Shock Wave (A Virgil Flowers Novel)

Another great Vigil Flowers story only no sex in this one. He hunts for a bomber targeting a big box store being constructed in a small Minnesota town.

Easy read - simple plot - good character development - BUT the prime character, Virgil Flowers, is quirky - seemingly just for quirky's sake - there seemed to be no point. I found him to actually be a distraction from a pretty good story.

He still writes good books and Virgil is very fun

Wish everyone talked like Sandford's characters! Great repartee!

Another novel featuring Virgil Flowers. His character is not nearly as interesting as Davenport in Sandford's Prey series. I can't really get into the quirks of this character.

I think Virgil Flowers is hilarious. I love his quirks. It feels like Sanford is settling in with this character and getting more comfortable with who Virgil is. I love his laid back swagger and how other law enforcement people and civilians react to his unorthodox style. People either don't know

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what to think and they are stand-offish with him (usually law enforcement) or feel comfortable enough with him that they want to get involved with the case by offering suggestions and ideas (usually civilians).

Can't wait to see what case is next and how Virgil goes about solving it.

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Virgil Flowers. Need I say more?

I like Sandford and I like Virgil Flowers. I found Shock Wave a bit slow at times; I guess I did not care for the storyline - but I liked the characters and I liked the dialogue. Not his best stuff, in my opinion, but still an enjoyable read.

What I wouldn't give for a really good John Stanford novel. Unfortunately this one's not it. Though it is a serviceable book. Virgil Flowers, who it seems Sandford has a better grip on than Lucas Davenport, investigates a series of corporate bombings. While the story isn't overly interesting, the

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characters are compelling and some of the dialog is crisp. It'll have to do as I await a really good John Sandford novel. One thats been a long time coming.

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Another excellent book from an outstanding author. Great sense of place created with fishing and fish talk providing an interesting small town Minnesota background. Really hard to put down as the plot kept driving the action forward. Some of the simple solutions, how the bomb got into the tower,

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for example, created a very realistic and satisfactory conclusion.

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Ka-boom, ka-boom. Lotta explosions in this one.

Somebody really, really doesn't want Pie-mart to come to town. And they're not sending flowers to get it to stop, they're setting bombs. BCA investigator Virgil Flowers is pretty sure he can solve the case. But not before some more things go "boom".

The Flowers books just get better and better. LOVE

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the volleyball opener.

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Superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two groups want to stop it: local merchants and environmentalists. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands. The first bomb goes off on the top floor

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of PyeMart's headquarters. The second explodes at the construction site itself. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers job to find out before more people get killed.

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A pretty well written, easy to read book. Decently plotted and did have the feel (generally) of an investigation sifting through potential suspects. One facet that wasn't believable was the manner in which Flowers freely discussed the case with various people met in the course of the investigation.

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This aspect threw me off from being able to be totally immersed in the plot.

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As always, John Sandford is really good at what he does.

This was an audiobook listen for me. I have been a big fan of John Sandford for many many years. Mr Sandford writes consistently great books. His characters are interesting and the stories draw you in. I enjoyed this book and look forward to more Virgil Flowers novels.

The superstore chain PyeMart

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has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants, fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands.

The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart's headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage-and they do. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers's job to find out . . . before more people get killed.

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The fifth offering in John Sanford's series featuring Virgil Flowers finds Virgil investigating a series of bombings in Butternut Falls, MN. The town council surprised the residents by voting to modify the municipal plan to accommodate a large discount store chain and many residents fear the local

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environment, not to mention most of the local businesses, will be damaged or destroyed.

This is arguably the best of Sanford's novels featuring Virgil Flowers, the only competition coming from the second entry in the series, Heat Lightening. Many of the complaints I have about some of the earlier books in this series are corrected in this book. Flowers' interest in off-the-wall T-shirts is still evident but not featured excessively as in previous novels and his casual hook-ups with women is replaced with genuine affection for the central female figure of Bad Blood which leads Virgil to exercise restraint. Most important, this is the first novel that achieves the genuine status of "mystery." In the previous novels the guilty party was either known or somewhat obvious and the only mystery was how Virgil would obtain the evidence needed to prove guilt. Here the identity of the bomber is not known until the final 20 pages. While the final ending is a bit weak, Sandford's ability to maintain the mystery up until the end and still tie everything together nicely is bound to please most reader.

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I know of no other mystery/thriller author who has written more consistently excellent books than John Sandford. Shock Wave is yet another winner. Sandford created one of my favorite characters in the genre, Lucas Davenport, and the star of this book, Virgil Flowers, is rapidly moving up the

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list.

As in all Sandford's books, the plot is excellent, the police investigative work rings true, the dialogue is great, and the characters are very believable. The plot was a real head-scratcher, but the conclusion worked and made sense.

All-in-all, this is another fine addition to the roster of excellent novels by Sandford. If you're already a fan or new to this author, you'll love it.

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I never get tired of John Sanford's books. They're great to read and lots of fun on audio. This was my "running errands" audio and it made errands a real pleasure. This is another Virgil Flowers book and I have to admit that Virgil is really starting to grow on me. Of course, Lucas Davenport is

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still my favorite but Virgil is getting closer with each new book! This book is about a large store being built in a small town. There are a lot of people that don't want that to happen and when bombs start going off, first at the PyeMart headquarters, then at the building site, Lucas sends Virgil into the fray to figure it out. As always, loved it!

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Synopsis: Virgil is called in when it appears that a bombing of an executive's office in the city is tied to the bombing of one of his businesses in a rural town, but there are no discernible perpetrators in the two settings. As he investigates, Virgil finds that this little town has its share of

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infidelity, greed, and crazies that could account for the bombings. However, when his boat is blown up, Virgil takes this personally.
Review: As usual, stories about Virgil are fun to read. He seems to be the character Sandford enjoys writing because of the situations that arise in the books. This one ends with the readers saying, 'Poor Virgil', since he seems to be the butt of one long joke.

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I didn't realize until I'd gotten this home from the library that I'd read this before. Luckily, John Sandford's Virgil Flowers books are worth re-reading. For the life of me, the ending of this one totally surprised me. Could it be that I somehow didn't finish the book the first time around?

"Shock Wave" is aptly named, as it involves a plot about a very busy bomber who has it in for "Pye-Mart", obviously a Walmart knockoff, that is in the early construction phase in Butternut Falls, MN and is expected to destroy the local merchants and pollute the river with runoff. While that's not

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exactly an original premise, the one or two bombings per day keep everyone hopping to an insane degree, with a similar increase in suspense to the reader. Not surprisingly, there appears to have been illegal payoffs to local politicals to make the approval for the new megastore a reality. While Virgil Flowers is trying to discover the identity of the bomber, he uncovers those crimes as well, nicely cleaning up the local scene. Meanwhile, it seems he is breaking up with his new sheriff sweetheart, which slows down his tendency to womanize key characters.

As in all Sandford's books, the plot is excellent, the police investigative work rings true, the dialogue is great, and the characters are very believable. The plot was a real head-scratcher, but the conclusion worked and made sense. All-in-all, this is another fine addition to the roster of excellent novels by John Sandford. If you're already a fan or new to this author, you'll love it.

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Pretty good

Another Virgil Flowers novel. 'nuf said.