Fresh from his 'spectacular' (Cleveland Plain Dealer) debut in Dark of the Moon, investigator Virgil Flowers takes on a puzzling - and most alarming - case, in the new book from the #1 bestselling author.

John Sandford's introduction of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers was an immediate critical and popular success: 'laser-sharp characters and a plot that's fast and surprising' (Cleveland Plain Dealer); 'an idiosyncratic, thoroughly ingratiating hero' (Booklist). Flowers is only in his late thirties, but he's been around the block a few times, and he doesn't think much can surprise him anymore. He's wrong.

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.

Because if it's true, then this whole thing leads down a lot more trails than he thought - and every one of them is booby-trapped.

Filled with the audacious plotting, rich characters, and brilliant suspense that have always made his books 'compulsively readable' (Los Angeles Times), this is vintage Sandford.