• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2013 September #2
  The seventh Virgil Flowers mystery finds the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent handed (by his boss, and star of his own series, Lucas Davenport) a curious case. Seems a local college professor stole a valuable artifact from an Israeli archaeological dig, returned home to the States, and then promptly vanished; an Israeli investigator is on her way, determined to track the man down and reclaim the artifact. As it turns out, the case isn't as straightforward as it appears: other people seem pretty interested in the artifact (as evidenced by the violent break-in at the professor's house), and Virgil can't keep himself from thinking the Israeli investigator isn't telling him the whole story. Kudos to Sandford for taking what could have been an ancient-mystery thriller à la Dan Brown (all the ingredients are here, including a secret that could shake the very foundations of Christianity) and playing it like a cop novel. Fans of the Flowers and Davenport series will thoroughly enjoy this one. Copyright 2013 Booklist Reviews.

JOHN SANDFORD is the author of twenty-three Prey novels; the Virgil Flowers novels, most recentlyMad River; and six other books. He lives in California and New Mexico.