The Detective with the Rock and Roll T Shirts -- Virgil Flowers

Virgil heads to investigate the death of an elderly couple when he comes upon a firey scene and becomes involved in the death of local businessman-of-ill-repute, Bill Judd. Virgil is a trouble-shooter, called in to investigate the crimes that local sheriffs are not in a position or qualified to handle. Virgil, of course, struggles with his fascination with eligible women and finds time to help the local sheriff's love life along while dealing with small-town politics and shoot outs.

Virgil is called in when an apparent serial killer is working in Minnesota, notably placing a lemon in the mouths of his victims and placing their bodies at war memorials. He is told that this was a trick used in Vietnam to silence execution victims and his investigation leads him to an academic radical with ties to Vietnam and his attractive daughter.

Read Heat Lightning before the Davenport novel Broken Prey, which begins immediately after the resolution of Heat Lightning.

It's a fishing vacation for Virgil and he's just starting out for a day on the water when Lucas Davenport orders him to a relatively nearby resort for ladies only. Virgil discovers that many of the ladies prefer ladies, although quite a few are not immune to the attractions of the resort's young male staffers. The victim is one of these women -- a wealthy, cut-throat advertising executive about to take over her firm and rout out the dead wood. How can Virgil find the answer when so many people would like to see McGill fall?

Virgil is approached by a sheriff to investigate when a teenage boy apparently murders a local farmer. The pair rapidly find themselves looking at four murders, stemming from the death of a the boy's female friend a year earlier. And the deaths involve the members of a "private religious organisation".

Meanwhile, Virgil's reputation as a ladies man might, she tells him, be just what the sheriff needs.

"What I feel like, Virgil, is a little experimentation, something quick and shallow, somebody with experience..."

Virgil said, finally, "Well, you've got my attention."

Virgil Flower's adventure Bad Blood takes place in December, in January he appears in the Lucas Davenport novel, Storm Prey .

Virgil is watching full-scale Minnesotan women seriously attacking a beach volleyball when he's called onto a new case. A bomber is attacking the site (and company headquarters) of a new large-scale store that will likely destroy numerous old family-owned businesses and - horror! - possibly damage the local trout fishing spot. Virgil grabs his boat, fishing gear and a suitable supply of controversial t-shirts and is on his way.

In August Virgil conducts an investigation in Stolen Prey for Lucas Davenport. The action in Stolen Prey is mentioned in Mad River when Virgil writes an article about the happenings. The sequence is a bit strange because Mad River takes place in April, but read Stolen Prey first.

Bronzed, boasting about the Bahamas' beach bimbos dressed only in bikini bottoms, and more than a little bit boozed-up, Virgil is called back to work when four murders occur within a small section of Minnesota. He finds himself chasing a would-be Bonnie and Clyde.

Virgil has a whole mess of trouble including two Israeli agents, murderous Turks, questionable Lebanese, a pair of rival artifact hunters and a well-endowed redneck with a nose for profit. It all begins when a dying university professor steals a stone that might rewrite Jewish history, the bible, and the land rights of Israel.

Read our review of Storm Front

Virgil drags his boat into a new adventure. This time the theft of local dogs in Trippton has Virgil going to help out old friend and fishing buddy Johnson Johnson.

But there's a criminal underbelly to Trippton and Virgil is soon up to his neck in DEA agents, rednecks and corrupt officials.

Takes place while Davenport is investigating the Black Hole murders.

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The first comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large Siberian tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are very concerned that they've been stolen for their organs. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes their parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get--and keep--what they need. As Detective Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension is about to find out.

Then there's the homefront. Virgil's relationship with his girlfriend Frankie has been getting kind of serious, but when Frankie's sister, Sparkle, moves in for the summer, things get a lot more complicated. Sparkle has a roving eye, and it's fixed right on Virgil.

Forget a storm--this one's a tornado. (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 978-0425276228)

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 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. (416p) (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 978-0399573781)

Wheatfield, Minnesota: a metropolis of six hundred souls and change, 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 his precocious teenage buddy come up with a scheme to put Wheatfield on the map.

Should something dramatic occur--say, that the apparition of the Virgin Mary miraculously appeared at the local Catholic Church--the whole town would be turned into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things. The town would get rich! What could go wrong?

Then the shootings begin. And as they--and Virgil Flowers--are about to discover, that's only the beginning of their troubles. . . . (432 pages) (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 978-0735217348)

At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of science and medicine. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right?

Then a renowned and confrontational scholar winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate . . . and as he probes the recent ideological unrest, he soon comes to realize he's dealing with people who, on this one particular issue, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs. (432 p) (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 978-0525536635)