Two-Dollar Bill (2005) is one of the most unlikely plots in the Stone Barrington series.

Not long after Stone and his ex-partner Dino make the acquaintance of Billy Bob—a smooth-talkin’ Texan packing a wad of rare two-dollar bills—someone takes a shot at them.

Against his better judgment, Stone offers Billy Bob a safe haven for the night but almost immediately regrets it. The slippery out-of-towner has gone missing and someone has been found dead—in Stone’s town house no less.

Now, Stone is now stuck between a stunning federal prosecutor and a love from his past, a con man with more aliases than hairs on his head, and a murder investigation that could ruin them all.

John Sandford’s introduction of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers was an immediate critical and popular success …

Indeed, he’s my favourite of the Sandford characters.

It’s a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives (the second one, if you’re keeping count), when the phone rings. It’s Lucas Davenport. There’s a body in Stillwater — two shots to the head, found near a veteran’s memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth.

Exactly like the body they found last week.

The more Flowers works the murders, the more convinced he is that someone’s keeping a list, and that the list could have a lot more names on it. If he could only find out what connects them all . . . and then he does, and he’s almost sorry he did. …

JohnSandford.com

Excellent writing. Lyrical prose. Modern literature.

I believe I’d read this in the past. The story seemed so familiar.

All the Colours of the Dark (2024) by Chris Whitaker is a …

• missing persons mystery
• serial killer thriller
• love story

Late one summer (1975), the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of teenager Joseph ‘Patch’ Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who will risk everything to find her best friend.

But when she does: it will break her heart.

Patch lies alone in a pitch-black room – until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace and, though they cannot see each other, she lights their world with her words.

But when he escapes: there is no sign she ever even existed.

Left with only her voice and her name, he paints her from broken memories – and charts an epic search to find her.

As years turn to decades, and hope becomes obsession, Saint will shadow his journey – on a darker path to hunt down the man who took them – and set free the only boy she ever loved.

Even if finding the truth means losing each other forever…

LindasBookBag review

Both Patch and Saint are unforgettable characters.

As a teenager, Charlotte, is even more entertaining.

Their story ranges over a quarter of a century — but I still found the book too long. And somewhat too complicated.

I’m OK with the ending, however. Something like the end of Shawshank Redemption.

Not the best Stone Barrington book. But I still found it entertaining.

Reckless Abandon (2004)

… now that Stone Barrington, on a Florida trip, has helped nail the guy who killed Holly Barker’s fiancé, Orchid Beach police chief Holly comes to the Big Apple to involve him in her hunt for a mobbed-up fugitive from her brand of justice.

Even though he’s a killer many times over, second-generation criminal Trini Rodriguez (Blood Orchid, 2002) can’t be brought to book because he’s an FBI informant who’s repeatedly called on to testify against higher-ups presumably even worse than him …

A skeletal thriller, evidently written on the back of a series of cocktail napkins, that’s most notable, like Woods’s other recent novels, as a pretext for bringing his stable of stock heroes and villains …

YES you should ignore the plot. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.

L.A. Dead (2001) is mainly important because this is the one where Stone Barrington marries a fiery Mafia princess in Venice.

His biggest mistake yet.

The celebration is cut short by a frantic phone call from halfway around the world.

A celebrity murder has Los Angeles in an uproar—and a former flame pining for Stone’s help in more ways than one. 

When he lands amid Hollywood’s sun and sin, Stone must plumb the depths of film society to find the killer, before a court trial rips away his last chance at a life he once desperately wanted…

The woman Stone actually loves is accused of murder. Stone must defend her. … But is she guilty?

“inconsequential entertainment”

Fair criticism. These books are junk food. 😀

A good psychological thriller.

A Stranger in the House (2017) has enough twists and turns to keep me interested.

Tom returns home to find his wife, Karen, vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.

Police knock on the door. Karen’s had a bad car crash and is suffering amnesia from concussion.

Near the crash a murder victim is found. Had Karen something to do with that?

Very good.

By the time Lucas Davenport was called in, the police were up to fifteen bodies and counting. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, when Lucas began to investigate, he made some disturbing discoveries of his own. The victims had been killed over a great many years, one every summer, regular as clockwork. How could this have happened without anybody noticing?

Because one thing was for sure: the killer had to live close by. He was probably even someone they saw every day….

JohnSandford.org

I’m steadily working my way through the MANY prey books.