Shock Wave

By: John Sandford

Narrated by: Eric Conger

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

The thrilling new Virgil Flowers novel from the #1 New York Times best-selling author.

The superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants, fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someone decides to take matters into his own hands.

The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart's headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage-and they do. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers's job to find out... before more people get killed.

©2011 John Sandford (P)2011 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“[Sandford]’s a thorough professional who knows exactly what he’s doing. Whether you’re new to Sandford or not, whether you’ve ever read a Virgil Flowers novel or not, once you start Shock Wave, you’ll read it straight through, quickly, compulsively, happy the whole time to be in such good hands.” (The Washington Post)

“Wry humor, a fully realized lead, and tense atmospherics...Sandford effortlessly conjures up the rhythms and personalities of a small town in one of his best outings to date.” (Publishers Weekly)

“If Shock Wave is any indication, Flowers has a better than even chance of equaling if not surpassing Davenport in the hearts and minds of Sandford’s legion of readers.” (Bookreporter)

Best Virgil Flowers yet

Virgil Flowers is one of the best characters of contemporary crime/mystery fiction, and arguably the most appealing of all in audiobook format. Kudos to the author John Sandford, who made his fame with his character Lucas Davenport. Davenport and the Prey novels are fine, but I find the Flowers stories to be clearly superior. And much credit goes to the narrator Eric Conger. For my money, he expands upon the author's creation with what he brings to the reading: the warmth and uniqueness of the voice, the inflections, attitude, personality. No hammy "Minnesota" accent, but a delivery that feels authentic. Beyond his portrayal of Virgil, he handles a range of characters with aplomb. Simply exceptional.
Early reviews to the contrary, I found the plot and substance of Shock Wave to be superior to the preceding Flowers novels. I expected the 'PyeMart' thread to be heavy handed; it is not. There is a unique cast of characters and no obvious solution to the mystery. The balance of humor and seriousness is satisfying,and for the first time, Virgil's personal life is a bit more complex and realistic (for all his charm, a new conquest isn't so easy).
So many contemporary crime stories are diminished by either wooden characters or depressingly grim circumstances. The Flowers' novels thankfully have neither, But they also do not veer towards Carl Hiassen-like parody and lampooning (as good as Hiassen is for what he does). We need more crime novels of the serious yet thoughtful and also most cleverly entertaining mode that Sandford delivers with Virgil Flowers. Too rare!

That Flowers!

I really have enjoyed all of the Virgil Flowers books, the humor and secret thoughts of Virgil are most intriguing and I can't usually figure out who done it until almost the very end. The narration is excellent. A joy to listen to.

A Blast

God, I just love John Sandford, and I must say that Eric Conger is giving Richard Ferrone a run for my money in the narration department. Okay, maybe this story line is a little thin, but the descriptions are priceless, the tangential characters are memorable and Virgil Flowers is such a great guy that it would be impossible to put this book down even if a crazed bomber wasn't out there playing with minds just a step or two ahead of the law. As for the writing,the exquisite vignette of Virgil and Johnson Johnson on their day off, watching Minnesota-style beach volleyball alone is worth the price of the audio book.
In short, if you love John Sandford, you'll find Shock Wave a blast. If you don't, well, I wouldn't know.

great book

this book had me stumped. I really enjoyed this book. there first book in the Virgil Flowers series was slow but they have gotten way better.

Torn between Virgil & Lucas...

So I just keep going back and forth between the books. Back to Prey series. 😊

This story kept me guessing

I love the Virgil Flowers series’s. He’s funny, smart and always gets his man. Although he does have a huge amount of difficulty on the way.
Eric Conger’s is an excellent narrator, he makes you feel as if you’re right there in the moment. I truly enjoy John Sandford’s mind and skewed since of humor. His character’s starting with Lucas Davenport have always intrigued me. Fast fun reads all.

Great, as always.

Gotta love that f-----g Flowers. guess we'll be going to Wabesha for the next mystery.

GREAT LISTEN

Listened to this book on an 850 mile car journey. Loved every minute of it. Made the trip time seem to cut in half

Very entertaining

A good audiobook to me is one that keeps you up at night rather than falling asleep, and that’s what this book did.

Good Entry to the Series but not it's Best

Sanford weaves two interconnected narratives about bombing and political corruption into the plot but both are only mildly interesting. The bombing plotline has a hot and cold pacing where pieces turn up little by little and to fill the in-between time with a plot about city council corruption. The corruption investigation is very downplayed and it is to the point where Virgil was an unnecessary spectator who had the answer to that fall into his lap. Choosing to linger on the past relationship with former love interest from the prior book made the usually charismatic sleep around Virgil feel off from his usual self. Other entries in the series better capture the thrill and action, or do a much better job leaning into a better characterized flowers. A decent entry in the series but not the best of the Flowers novels.