Thumbs up for Shock Wave
Oh what fun it is to follow along as surfer-dude, vintage-rock-n-roll-T-shirt-wearing, fishing-obsessed, lady-killing cop Virgil Flowers shmoozes his way around a small Minnesota town in search of the bomber who’s trying to put a stop to the incoming PyeMart (they’ve already got a Walmart, right, but PyeMart is a bit more upscale). The thing I love about Sandford’s characters is that they are as matter-of-factly kooky as real people actually are. Like, for example, the guy who stands fishing in a “crick” while wearing a nineteenth-century fishing suit (complete with gold pocket watch), and tells Virgil that he’s going about his investigation the wrong way; he should be doing “Market Research” by putting out an appeal on Facebook to see who the townspeople think are the most likely suspects. The great thing about Virgil is that he will take a good idea from anybody; suspects included. And that’s why he’s so good at what he does.
“Yes. I’m selling [CEO Willard Pye] three years of my life,” she said. “He pays me one-point-two, which is about point-seven-two per year, after state and federal, plus all expenses. For that, I follow him around everywhere, take down everything he says, verbatim, and provide him with both the original text and a polished narrative. In another year, I’ll have a bundle tucked away. Then I’ll write a tell-all book about him, and make another bundle.”
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