Escape Clause - John Sandford

Escape Clause is the ninth Virgil Flowers novel.

Virgil and Frankie are starting to get serious. They're enjoying a leisurely skinny dip in the swimming hole when Frankie's sister Sparkle drops into the swimming hole with her summer beau Father Bill. Sparkle explains how she's going to be snooping around some illegal immigrant operations for thesis research, and she and Bill are going to be staying with Frankie for a while.

Then Virgil's cell rings. Virgil always seems to get the "interesting" cases. This time two endangered Amur tigers were catnapped from the Minnesota zoo. The priority is to find them before somebody kills them and grinds them up for Asian medicine. Virgil has to abandon the swimming hole to hunt for tigers.

The tigers aren't the only things in danger though. Bodies start to pile up among the tiger thieves, and then Sparkle's snooping lands Frankie in the hospital. It's a fast paced adventure with some interesting twists. Very highly recommended. I just with Sandford wrote faster!