I’ve been a fan of John Sandford’s for a few years now. He writes a gripping, fast-moving story, with interesting characters and lots of verisimilitude. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s a Minnesotan (he’s really the journalist John Camp) and sets most of his stories in our (his and my) state. (I have this odd delusion that places aren’t really important until there are stories about them. The places I enjoy visiting, or want to visit, are generally places where stories I like took place.)

But I’d gotten a little disillusioned with Sandford’s recent work. Lucas Davenport, hero of the Prey series, started out as a fascinating madman, a borderline psychopath cop (who also happened to be a video game millionaire) so passionate about hunting down serial killers that he often crossed the line into “judge, jury and executioner” territory.

The problem was, it was clear Davenport couldn’t go on like that indefinitely. If he kept doing his police work in that manner, eventually he’d either get caught or lose his mind entirely. So Sandford, discovering he had a hit series on his hands, took the rational course of finding Davenport a good woman, getting him married, and settling him down.

The downside of that was that Davenport got a little dull. Sandford appears to have compensated for that by making the crimes more appalling; adding an increased level of horror to his stories. It works to an extent, but I don’t like the series as much as I used to.

So I’m happy to report that Dark of the Moon, starring the spin-off character Virgil Flowers, is much less edgy. Its main appeal comes from fully realized characters and an intriguing mystery.

Virgil Flowers works under Lucas Davenport in Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He’s basically a mellow sort who wears rock band tee-shirts when on duty. He’s a part-time writer—this is often a cheap shortcut for a novelist, but I think it works well here. Since Flowers is a working cop, the writing work isn’t a way for Sandford to avoid research, and Flowers uses his writing as a mental exercise to help him think problems through. This seemed to me an excellent device for problem exposition, a novel way of carrying out the function usually fulfilled by detectives’ sidekicks.

Flowers is based out of Mankato, Minnesota, which is west of the Twin Cities, and this story takes place in Bluestem, a fictional town near the South Dakota border. When the story begins, Flowers has been called to Bluestem to investigate the murder of the richest man in town, but he finds that the police are also investigating a separate double murder. Coincidence? Unlikely, in a town as small as Bluestem.

The more he investigates, the more Flowers becomes convinced that the murders had their roots, not in an ethanol scam the millionaire pulled off back in the ’80s, but in the ’60s, when he took advantage of loosened sexual mores to host a lot of kinky parties. At least two illegitimate heirs turn up in addition to the legitimate one, and the possible motives for murder are hard to keep track of.

Flowers, we are told, has already had four short marriages in his life and has “given up” on marriage. That doesn’t stop him from getting involved with the sheriff’s sister—but did she come on too strong? Is she trying to manipulate him as so many others are?

Another interesting element is that Flowers is religious—after a fashion. We’re told he was raised in a pastor’s home, but dropped his faith in college. Today, though, he’s thinking about God a lot. I wouldn’t call him a Christian, but it looks like a step in the right direction.

I enjoyed this book very much—more than any Sandford novel I’ve read in a while. The only quibble I really have with it is Sandford’s repeated assertion (for which I can think of no justification) that Minnesota in July is paradise on earth. I’m no cold-weather animal; I like it when it’s stinking hot. But stinking hot (and humid) is what it is in Minnesota in July. Don’t let Sandford tell you differently.

As usual, I must caution you about bad language, sexual content, and some disturbing material. But I’ve read a lot worse recently. I recommend Dark of the Moon.