Holy Ghost by John SandfordMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Jacket Blurb: Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of seven hundred souls for which the word "moribund" might have been invented. Nothing ever happened there and nothing ever would—until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: "I'll Do What I Can") and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. They'd heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They'd all get rich! What could go wrong?
When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that's only the beginning of their troubles—and Virgil Flowers'—as they are all about to discover all too soon.
Round up to 3.5 stars.
Read as an audio book.
I enjoyed this latest installment... of course I did, it's Virgil.
That being said, this wasn't, perhaps, my favorite. Only in that I found the overall story a tich slow. We start out in a small Unremarkable Southern Minnesota Town that is slowly going the way of the stage coach. A couple of enterprising denizens concoct an idea to put the town on the map and bring in some much needed revenue. And it works, until someone starts killing people on the street ala sniper style.
Virgil is called in. Virgil then calls in Jenkins and Shrake (sp? I've listened to the whole series on audio). And our very fine group of boys run around trying to figure who's doing this for nearly 2/3 of the book.
Which is where it became a bit slow. Someone is murdered. Run around. Talk to some folks. Fret. Someone else is murdered. Run around. Talk to some folks. Fret. Repeat. Repeat two more times in fact.
What was different about this latest installment was the reader really doesn't get to see what the antagonist is doing or why they are doing it. There is a bit at the beginning, and then it's kinda forgotten until you hit that 2/3 mark. If you're reading via paper copy or e-reader, you can bip back and refresh your memory. Not so easy on audio. Now personally, I prefer not knowing what the antagonist is doing - but that's a Sandford trademark in my humble opinion. So, I enjoyed this installment more because of it.
The ending did make up for the slow middle. Just saying. This installment still has all the classic Virgil humor and wit that we've come to appreciate.
Recommended if you've read the first ten in the series.
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