Bloody Genius, by John Sandford (Virgil Flowers #12)

Bloody Genius is the latest in this spin-off series from Sandford’s “Prey” series. The last Prey book was so bad that I’ve sworn off that series (we’ll see if that lasts). But this series, featuring police officer Virgil Flowers, is consistently good. Bloody Genius is actually one of my favorites in the series.

Flowers is a detective for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He has a penchant for vintage rock band t-shirts, would rather fish than work, and has a successful side-hustle as a nature writer/photo-journalist. So, he’s not your typical cop. He’s got a unique point of view, while being a good detective.

Most of these books are more crime thriller than mystery, but this book is an exception. It’s much more of a typical mystery (with a clever underlying theme, which I will not spoil for you here), and because of that, I think I liked it even more than the usual crime/thriller Flowers books.

This is easily read as a stand-alone, though you might enjoy it a bit more if you’ve read some of the previous Virgil Flowers books. It’s not a deep novel but it is fun. Perfect for a vacation or weekend read.