As a long-time fan of John Sandford’s books set in Minnesota, featuring Lucas Davenport, Virgil F*&^ing Flowers, and their related characters, I was happy to receive a copy of Holy Ghost (Virgil Flowers #11) from GP Putnam/NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I saved the book for a long-awaited vacation, eager to have a book I just couldn’t WAIT to start, sure that it would be one of those “leave-me-alone-can’t-you-see-I-am-reading” things for a solid day of escape. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about why this one didn’t work for me. I haven’t been all that excited about the domestic bliss in Virgil’s life, even though I want everyone I care about to be loved…and I always miss Lucas Davenport when he isn’t in the book even a LITTLE.

This one had the usual wonderful descriptions (“Like most other things in the place, there was something not quite right with it, but not quite wrong enough to fix”) Sandford is so good at, and an interesting premise as three characters concoct a scheme to make their dying town famous and economically viable once again with a “Marian Apparition” (as in Virgin Mary appearing to the believers). And there are the quirky/strange characters, including Nazis, rednecks, an at least one REALLY attractive woman. But the story was too filled with unbelievable events, too many people getting bumped off for a reason that never did make sense to me, and an ending that was kind of meh.

Don’t get me wrong – I still love Sandford, and will eagerly grab his next one…but I am being kind giving this one three stars, as it really was in the 2s for me.