As one of Virgil’s law-enforcement partners says to the group, “You know, you’re an odd bunch of people.” We first meet him skinny-dipping with his girlfriend, along with her sister and her friend, a priest who takes an annual summer vacation from his duties and celibacy. Virgil travels with some interesting people. On the contrary, it has been a long time since I repeatedly laughed out loud while reading a detective story.

That is not to say that this novel is a downer. Who would ever know that out in the countryside some warm dairy barns house pythons, their skins destined for Italy? For a person like me who annually bowls with the Phoenix Zoo keepers in support of Save the Rhino, learning about this was unnerving. In his investigation, Virgil and the reader learn about this secret world. However, this underground trade flourishes, and many endangered species are at risk of extinction because of it. The grisly details of the preparation of animal organs, including black-bear gallbladders and tiger organs, might turn some readers off.

The author invites us into the very strange and lucrative world of suppliers for the practice of traditional Asian medicine. This novel, with its unexpected twists, is a fine example of a police procedural, but that’s not all it is. The storyline moves along at a brisk pace as he proceeds from one lead to another using his logic, intuition, and uncanny ability to recognize an opportunity to piece the puzzle together. Usually, before an arrest situation, he must be reminded by his fellow police officers to bring his weapon, and is admonished to not point it in their direction. Tall and lanky, he wears his blond hair long, sports cowboy boots and hat, and has an aversion to guns. Virgil, is his ninth book in the series, is not your average cop. We meet a cast of fascinating characters inhabiting the environs of Minneapolis. The case is then assigned to state criminal investigator Virgil Flowers, and the chase begins.

When it’s reasoned that these groups don’t have the resources for a well-planned operation to take off with 2,000 pounds of nasty predators, their worst fears surface: The guilty parties must be dealers in rare animal parts for use by purveyors of traditional Asian medicine. The zoo officials’ initial fear is that animal activists, opposed to the cats’ confinement, are the culprits. This story revolves around the theft of two rare Amur (Siberian) tigers from a Minnesota zoo. That’s a shame, for if the other novels are as good as this one, I’ve been missing out on a good read. He has a large following among mystery readers, yet for some reason, this is my introduction to his writing. Escape Clauseis John Sandford’s 44th novel.

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