Bloody Genius (A Virgil Flowers Novel)

Product Description

Virgil Flowers will have to watch his back–and his mouth–as he investigates a college culture war turned deadly in another one of Sandford’s “madly entertaining Virgil Flowers mysteries” (The New York Times Book Review).

At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of science and medicine. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right?

Then a renowned and confrontational scholar winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate . . . and as he probes the recent ideological unrest, he soon comes to realize he’s dealing with people who, on this one particular issue, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs.

Review

“[A] smartly plotted mystery.”—
New York Times Book Review

More Praise for Bloody Genius

“Sandford is a terrific storyteller who can spin an intriguing tale without having to fill it with death-defying mayhem. . . Armchair sleuths who are intent on solving the crime for themselves will need to be on their toes.”—
Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Compulsively readable. . . Readers who like a bit of unrepentant wiseass in their sleuths will find Flowers fits the bill. Sandford makes blending humor and mystery look easy.”—
Publishers Weekly“Flowers remains one of the great modern fictional detectives, and Sandford, as always, supplies amazing secondary characters, sharp dialogue, and plots that confound and amaze. A near-perfect crime novel.”—
Booklist (starred review)

“[A] fast-paced, intensifying adventure. As always, the investigation is intricately plotted, while details of Flowers’s family life are included for fans of the character. . .
The irreverent humor and language is perfect for the unconventional law officer in the darkly entertaining series.”—
Library Journal (starred review)

“[Sandford] appears to have no shortage of story ideas. More impressively, he continues to execute them brilliantly. . . Another dazzling whodunit.”—
The Real Book Spy
 
“Steadily absorbing revelations of all manner of malfeasance, beautifully handled.”—
Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of thirty Prey novels, most recently
Neon Prey; four Kidd novels, twelve Virgil Flowers novels, and six other books, including three YA novels coauthored with his wife, Michele Cook.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter
 
One
 
Barthelemy Quill led his companion through the murk and up the library stairs toward his personal study carrel. Though Quill was normally restrained to the point of rigor mortis, she could hear him breathing, quick breaths, excited. They’d been there before, and the woman found the experience both weird and interesting. She was a step behind him, and lower, and she reached out and stroked his thigh.
 
But at the top of the stairs, Quill put out a hand, pressing it back against her chest, and whispered, “Shh. There’s a light.”
 
The library was never entirely dark, not even in the middle of the night, but there’d never before been a moving light. She could see one now, no brighter than an iPhone, dancing like a ghost through the bookshelves.
 
Not a security guard. It was an iPhone, she thought. Not the flashlight, but the much weaker screen light.
 
Quill moved away from her and closer to the light-he was wearing gray dress slacks, a gray knit dress shirt, and a black sport coat, so he was basically invisible in the dark. The woman felt a chill crawl up her arms and she stepped sideways into the book stacks. She’d learned well the lesson of trusting her instincts about trouble. She turned a corner on one of the stacks and crouched, listening in the silence.
 
Then