From the publisher:
Whenever you hear the sky rumble, that usually means a storm. In Virgil Flowers’ case, make that two. The exceptional new thriller from the writer whose books are “pure reading pleasure” (Booklist).
The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large, and very rare, Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they’ve been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others—as Virgil is about to find out.
Then there’s the home front. Virgil’s relationship with his girlfriend Frankie has been getting kind of serious, but when Frankie’s sister Sparkle moves in for the summer, the situation gets a lot more complicated. For one thing, her research into migrant workers is about to bring her up against some very violent people who emphatically do not want to be researched. For another…she thinks Virgil’s kind of cute.
Forget a storm—this one’s a tornado.
My review of Escape Clause:
Drugs, tigers, and murders, oh my! In this thriller, the action is non-stop from the suspects to the motive to the murders and the beatings. It’s almost more than one person could handle, but for Virgil, it’s all in a weeks’ work.
There are a wide variety of complex characters to keep the story moving at a solid pace. The plot is compelling; who doesn’t want to know the fate of these two beautiful tigers? Evocative descriptions of settings, and scintillating dialog, bring the story to life without being too graphic. The subplots are smoothly interwoven keeping the tension building to the end. “Escape Clause” is another exciting thriller from Sandford.
