I have all of John Sandford's books, including the Virgil Flowers and the Prey series. I really enjoy them. I have them all on my Kindle, and gave my hardcover books to my son.
I was posting on John Sandford's FaceBook page once, and commented that it irked me to see basic handgun errors made in his writing. For example, in one book (I can't remember which one now) he described the character as carrying a Glock 19, and in a scene the character is getting ready to enter a premise, and he "takes the safety off."
Mr. Sandford wrote a response to me (and of course, all the other members on his page could see it) explaining how these errors come to happen. In this particular case, he had written the character as carrying a 1911, so it would be entirely correct for the character to take the safety off before proceeding into what might be a gunfight. Sometimes, in the re-write process, the character's gun is changed to a Glock, but neither he nor the editors caught the later reference to taking off the safety. He said he did in fact know the difference, but that it was just an error.
That was all well and fine, and perfectly understandable...BUT not to his fans! I got several thousand replies (I kid you not) threatening various portions of my anatomy, suggested places for me to live (with whom we don't have cordial relations), and many variations of "I don't read his books to learn about guns, I enjoy the story line" yada yada yada. Buncha darn nerds, I tell you!
I do still buy and enjoy his books when they come out (new Prey novel out in April) but I no longer offer any opinions on his FaceBook page!
