As a long-time fan of John Sandford’s books (all set in Minnesota, featuring Lucas Davenport, Virgil F*&^ing Flowers, and their related characters), I was happy to receive a copy of Bloody Genius (Virgil Flowers #12) from GP Putnam/NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

As was the case when I read Holy Ghost (#11 in the series), I was SO hoping for one of those “leave-me-alone-can’t-you-see-I-am-reading” things for a solid day of escape. Alas, partly because I’m still not all that excited about the domestic bliss in Virgil’s life and also because I missed Lucas Davenport, it just didn’t do it for me (I was hard pressed to bump it up from 2 stars to 3).

In Bloody Genius, once again Virgil is assigned a case with a totally unreasonable deadline (thank you, Governor), so he brings in fan faves Shake, Jenkins, and Capslock. Even Lucas and Weather show up for a dinner with Virgil and Frankie (his even more pregnant girlfriend), and there is (as expected) some snappy dialogue and an actual mystery as to who murdered an academic – and we get lots of detail about the kind of infighting that often happens in academic environments. Maybe too much detail? I didn’t discern the culprit before the end, but then, I usually don’t.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s me. But I realize this is the second Flowers book in a row that hasn’t totally knocked my socks off. As I said when I reviewed Holy Ghost, I’m still a huge Sandford fan, and I will eagerly grab his next one…but I am once again being kind giving three stars, as both Ghost and Genius are in the 2s for me.