Rough Country is a new whodunnit by John Sandford. It stars Virgil Flowers, investigator for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Minnesota. Boy, I wish we had something like that in Oklahoma. It would be nice to apprehend more criminals. Virgil is quite a guy. He has long hair. For work he wears jeans and obscure rock band tshirts. He doesn’t like carrying a gun. He keeps it under the seat of his car. He talks to God every night before he goes to bed.

He is also pretty confident. Mostly about the women he pursues. He has “an active social life” as he describes it. He has this bad habit though of keeping his cell phone close to hand. One of the memorable lines in the novel is “Virgil . . . For God’s sake you left your phone on.” I think he likes his phone better than female companionship.

In this book Virgil has his work cut out for him. I’m not going to spoil anything for you. Lets just say he has to solve a murder that involves country music, multiple lesbian and heterosexual love triangles, some Deliverance type guys, old unsolved murders, fishing, gardening, boating, hunting dogs, and NASCAR. There is something in this book for everybody.

All kidding aside this is a great book. I rate it 4 stars out of 4.