Part of Virgil Flowers, book 1
First published 2007
Virgil Flowers stands six feet tall with hair too long for a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator. Lucas Davenport recruited him with a promise to handle only the toughest cases. Three years later, Flowers faces his strangest assignment yet in Bluestem, a small town where murders never happen. A house on a ridge burns with its owner Judd trapped inside. Flowers discovers plenty of people wanted Judd dead. The man had ruined local farmers with a financial scam that drove some to suicide. Rumors swirl about affairs with married women, connections to a religious extremist, and an illegitimate child. Finding someone who didn't hate Judd proves nearly impossible. But Flowers didn't come to Bluestem for Judd's death. Three weeks earlier, two other murders shattered the town's peaceful reputation. Three killings in a place that hadn't seen one in years creates a dangerous pattern. The case becomes personal in ways Flowers doesn't recognize until the threat closes in. The killer may already be targeting him.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, personal-stakes
Setting: Bluestem, Minnesota
373 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam's Sons
Content warnings: suicide