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Book Summary and Reviews of Holy Ghost by John Sandford

Holy Ghost by John Sandford

Holy Ghost

Virgil Flowers Book 11

by John Sandford

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2018, 384 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Virgil Flowers investigates a miracle - and a murder - in the wickedly entertaining new thriller from the master of "pure reading pleasure" (Booklist).

Pinion, Minnesota: a metropolis of all of seven hundred souls, for which the word "moribund" might have been invented. Nothing ever happened there and nothing ever would - until the mayor of sorts (campaign slogan: "I'll Do What I Can") and a buddy come up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. They'd heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary had turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of pilgrims. And all those pilgrims needed food, shelter, all kinds of crazy things, right? They'd all get rich! What could go wrong?

When the dead body shows up, they find out, and that's only the beginning of their troubles - and Virgil Flowers' - as they are all about to discover all too soon.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Wickedly enjoyable ... Sandford's trademark sly humor shines throughout." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Holy smoke, Holy Ghost is a hot one! ... The dialogue is sometimes biting and always witty, and the entire book is at once wicked and sublime." - Booklist

"It would be nice if the payoff were more closely linked to the amusing setup, but the detection, though often tediously routine, carries all the authenticity you'd expect from a pro like Sandford." - Kirkus

This information about Holy Ghost was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Cloggie Downunder

Very entertaining.
Holy Ghost is the eleventh book in the Virgil Flowers series by prize-winning American journalist and author, John Sandford. It’s a late May Sunday morning when Minnesota BCA agent Virgil Flowers leaves Frankie Noble coping with morning sickness to investigate two shootings in the nearby town of Wheatfield (there may be some confusion as the blurb refers to the town as Pinion). What was a dying town that has recently seen a change in fortunes with sightings of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Mayor, Wardell Holland, is concerned for the adverse publicity.

Virgil’s not there long before another shooting occurs, this one fatal. In each case, the location and time of day are identical, but despite eye-witnesses, confusion reigns about the shooter’s location. Each tiny clue sends Virgil in a different direction, frustrating his attempts to make sense of it all. The townsfolk are a quirky bunch and include a hairdresser who gives shoulder massages, a petty criminal who enjoys porn and has a taste, if not a talent, for blackmail, and a mayor who shoots flies.

This dose of Virgil Flowers has quite a few twists and a whole school of red herrings that have Virgil chasing his tale and keep the reader guessing to the action-filled climax. Virgil does come up with some stupidly dangerous ideas that indicate he’s not yet quite used to the idea of being a prospective father. To keep things interesting, there’s a disgusting diner, a stolen semi-trailer-load of Lego, and chicken potpies are consumed to excess.

There’s plenty of sitcom humour, some of it bordering on slapstick, and the dialogue, especially the banter between Virgil and his BCA colleagues, is a highlight. According to some reviews, this is not Sandford’s best Virgil Flowers novel, from which the reader might conclude that the first ten must indeed be rather good. Very entertaining.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Simon & Schuster Australia

The professor

Worst ever
It started off slow with a detailed description of the downtown buildings. Then it slowed down from start to finish with details about guns--detailed details, The same details over and over, One or two interesting characters but mainly low lives of varying degrees. The most interesting two things were 1) the appearance of the apparition in the Mexican congregation's Catholic Church, which revives the town and which is sincere on the part of the parishioners and 2) the ultrasound results for Frankie's pregnancy.
My advice is to go right to Chapter 29 and enjoy a summary of everything.

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Author Information

John Sandford Author Biography

John Sandford is the pseudonym of John Roswell Camp, an American author and journalist. Camp won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1986, and was one of four finalists for the prize in 1980. He also was the winner of the Distinguished Writing Award of the American Society of Newspaper Editors for 1985.

Camp is the author of more than forty published novels, all of which have appeared, in one format or another, on the New York Times best-seller lists. He is also the co-author of three young-adult books in the Singular Menace series, with Michele Cook, and co-author of the science-fiction thriller Saturn Run with Ctein.

He is the author of two non-fiction books, one on art The Eye and the Heart: The Watercolors of John Stuart Ingle and one on plastic surgery, Plastic Surgery: the ...

... Full Biography
Link to John Sandford's Website

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