For a small town with few job opportunities, a lot of people are not too happy that Virgil is helping to stop their little enterprise. Mattel is not amused, although others didn't agree. Seems there's a group modifying Barbie dolls by inserting a voice box with sounds of Barbie having sex, and selling them on the internet (of course). The main murder is an interesting story, and there is a side story that is more for entertainment than a big mystery, although it gets Virgil beat up fairly badly. In fact, this series almost makes the are sound like a nice place to live, until it talks about the snow and cold (just kidding, Minnesotans, I'm sure there are lots of nice things about living there, I just never lived in a cold climate). He's a nature lover, and loves the outdoor life in Minnesota. Virgil is interrupted from his vacation where he was working on an article for a nature magazine, one of his part-time pursuits while not working for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. But this worked in his favor because nobody suspected he'd do something like that. Like many of the lawbreakers in this series, he wasn't an evil man, and was somewhat sympathetic, although not very bright, it seems, as he tried to hide the murder rather than turning himself in. He accidentally killed the woman he loved all his life, who, like his former wife, had no good feelings about him at all.

It was an accident, and the murderer was considered accident-prone, so it fits. It starts out with the murder, and we know exactly who did it. Two different people independently contributed to the murder. This story had an interesting twist to a murder that kept everyone guessing for most of the book. well, since the last one I read, a few weeks ago. In fact, this was the most enjoyable book I've read since. The audiobook versions are very well done, but I also like the print versions.

I've said it before, probably many times, but I love the Virgil Flowers series.

Deep freeze by john sandford