HEAT LIGHTNING: JOHN SANDFORD

The second in a series of Virgil Flowers novels, set in the twin cities of Minnesota.  Much like the first novel, like most of Sanford's novels, the text follows a framework, beginning with a murder or killing of someone, though we know little if anything about them.  This one begins with Virgil in bed with his third  ex wife, or his second.  Unhappily, he's interrupted by Lucas Davenport, the chief, to tell him about a mysterious murder in one of the suburbs of Minneapolis.  We then flash back to the shooter, as he takes down the cocky ex vet, Sanderson, and wants to know where the other two guys are, Bunton and Wigge, and who is Carl.  We are not sure who the shooter is, why he targets Sanderson, who the others are that he wants.  Gradually, as Virgil follows the trail of these guys, he realize they all have one thing in common.  They were in Viet Nam together as grunts.  When he finally tracks down Bunton and Wigge, neither will say what this is about though Virgil knows they are lying.  When Wigge gets ambushed, Bunton goes into hiding, to no avail, as he, too, is taken out, but not before he tells Virgil what's up.  When they were in Viet Nam, they were involved in some illegal activities, taking out some of the US equipment before the fall, selling the equipment abroad for profit.  And on there last day, one of there party, a buddy named Warren,  ended up getting drunk, shooting up a family of Viet Cong, raping a daughter.  It becomes clear that the Vietnamese recently discovered the names of the killer and his comrades and have sent a team over to wipe them out, to avenge the earlier killings.  Virgil gradually figures this out, sets up a manhunt, to save Warren, the main perpetrator of the crime, but he too gets blown away.  They chase the fleeing Vietnamese, killing the shooter and an accomplice but two get away in Canada, ending up safe in Viet Nam.  One of the two, a women, calls Virgil at the end, to say hello, since the two of them had a brief tryst, obviously before Virgil knew she was playing him.  They remain friends, as debts were paid, and all's well that ends well, I  guess.