It gets cold in Trippton. Set in Minnesota, the small town has icy weather in the way Minnesota is known for during the winter months.
II.
Among those living with the seasonal cold and snow in John Sandford's Deep Freeze, there is David Birkmann. His school days in Trippton were a time in which he collected a series of nicknames. None of these unofficial names were of Dave's own choosing, and all of them were intended to poke fun at him. "Big Dave", because David was considered fat. "Bug Boy", because Dave's father owned an insect exterminator business. As for "Chips", it recalled the incident when Dave had tried to shake a bag of chips loose from a high school vending machine, only to have the machine tip and fall on him. For this episode, and the perceived comedy of his general social ineptitude, Dave had been selected Class of '92 Funniest Boy.
In the years after high school, David goes on to become the fortysomething owner of the pest exterminator business that he inherited when his father passed away. He is newly-divorced, just as someone he went to school with, Gina Hemming, has recently filed for divorce. Dave's attraction to Gina is long-running and unrequited, but with their marriages playing out as they have, he dares to be hopeful. "There she was, David's first and truest love. Available." <1>
III.
Virgil Flowers is on a week's vacation from his work with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, when he is called in by the BCA. The dead and frozen body of a woman has been found in a river near Trippton, and Flowers is needed on the case. Virgil's boss, Jon Duncan, is well-aware that he is cutting Flowers's vacation short. " 'Virgil, I owe you.' 'You keep saying that, but you never pay off.' " With a reference to the Shakespeare he, Jon, had brought up earlier in their conversation, Duncan replies: " 'That's one of your fardels' ". Virgil breaks the news to his girlfriend and makes his way to Trippton - to investigate the murder of Gina Hemming.
Flowers hasn't been in town long before he finds himself assisting a private detective, Margaret Griffin, on a case of her own. A production of altered Barbie and Ken dolls has been traced to Trippton. The alteration to the dolls is of an obscene nature, and Griffin has come all the way from Los Angeles " '[t]rying to serve a federal cease-and-desist order' ". Jon Duncan has officially attached Virgil to Griffin's investigation, and along with leading the Gina Hemming homicide inquiry, it looks like Virgil Flowers could be in for an extended stay in Trippton.
IV.
There is plenty of humour in Deep Freeze, but the narrative can get just as serious as it needs to be for a crime novel. The identity of the killer is revealed early to the reader. To learn what we already know, Virgil Flowers has to piece it together from the evidence he finds amid the idiosyncrasies of small-town conversation, gossip and behaviour. John Sandford is a marvelous storyteller, whether he is relating the town of Trippton as a seemingly harmless place, and, when it is not.
__________
<1>Sandford, John. Deep Freeze (2017). G.P. Putnam's Sons.
