communities of the rural parts of the state, and this case takes him back to Trippton, which was the scene of one of his earlier investigations.
In this case, a wealthy divorced woman was murdered in the wake of a committee meeting at her home. The committee members had been planning the 25th reunion of the Trippton High School class of 1992, and in a tiny town like this, high school pretty much lasts for the rest of your life. The friends and enemies you made and the rivalries and antagonisms that developed during those years simply continue to endure, and the only people who escape them are the ones who have sense enough to leave town and live somewhere else.
The reader knows who the killer is from the opening pages. Unfortunately, though, Virgil doesn’t, and the search for the perpetrator will force him to dig deeply into the relationships, licit and otherwise, that bind and divide the citizens of Trippton and the class of ’92 in particular. It will be an interesting journey to say the least.
There’s also a hilarious subplot in which Virgil is instructed to assist a female P.I. from California who’s trying to stop a case of patent infringement violating the rights of the Mattel corporation. A woman named Jesse McGovern is reconfiguring Ken and Barbie dolls into XXX-rated adult toys and distributing them over the Internet. The company has traced the source of the problem to Trippton and has sent the detective to serve a cease-and-desist order on McGovern. The problem is that everyone in town denies knowing Jesse McGovern and they are doing everything they can to prevent the P.I. from serving the papers. Virgil is not especially anxious to assist in this matter, but orders are orders.
As always, the book is a lot of fun and there are several laugh-out-loud moments. I was struck by one thing, though: Years ago, Sandford wrote a book in the Prey series, titled Winter Prey. As the title would suggest, the book took place in the middle of winter and Sandford’s description of the winter cold was so brilliantly done, that I was shivering through the whole book. Other readers have made the same comment, and years later, I still feel cold every time I think of the book.
Deep Freeze also takes place in the middle of a very cold winter, and people are constantly bundling up, shoveling snow, and otherwise enduring the winter weather. But you don’t (or at least I didn’t) get nearly the same sensation of being out in the middle of the cold weather the way you did in the Prey book. Perhaps that’s because while this book is mostly humorous, the Prey book was extremely menacing and thus even the weather came through as menacing. In any event, unlike the earlier book, this one, its title not withstanding, did not make me desperate to go in search of a giant hot buttered rum.
A good addition to the Virgil Flowers series, but not near as engaging as previous works. The plotting is good, with a few twists, and Sandford’s characters are always well done. The social commentary aspects of his writing are spot on. And his plots and situations have enough originality in them to keep one engaged. Though his writing does not share the brevity of someone like Robert B. Parker, he still gives his characters depth without overwriting.
Sandford is Superior !
As usual, Sanford does a great job with creating action and suspense, all salted with a wonderful cast of characters.