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Lucas Davenport #22
Stolen Prey
Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Wayzata, an entire family has been killed—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs.
There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.
Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.
There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.
Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.
402 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2012
About the author
John Sandford
200 books9,076 followersJohn Sandford was born John Roswell Camp on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the public schools in Cedar Rapids, graduating from Washington High School in 1962. He then spent four years at the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in American Studies in 1966. In 1966, he married Susan Lee Jones of Cedar Rapids, a fellow student at the University of Iowa. He was in the U.S. Army from 1966-68, worked as a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian from 1968-1970, and went back to the University of Iowa from 1970-1971, where he received a master's degree in journalism. He was a reporter for The Miami Herald from 1971-78, and then a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press from 1978-1990; in 1980, he was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and he won the Pulitzer in 1986 for a series of stories about a midwestern farm crisis. From 1990 to the present he has written thriller novels. He's also the author of two non-fiction books, one on plastic surgery and one on art. He is the principal financial backer of a major archeological project in the Jordan Valley of Israel, with a website at www.rehov.org In addition to archaeology, he is deeply interested in art (painting) and photography. He both hunts and fishes. He has two children, Roswell and Emily, and one grandson, Benjamin. His wife, Susan, died of metastasized breast cancer in May, 2007, and is greatly missed.
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February 22, 2022
Not my favorite in this series but still engaging.
Stolen Prey begins with Lucas getting mugged. After jogging, he decides to stop by the ATM. He is robbed and in the process, he suffers a fractured wrist. He ends up with a cast he will need to wear for the next 3 months. As a reader, you know Lucas can't be happy about this. Lucas asks Virgil to find the culprits for him and he wants to know as soon as Virgil finds them, so he can be there for the arrest. Of course, each interaction between these two ends up making me smile.
At the same time, Lucas's time is going to be dedicated to a recent crime in a wealthy community. A family including the dogs has been tortured and killed. To Lucas, it smells like a Mexican cartel killing. He soon follows the crumbs and realizes that a bank might have been laundering money for a cartel and someone has stolen 22 million away from them. The cartel has sent 3 men, Uno, Dos, and Tres to find the robbers, dispose of them and get their money back.
Lucas has an idea of who took the 22 million, he just has to prove it while concurrently tracking the cartel killers and stopping them any way necessary.
Stolen Prey has the same humor and banter that I liked. I just wasn't crazy about the "baddies" in this one. They were not mentally challenging. I did like Letty at the end. She is sure Davenport's daughter more than his blood children are.
Cliffhanger: No
3.5/5 Fangs
MrsLeif's Two Fangs About It | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Stolen Prey begins with Lucas getting mugged. After jogging, he decides to stop by the ATM. He is robbed and in the process, he suffers a fractured wrist. He ends up with a cast he will need to wear for the next 3 months. As a reader, you know Lucas can't be happy about this. Lucas asks Virgil to find the culprits for him and he wants to know as soon as Virgil finds them, so he can be there for the arrest. Of course, each interaction between these two ends up making me smile.
At the same time, Lucas's time is going to be dedicated to a recent crime in a wealthy community. A family including the dogs has been tortured and killed. To Lucas, it smells like a Mexican cartel killing. He soon follows the crumbs and realizes that a bank might have been laundering money for a cartel and someone has stolen 22 million away from them. The cartel has sent 3 men, Uno, Dos, and Tres to find the robbers, dispose of them and get their money back.
Lucas has an idea of who took the 22 million, he just has to prove it while concurrently tracking the cartel killers and stopping them any way necessary.
Stolen Prey has the same humor and banter that I liked. I just wasn't crazy about the "baddies" in this one. They were not mentally challenging. I did like Letty at the end. She is sure Davenport's daughter more than his blood children are.
Cliffhanger: No
3.5/5 Fangs
MrsLeif's Two Fangs About It | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
August 3, 2016
Lucas Davenport is back on the job for the twenty-second time, and as the book opens Lucas is himself the victim of a crime. Out for a run, he stops by an ATM and withdraws $500.00. Moments later, a pair of tweekers rob him at gunpoint. They take his five hundred bucks and knock him down, breaking his wrist. Lucas will have to be in a cast for three months and, needless to say for those who know him, he's going to be seriously angry about this.
Lucas is determined to find and arrest the robbers and since they are apparently from a rural area out of town, he delegates the task to Virgil Flowers, who will report in periodically. Lucas will be constantly on Flowers' case about this and will insist on being their when the offending tweekers are finally run to ground.
Meanwhile, a family in a wealthy Minneapolis suburb is brutally tortured and murdered. It's perhaps the worst crime scene that Davenport has ever encountered and it bears the signature of a Mexican drug gang. The father of the murdered family was the last to die and owned a software company that sells Spanish-language software in Mexico. Lucas wonders if perhaps the company was laundering money for drug lords.
It turns out that the drug lords seem to be missing $22 million, and they would like it back. The trail leads to Minnesota and the head of the cartel has dispatched a trio of cold-blooded killers to find it. Lucas is faced with the task of finding the killers and tracking down the missing money.
This is a fun read, but to my mind, it's not up to the usual very high standards of the series as a whole. The book seems somehow a bit flat, not as exciting and not as witty as most of Davenport's other adventures.
As an example, when Lucas gets the cast on his wrist, he naturally bitches about it and you expect that this is going to be a humorous subtheme that Sandford will use through the rest of the book, as he often does with something like this. After a few pages, though, he drops any reference to the cast. Then, finally, as the book ends, the three months are up and the cast come off. At which point, the reader smacks himself in the head and says, "Oh yeah, right. He's had a cast on his wrist through the whole book!" As quickly as Sandford lost interest in the cast, one wonders why he even bothered with it in the first place.
Another problem lies in the fact that the villains in this book are not up to Sandford's usual standards. Sandford is know for creating great, nasty, smart antagonists who are always a good match for Davenport. In this case, though, the trio of killers, while brutally nasty, are just a bunch of dumb thugs who stay one step ahead of the cops more by luck than anything else. The people who stole the $22 million are not all that interesting or challenging either. They're good at manipulating computer code and stealing money out of bank accounts, but they're certainly not in a class with Clara Rinker or many of Sandford's other antagonists. And the investigation of the theft is not all that riveting.
Finally, many of the usual cast of characters are missing here. A few, like Davenport's favorite undercover investigator Del Casplock, will put in a token appearance now and then, but without the normal group that usually surrounds Davenport, the banter is not nearly as sharp and amusing as it normally is. One character, in particular, has been out of the lineup for the last couple of books and is very sorely missed.
Still, even though Sandford and Davenport may not be at the top of their game here, I enjoyed the book and am very much looking forward to Davenport's next outing, Silken Prey.
Lucas is determined to find and arrest the robbers and since they are apparently from a rural area out of town, he delegates the task to Virgil Flowers, who will report in periodically. Lucas will be constantly on Flowers' case about this and will insist on being their when the offending tweekers are finally run to ground.
Meanwhile, a family in a wealthy Minneapolis suburb is brutally tortured and murdered. It's perhaps the worst crime scene that Davenport has ever encountered and it bears the signature of a Mexican drug gang. The father of the murdered family was the last to die and owned a software company that sells Spanish-language software in Mexico. Lucas wonders if perhaps the company was laundering money for drug lords.
It turns out that the drug lords seem to be missing $22 million, and they would like it back. The trail leads to Minnesota and the head of the cartel has dispatched a trio of cold-blooded killers to find it. Lucas is faced with the task of finding the killers and tracking down the missing money.
This is a fun read, but to my mind, it's not up to the usual very high standards of the series as a whole. The book seems somehow a bit flat, not as exciting and not as witty as most of Davenport's other adventures.
As an example, when Lucas gets the cast on his wrist, he naturally bitches about it and you expect that this is going to be a humorous subtheme that Sandford will use through the rest of the book, as he often does with something like this. After a few pages, though, he drops any reference to the cast. Then, finally, as the book ends, the three months are up and the cast come off. At which point, the reader smacks himself in the head and says, "Oh yeah, right. He's had a cast on his wrist through the whole book!" As quickly as Sandford lost interest in the cast, one wonders why he even bothered with it in the first place.
Another problem lies in the fact that the villains in this book are not up to Sandford's usual standards. Sandford is know for creating great, nasty, smart antagonists who are always a good match for Davenport. In this case, though, the trio of killers, while brutally nasty, are just a bunch of dumb thugs who stay one step ahead of the cops more by luck than anything else. The people who stole the $22 million are not all that interesting or challenging either. They're good at manipulating computer code and stealing money out of bank accounts, but they're certainly not in a class with Clara Rinker or many of Sandford's other antagonists. And the investigation of the theft is not all that riveting.
Finally, many of the usual cast of characters are missing here. A few, like Davenport's favorite undercover investigator Del Casplock, will put in a token appearance now and then, but without the normal group that usually surrounds Davenport, the banter is not nearly as sharp and amusing as it normally is. One character, in particular, has been out of the lineup for the last couple of books and is very sorely missed.
Still, even though Sandford and Davenport may not be at the top of their game here, I enjoyed the book and am very much looking forward to Davenport's next outing, Silken Prey.
September 8, 2016
John Sandford’s Prey series has had no shortage of brutal crimes in its long history, but this one hits an new level of That-Is-Messed-Up! by starting off with an entire family including young children being extensively tortured and then killed. Hell, even their dogs get whacked! You know it’s going to be a rough ride when not even the pets are safe.
Lucas Davenport may be a tough ass cop, but apparently even he isn’t immune to street crime when he is mugged while out jogging. (The muggers aren’t aware of how lucky they are that Lucas doesn’t carry his gun while running because he’s killed more criminals than the electric chair at Sing-Sing.) Left with a broken wrist and wounded pride, Lucas makes tracking his assailants down his new hobby until the aforementioned massacre of an upscale family occurs and puts him on the trail of the killers and a group of clever thieves running a complicated scheme.
The last couple in this series and the Virgil Flowers spin-offs had been some of the best stuff I’ve read by Sandford yet, and this one was on pace to join it’s ranks. There’s an interesting and complex crime behind the killings to unravel and as well as a suspenseful manhunt angle with plenty of twists and turns. Davenport is at his best while juggling all the elements of the case as well as pulling one of his most devious moves yet late in the novel. As a bonus, we also get a fair amount of interactions between Davenport and Flowers when Lucas asks him to track down the muggers who broke his arm.
Unfortunately, Sandford fumbles the ball a bit at the end of this one. Still, this yet another highly entertaining crime thriller from one of the masters of the genre.
Next: Lucas vs. the Democrat in Silken Prey.
Lucas Davenport may be a tough ass cop, but apparently even he isn’t immune to street crime when he is mugged while out jogging. (The muggers aren’t aware of how lucky they are that Lucas doesn’t carry his gun while running because he’s killed more criminals than the electric chair at Sing-Sing.) Left with a broken wrist and wounded pride, Lucas makes tracking his assailants down his new hobby until the aforementioned massacre of an upscale family occurs and puts him on the trail of the killers and a group of clever thieves running a complicated scheme.
The last couple in this series and the Virgil Flowers spin-offs had been some of the best stuff I’ve read by Sandford yet, and this one was on pace to join it’s ranks. There’s an interesting and complex crime behind the killings to unravel and as well as a suspenseful manhunt angle with plenty of twists and turns. Davenport is at his best while juggling all the elements of the case as well as pulling one of his most devious moves yet late in the novel. As a bonus, we also get a fair amount of interactions between Davenport and Flowers when Lucas asks him to track down the muggers who broke his arm.
Unfortunately, Sandford fumbles the ball a bit at the end of this one. Still, this yet another highly entertaining crime thriller from one of the masters of the genre.
Next: Lucas vs. the Democrat in Silken Prey.
September 14, 2018
Not the best in the series, but pretty good. A 3.5, not a 4+ like the last one, but I'm going to round up. There were several threads running through this book for a nice twisty tale, but they sometimes got dropped for too long. The cast bugged me the most since I've spent a fair amount of time in a variety. Unless I could take them off, they're always a PITA & itchy as your skin rots beneath them. They're a constant irritant & can cause a lot of unexpected trouble. A handful more mentions of it would have been much better & could have been used to great effect.
I really liked how the concerns & thoughts of the various participants were at odds. The bankers, DEA, & various police departments all had their own priorities. Well done.
I'm on the fence about the shootout at the end. It's pretty Hollywood, but Sandford foreshadowed that. I really liked most of the bad guys in this one. There are some greedy ones while others were stone-cold killers who never had anything to lose or the sense to realize there might be other options. Really sad & probably realistic. Born to die young & violent, expecting nothing else.
I was a little disappointed that some of the characters didn't get much air time. Most were there, but very much in the background this time. It was pretty much all about Lucas, but that was well done. He's not perfect, which is shown to great effect. Relentless, though.
He also foreshadowed the Flowers thread well. Fucking Flowers! Always a pleasure. What a hoot. I'm looking foreword to reading the 6th book in his series next, but I'm more & more convinced that the series can be read completely separately without any real concern for spoilers.
I really liked how the concerns & thoughts of the various participants were at odds. The bankers, DEA, & various police departments all had their own priorities. Well done.
I'm on the fence about the shootout at the end. It's pretty Hollywood, but Sandford foreshadowed that. I really liked most of the bad guys in this one. There are some greedy ones while others were stone-cold killers who never had anything to lose or the sense to realize there might be other options. Really sad & probably realistic. Born to die young & violent, expecting nothing else.
I was a little disappointed that some of the characters didn't get much air time. Most were there, but very much in the background this time. It was pretty much all about Lucas, but that was well done. He's not perfect, which is shown to great effect. Relentless, though.
He also foreshadowed the Flowers thread well. Fucking Flowers! Always a pleasure. What a hoot. I'm looking foreword to reading the 6th book in his series next, but I'm more & more convinced that the series can be read completely separately without any real concern for spoilers.
January 20, 2022
Is it just me, or has Lucas Davenport lost a little something off his fastball? In Stolen Prey, 22nd in John Sandford’s Prey series, Lucas has to puzzle out the connections between a horrific murder and the theft of millions of dollars. But he doesn’t seem up to the task. During his daily run, Lucas muses:
“He was getting older, with almost as much gray hair as black at his temples, with the beginnings of what would someday be slashing lines beside his mouth, but right now, on this spring day, he could run five miles in a little less than thirty minutes, even on wet city streets; and at home, there were four people who loved him.
“As much as he could have hoped for.”
Maybe so, but this reader had hoped for more.
I loved, loved, loved this series until about maybe book 20, Storm Prey, in which Davenport’s surgeon wife, Weather, takes center stage. In a word—boring. Maybe it’s time for Lucas to retire or better still, kill off Weather; that would be fun. Lucas could then pack up the kids and start anew somewhere else.
But I digress. Stolen Prey is about a hunt for gold that is somehow linked to a Mexican drug cartel and the gruesome murder of an entire family—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs. Lucas figures one way to help unravel the mystery is to follow the money, twenty-two million dollars, which has been funneled through one of the biggest banks in Minneapolis and turned into gold. One of the savvy crooks explains why.
“Okay. Gold. All kinds of people buy it and move it around for their own reasons, a lot of them legitimate. Like making gold jewelry. Women in India keep their wealth hanging around their necks and wrists. People in the United States put it in their basement because they think the end of the world is coming. People in Russia put it in their basement because the end of world is already here. The thing about gold coins is they can’t be tracked. There’s no real paper trail, any more than there is for candy bars. Gold coins have no serial numbers. And, there are gold dealers all over the United States, and everyplace else. If you have the money, they give you the gold. They’re dealers, not banks.”
There’s too much information about turning cash into gold. I miss the quick-witted, snarky cop Lucas Davenport once was. That Lucas only occasionally shines through, as here when he tells Shaffer, the cop in charge of the case, to lie to the press as a way to get the killers’ attention.
Shaffer thinks it’s unethical, so Lucas does it for him.
“Lucas watched tapes of his performance, with Shaffer standing next to him, and Shaffer said, ‘You lie really well.’
“If I have to,” Lucas said. I figured it was too important to pussy out on.”
...
“I didn’t pussy out.”
“Yeah, you did, Bob. Pretty amazing—you’ve got no problem shooting it out with a Mexican hit man, but you puss out when it comes to lying to reporters. Listen: everything you see on TV news is bullshit,” Lucas said. “You would have added a teaspoon of bullshit to an ocean of it. Nobody would have noticed, and it’ll help catch a couple more killers. Go fuck your qualms, and your ethics.”
Now, that’s what I’m talking about.
Maybe I’ll go back to the earlier Prey novels and try to recapture the Lucas of old.
“He was getting older, with almost as much gray hair as black at his temples, with the beginnings of what would someday be slashing lines beside his mouth, but right now, on this spring day, he could run five miles in a little less than thirty minutes, even on wet city streets; and at home, there were four people who loved him.
“As much as he could have hoped for.”
Maybe so, but this reader had hoped for more.
I loved, loved, loved this series until about maybe book 20, Storm Prey, in which Davenport’s surgeon wife, Weather, takes center stage. In a word—boring. Maybe it’s time for Lucas to retire or better still, kill off Weather; that would be fun. Lucas could then pack up the kids and start anew somewhere else.
But I digress. Stolen Prey is about a hunt for gold that is somehow linked to a Mexican drug cartel and the gruesome murder of an entire family—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs. Lucas figures one way to help unravel the mystery is to follow the money, twenty-two million dollars, which has been funneled through one of the biggest banks in Minneapolis and turned into gold. One of the savvy crooks explains why.
“Okay. Gold. All kinds of people buy it and move it around for their own reasons, a lot of them legitimate. Like making gold jewelry. Women in India keep their wealth hanging around their necks and wrists. People in the United States put it in their basement because they think the end of the world is coming. People in Russia put it in their basement because the end of world is already here. The thing about gold coins is they can’t be tracked. There’s no real paper trail, any more than there is for candy bars. Gold coins have no serial numbers. And, there are gold dealers all over the United States, and everyplace else. If you have the money, they give you the gold. They’re dealers, not banks.”
There’s too much information about turning cash into gold. I miss the quick-witted, snarky cop Lucas Davenport once was. That Lucas only occasionally shines through, as here when he tells Shaffer, the cop in charge of the case, to lie to the press as a way to get the killers’ attention.
Shaffer thinks it’s unethical, so Lucas does it for him.
“Lucas watched tapes of his performance, with Shaffer standing next to him, and Shaffer said, ‘You lie really well.’
“If I have to,” Lucas said. I figured it was too important to pussy out on.”
...
“I didn’t pussy out.”
“Yeah, you did, Bob. Pretty amazing—you’ve got no problem shooting it out with a Mexican hit man, but you puss out when it comes to lying to reporters. Listen: everything you see on TV news is bullshit,” Lucas said. “You would have added a teaspoon of bullshit to an ocean of it. Nobody would have noticed, and it’ll help catch a couple more killers. Go fuck your qualms, and your ethics.”
Now, that’s what I’m talking about.
Maybe I’ll go back to the earlier Prey novels and try to recapture the Lucas of old.
June 11, 2019
Not too much to say about this one besides it was action packed from beginning to end. When Lucas finally catches on to what is happening the book really ratchets up the tension. That said, it's getting old with Lucas's family in peril. At this point he just needs to hire an off duty security guy because the bad guys always stupidly decide to try to take him out. I thought it was great to increase more of Del, Jenkins, and the guys. Thought it was hilarious (in a bad way) that no one mentions Marcy considering she was the ridiculous plot point the whole last book revolved around.
"Stolen Prey" begins with Lucas getting robbed by two people. Yeah, that happened. I shouldn't have laughed, but couldn't help it. Of course Letty turns it into you must track these people down and end them because yep she's still a psychopath. More on that later. With Lucas in a cast and feeling out of sorts, he gets called into a brutal family murder. It appears based on what is left on the wall in the victim's blood, someone is out to take people out. It's a long winding road to figure out what is going on and who is involved though. This case focuses on a Mexican cartel who are up against the Federales, DEA, as well as Lucas's team.
Lucas seems more mellow in this one. I maybe laughed anytime he was dealing with Flowers. And even Lucas realized that trying to get revenge was a lost cause in his case of tracking down the thieves. I thought we got glimpses of old Lucas (i.e. he is smarter and more dangerous than he looks).
Lucas's family is fine. I am glad though it finally got brought up that something is off with Letty. And it's getting old that Sandford keeps bringing up her upbringing. We get it, she still needs a shrink. Why no one has suggested that she talks to Lucas's old childhood friend baffles me. I assume that Lucas will just continue to ignore things until she loses it on the wrong person.
Del is hilarious and I loved him and Lucas interviewing people together. They are a really good team and play off each other very well.
We have new characters in this one, but I honestly never think of them again unless they are brought up in future books.
The writing was much tighter on this one. For once we didn't jump around plots with Lucas being involved in too many things. The thieves are being followed up by Flowers, so we hear about it until Lucas finally gets called in and I laughed at that whole thing. Most of the focus on this one is on the murdered family and who else the killers may be after. The pacing was really good too and I thought going back and forth between Lucas, Del, the killers, and other people worked. When we get into Letty's head towards the end I just went ehh though.
The ending leaves things up in the air a bit with Letty and I think Lucas keeping his head buried is going to leave things unresolved for a while.
"Stolen Prey" begins with Lucas getting robbed by two people. Yeah, that happened. I shouldn't have laughed, but couldn't help it. Of course Letty turns it into you must track these people down and end them because yep she's still a psychopath. More on that later. With Lucas in a cast and feeling out of sorts, he gets called into a brutal family murder. It appears based on what is left on the wall in the victim's blood, someone is out to take people out. It's a long winding road to figure out what is going on and who is involved though. This case focuses on a Mexican cartel who are up against the Federales, DEA, as well as Lucas's team.
Lucas seems more mellow in this one. I maybe laughed anytime he was dealing with Flowers. And even Lucas realized that trying to get revenge was a lost cause in his case of tracking down the thieves. I thought we got glimpses of old Lucas (i.e. he is smarter and more dangerous than he looks).
Lucas's family is fine. I am glad though it finally got brought up that something is off with Letty. And it's getting old that Sandford keeps bringing up her upbringing. We get it, she still needs a shrink. Why no one has suggested that she talks to Lucas's old childhood friend baffles me. I assume that Lucas will just continue to ignore things until she loses it on the wrong person.
Del is hilarious and I loved him and Lucas interviewing people together. They are a really good team and play off each other very well.
We have new characters in this one, but I honestly never think of them again unless they are brought up in future books.
The writing was much tighter on this one. For once we didn't jump around plots with Lucas being involved in too many things. The thieves are being followed up by Flowers, so we hear about it until Lucas finally gets called in and I laughed at that whole thing. Most of the focus on this one is on the murdered family and who else the killers may be after. The pacing was really good too and I thought going back and forth between Lucas, Del, the killers, and other people worked. When we get into Letty's head towards the end I just went ehh though.
The ending leaves things up in the air a bit with Letty and I think Lucas keeping his head buried is going to leave things unresolved for a while.
April 6, 2017
Suspense Galore in John Sandford's Latest
There’s something a little different about this novel. In 21 previous entries in the Lucas Davenport series, John Sandford always managed to slip in wry comments here and there, exposing the dark humor that characterizes the banter among the agents of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Somehow, though, there was a lot more of that humor in this novel than I can recall reading before in several earlier books — despite the unusually horrific details of the case that senior agent Lucas Davenport takes on. Also, I don’t recall having gotten such a clear physical picture of Davenport than I got from this book. But maybe all this has been out there before. After all, this was the 22nd in the series, and I certainly haven’t read them all.
This tale is populated by a truly motley crew: three very young hitmen from a Mexican drug cartel who are called Uno, Dos, and Tres, because they’re all named Juan; a software millionaire and his young family; two senior agents from the Mexican Federal Police; two low-life methamphetamine addicts who (don’t gag) spend a lot of time hauling horseshit around the countryside; a disagreeable BCA agent who is ostensibly in charge of the case that Lucas will eventually solve (of course!); and — I almost forgot — the four criminals at the center of this very complex story.
The action begins when Lucas is called to the scene of a truly gruesome murder of a family of four, with no evidence and no leads to the killers or why they killed. It quickly transpires that the murder has something to do with the disappearance of $22 million from a Minneapolis bank, though whose money it is and where it went are completely unknown. I won’t say more, because the pleasure of reading this beautifully executed mysterty is all in the discovery. And, like any good thriller, it’s full of twists, turns, and surprises.
Here, then, is another great effort from a master of the crime genre, John Sandford. Previously, I’ve reviewed three other books in the Lucas Davenport series: Shock Wave, Storm Prey, and Phantom Prey. (The underlining means my reviews are linked to the titles.)
(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)
There’s something a little different about this novel. In 21 previous entries in the Lucas Davenport series, John Sandford always managed to slip in wry comments here and there, exposing the dark humor that characterizes the banter among the agents of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Somehow, though, there was a lot more of that humor in this novel than I can recall reading before in several earlier books — despite the unusually horrific details of the case that senior agent Lucas Davenport takes on. Also, I don’t recall having gotten such a clear physical picture of Davenport than I got from this book. But maybe all this has been out there before. After all, this was the 22nd in the series, and I certainly haven’t read them all.
This tale is populated by a truly motley crew: three very young hitmen from a Mexican drug cartel who are called Uno, Dos, and Tres, because they’re all named Juan; a software millionaire and his young family; two senior agents from the Mexican Federal Police; two low-life methamphetamine addicts who (don’t gag) spend a lot of time hauling horseshit around the countryside; a disagreeable BCA agent who is ostensibly in charge of the case that Lucas will eventually solve (of course!); and — I almost forgot — the four criminals at the center of this very complex story.
The action begins when Lucas is called to the scene of a truly gruesome murder of a family of four, with no evidence and no leads to the killers or why they killed. It quickly transpires that the murder has something to do with the disappearance of $22 million from a Minneapolis bank, though whose money it is and where it went are completely unknown. I won’t say more, because the pleasure of reading this beautifully executed mysterty is all in the discovery. And, like any good thriller, it’s full of twists, turns, and surprises.
Here, then, is another great effort from a master of the crime genre, John Sandford. Previously, I’ve reviewed three other books in the Lucas Davenport series: Shock Wave, Storm Prey, and Phantom Prey. (The underlining means my reviews are linked to the titles.)
(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)
September 27, 2022
Right-wing fantasy page-turner I read while ill. For what it is, pretty good.
April 19, 2012
Received from Library Thing Early Reviewers Program
Overall Rating: 4.25
Story Rating: 4.50
Character Rating: 4.00
First Thought when Finished: When is the next one?
What I Loved: Thrillers are so hard to review because the parts that you love the most are the parts you really shouldn't talk about. The twists and turns in this investigation were done superbly by John Sandford. There was one that I did not see coming and it kind of knocked me on my hiney. Though the twist itself made perfect sense. I really loved the minor, more personal, case that Lucas was involved with. How it was tied up actually left me smiling which doesn't happen very often in thrillers.
What I Liked: I am going to be upfront and admit I haven't read any more in this series (though I do own the first few). I really liked Lucas, his family, and his co-workers. I feel like I would have loved them if I was more attached by reading the series. I liked that I didn't feel lost even though this was the first book that I have read.
Final Thoughts: I would recommend this series to any Mystery/Thriller fans. I am pretty sure I am one of the last to jump on the John Sandford fan train but I am firmly there now!
Overall Rating: 4.25
Story Rating: 4.50
Character Rating: 4.00
First Thought when Finished: When is the next one?
What I Loved: Thrillers are so hard to review because the parts that you love the most are the parts you really shouldn't talk about. The twists and turns in this investigation were done superbly by John Sandford. There was one that I did not see coming and it kind of knocked me on my hiney. Though the twist itself made perfect sense. I really loved the minor, more personal, case that Lucas was involved with. How it was tied up actually left me smiling which doesn't happen very often in thrillers.
What I Liked: I am going to be upfront and admit I haven't read any more in this series (though I do own the first few). I really liked Lucas, his family, and his co-workers. I feel like I would have loved them if I was more attached by reading the series. I liked that I didn't feel lost even though this was the first book that I have read.
Final Thoughts: I would recommend this series to any Mystery/Thriller fans. I am pretty sure I am one of the last to jump on the John Sandford fan train but I am firmly there now!
September 30, 2012
Even for John Sandford and the entire Prey series, this book was violent. People are killed in long torturous ways, and by people I mean families. The saddest part of the whole horrendous crime is it is based in reality. The author did not exaggerate.
The story opens up with the violent murder of a well to do family by a Mexican drug gang. Given the viciousness of the crime Lucas and his cohorts are immediately brought in to solve this case before any more victims can pile up. The most important message of this book is not to get involved in gangs, and especially do not try to cross them. These guys are not playing around when it comes to their business. They have escalated the level of violence so high in Mexico now there isn’t a soft option when it comes to a response.
In classic police procedural fashion Davenport and crew slowly begin to uncover the facts of the case and through realistic action they slowly plod there way through the clues. It is in these small steps that Sandford is a master of the genre; never taking giant leaps of logic to advance the plot. The real genius of the series is how he managed to make such a hard guy like Lucas be so likable at the same time.
The only downside is the side plot involving Virgil Flowers, one of the detectives working for Davenport (and the star of his own book series too). Davenport managed to get mugged at the ATM and he puts the f@#$ing Flowers on the case. There is always an element of gallows humor in the books and usually it’s interwoven into the main story a little better. With the graphically violent nature of the main story this plot was just too jarring and out of place. I can appreciate what the author was going for but it wasn’t working for me.
Stolen Prey was a good book, and it is a fantastic series. You can start anywhere, but if you are like me you will soon find yourself wanting to catch up with all 22 books. It is American police procedural at its best.
The story opens up with the violent murder of a well to do family by a Mexican drug gang. Given the viciousness of the crime Lucas and his cohorts are immediately brought in to solve this case before any more victims can pile up. The most important message of this book is not to get involved in gangs, and especially do not try to cross them. These guys are not playing around when it comes to their business. They have escalated the level of violence so high in Mexico now there isn’t a soft option when it comes to a response.
In classic police procedural fashion Davenport and crew slowly begin to uncover the facts of the case and through realistic action they slowly plod there way through the clues. It is in these small steps that Sandford is a master of the genre; never taking giant leaps of logic to advance the plot. The real genius of the series is how he managed to make such a hard guy like Lucas be so likable at the same time.
The only downside is the side plot involving Virgil Flowers, one of the detectives working for Davenport (and the star of his own book series too). Davenport managed to get mugged at the ATM and he puts the f@#$ing Flowers on the case. There is always an element of gallows humor in the books and usually it’s interwoven into the main story a little better. With the graphically violent nature of the main story this plot was just too jarring and out of place. I can appreciate what the author was going for but it wasn’t working for me.
Stolen Prey was a good book, and it is a fantastic series. You can start anywhere, but if you are like me you will soon find yourself wanting to catch up with all 22 books. It is American police procedural at its best.
June 17, 2012
Once again I am in the minority as to quality of a book.
This is nowhere near the quality of earlier Sandford's Davenport novels. The characters lack any depth and are pretty much cookie cutter bad guys. Sandford's attempts at humor for the most part fall flat. In fact, if I hadn't wanted to know how a subplot came out I would have abandoned the book about a third of the way in.
I haven't given up on Sandford, however. He has another Virgil Flowers book due out later this year and I am looking forward to that. As for this one, thank goodness I borrowed it from my local library and didn't pay the price for the book.
This is nowhere near the quality of earlier Sandford's Davenport novels. The characters lack any depth and are pretty much cookie cutter bad guys. Sandford's attempts at humor for the most part fall flat. In fact, if I hadn't wanted to know how a subplot came out I would have abandoned the book about a third of the way in.
I haven't given up on Sandford, however. He has another Virgil Flowers book due out later this year and I am looking forward to that. As for this one, thank goodness I borrowed it from my local library and didn't pay the price for the book.
March 19, 2023
2nd reading - Lucas is called into a potentially explosive political situation - some semi-wealthy business people along with their family have been tortured and killed. Obviously, the bad guys are looking for something - $22 million that was stolen from them.
The story centers on stopping future killings, grabbing the killers, and nailing the thieves, who've used a bank to get the bad guy's loot.
Good action yarn.
1st reading - Alot in this Davenport story, including Virgil Flowers, some gang killers, missing $22 million, Lucas has his arm broke, and stolen horse manure.
The story centers on stopping future killings, grabbing the killers, and nailing the thieves, who've used a bank to get the bad guy's loot.
Good action yarn.
1st reading - Alot in this Davenport story, including Virgil Flowers, some gang killers, missing $22 million, Lucas has his arm broke, and stolen horse manure.
September 18, 2023
Not my favorite Prey by a mile but even middle of the road Sandford is a better thriller than most. I actually enjoyed the subplot to this one more than the overall story, makes me hopeful for the Davenport/Flowers collaborative turn this series has taken lately. As usual, a breathless climax.
Side note: can we get a Shrake and Jenkins spinoff novel? They’ve been my favorite side characters for years now.
Side note: can we get a Shrake and Jenkins spinoff novel? They’ve been my favorite side characters for years now.
May 15, 2012
John Sandford is back with the latest installment (#22) - Stolen Prey - in his wildly successful and hugely popular series featuring Lucas Davenport, an agent for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
"Lucas's job at the BCA was mostly self-invented, and included politically sensitive cases, or cases that might attract a lot of media attention." When a pair of tweekers rob him at an ATM, breaking his wrist and damaging his ego, he embarks on a long term mission to find them. This is put on the back burner when the superintendent of the BCA calls - a case that is definitely going to be in the spotlight needs Davenport's skills. An entire family has been found murdered - slaughtered really, tortured in unimaginable ways. Lucas's investigation leads places no one saw coming - this isn't just a spree killer. It looks like a Mexican gang hit. What could this software engineer have done to bring this wrath on his family? Soon enough the DEA and a pair of Mexican Federales are also on the case. But everyone seems to have their own priorities concerning the case.....
I've always enjoyed Lucas and his irreverent flaunting of the rules. He's getting older and little mellower, but still has no problem side stepping protocol to get things done. I love the barbed banter between himself and team members Del Capslock, Jensen and Shrake, but no Davenport book is complete without Virgil Flowers. Those tweekers robbing ATM's? Flowers has been put to work on the case - which seems to be leading to stolen.....horse manure?
"Somewhere along the line, it occurred to him that he hadn't spoken to Virgil Flowers. He'd probably taken the day off, and knowing Flowers, he'd done it in a boat. The thing about Flowers was, in Lucas's humble opinion, you could send him out for a loaf of bread and he'd find an illegal bread cartel smuggling in heroin-saturated wheat from Afghanistan. Either that, or he'd be fishing in a muskie tournament, on government time. You had to keep an eye on him."
I have expressed doubts about Davenport's adopted daughter Letty in past books, but my opinion has changed. She's definitely growing on me and I think we'll see more of her in future books.
As always, Sandford has concocted a whip smart, action filled plot with lots of threads to keep your finger on. He employs a great twist that caught me unawares part way through.
I have enjoyed this series from book one and nothing has changed - I still eagerly await every new entry from one of my favourite authors - and curse myself when I finish it in a day!
"Lucas's job at the BCA was mostly self-invented, and included politically sensitive cases, or cases that might attract a lot of media attention." When a pair of tweekers rob him at an ATM, breaking his wrist and damaging his ego, he embarks on a long term mission to find them. This is put on the back burner when the superintendent of the BCA calls - a case that is definitely going to be in the spotlight needs Davenport's skills. An entire family has been found murdered - slaughtered really, tortured in unimaginable ways. Lucas's investigation leads places no one saw coming - this isn't just a spree killer. It looks like a Mexican gang hit. What could this software engineer have done to bring this wrath on his family? Soon enough the DEA and a pair of Mexican Federales are also on the case. But everyone seems to have their own priorities concerning the case.....
I've always enjoyed Lucas and his irreverent flaunting of the rules. He's getting older and little mellower, but still has no problem side stepping protocol to get things done. I love the barbed banter between himself and team members Del Capslock, Jensen and Shrake, but no Davenport book is complete without Virgil Flowers. Those tweekers robbing ATM's? Flowers has been put to work on the case - which seems to be leading to stolen.....horse manure?
"Somewhere along the line, it occurred to him that he hadn't spoken to Virgil Flowers. He'd probably taken the day off, and knowing Flowers, he'd done it in a boat. The thing about Flowers was, in Lucas's humble opinion, you could send him out for a loaf of bread and he'd find an illegal bread cartel smuggling in heroin-saturated wheat from Afghanistan. Either that, or he'd be fishing in a muskie tournament, on government time. You had to keep an eye on him."
I have expressed doubts about Davenport's adopted daughter Letty in past books, but my opinion has changed. She's definitely growing on me and I think we'll see more of her in future books.
As always, Sandford has concocted a whip smart, action filled plot with lots of threads to keep your finger on. He employs a great twist that caught me unawares part way through.
I have enjoyed this series from book one and nothing has changed - I still eagerly await every new entry from one of my favourite authors - and curse myself when I finish it in a day!
May 21, 2012
Summer is here. For movie-goers, it's the first blockbuster weekend. For cottagers, it's the first opening weekend. For thriller readers, it's the new Lucas Davenport novel.
John Sandford's "Stolen Prey" is the 22nd of the Prey series featuring the ongoing character of Lucas Davenport with his Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) associates and family. The main case this time involves a group of hackers who have found a way to divert funds from a money laundering account set up by a Mexican drug cartel in a Minneapolis-St. Paul bank. The cartel is on the trail of the hackers as well and have sent a merciless kill-team of trackers after them. Lucas and his team have to find the hackers before the cartel does because there isn't going to much of the evidence or of the people left behind if they don't. Various DEA investigators and Mexican federal authorities are interested as well to add further complications. Davenport's family have brief and strong cameo appearances, but if you aren't a fan of the occasional medical subplots with wife/surgeon Weather Karkinnen or kid-reporter subplots with daughter Letty you can relax about those, this is a straight-ahead Lucas story. The main subplot involves Davenport himself getting robbed at an ATM with an investigation that leads to the southern part of the state which allows Sandford to bring in his other recurring series character, the BCA country/fishing detective Virgil Flowers, into the storyline as well. That case takes a turn that involves horse farms and a running gag about horse manure that adds to the usual phone banter between Davenport and Flowers. This was a solid forward-rushing thriller read that I tried to pace out as much as possible but still ended up finishing in 2 days. Summer is definitely here!
John Sandford's "Stolen Prey" is the 22nd of the Prey series featuring the ongoing character of Lucas Davenport with his Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) associates and family. The main case this time involves a group of hackers who have found a way to divert funds from a money laundering account set up by a Mexican drug cartel in a Minneapolis-St. Paul bank. The cartel is on the trail of the hackers as well and have sent a merciless kill-team of trackers after them. Lucas and his team have to find the hackers before the cartel does because there isn't going to much of the evidence or of the people left behind if they don't. Various DEA investigators and Mexican federal authorities are interested as well to add further complications. Davenport's family have brief and strong cameo appearances, but if you aren't a fan of the occasional medical subplots with wife/surgeon Weather Karkinnen or kid-reporter subplots with daughter Letty you can relax about those, this is a straight-ahead Lucas story. The main subplot involves Davenport himself getting robbed at an ATM with an investigation that leads to the southern part of the state which allows Sandford to bring in his other recurring series character, the BCA country/fishing detective Virgil Flowers, into the storyline as well. That case takes a turn that involves horse farms and a running gag about horse manure that adds to the usual phone banter between Davenport and Flowers. This was a solid forward-rushing thriller read that I tried to pace out as much as possible but still ended up finishing in 2 days. Summer is definitely here!
April 17, 2013
One of Sandford's better Lucas Davenport novels. I sometimes wonder though if the reader makes the book. Richard Ferrone has always been one of favorite readers and perhaps his subtle emotional tone shifts add to my enjoyment. Who knows (and who cares?)
No point in a retelling of the plot, what I especially liked about this one was the total lack of drivel with external characters like Weather and Lucas's friend the nun psychologist whose name escapes me. (Robert Parker's books also have ambivalent relationships with women.) They always seemed so unnecessary and a distraction from the basic storyline. I liked the elements of humor and especially the insertion of comments about current detective stories, etc. It keeps things light.
Virgil Flowers, one of Sandford's spinoffs (and a good series) plays a minor role in Davenport's search for two guys who mugged him at an ATM.
The only puzzling aspect of the book was the three Mexican characters, or should I say caricatures, Unos, Dos, and Tres. They seemed to be a mixture of ridicule and cartoon and seemed slightly off-kilter from the rest of the book. I did enjoy the hints of humor that seemed more prevalent in this book than some of the others in the series.
I like all of the Sandford series although the Kidd books, with their emphasis on computer technology, are horribly dated. But take all the Sandford works for what they are worth, just fun reads and a good way to pass the time while mowing the lawn or getting teeth drilled.
No point in a retelling of the plot, what I especially liked about this one was the total lack of drivel with external characters like Weather and Lucas's friend the nun psychologist whose name escapes me. (Robert Parker's books also have ambivalent relationships with women.) They always seemed so unnecessary and a distraction from the basic storyline. I liked the elements of humor and especially the insertion of comments about current detective stories, etc. It keeps things light.
Virgil Flowers, one of Sandford's spinoffs (and a good series) plays a minor role in Davenport's search for two guys who mugged him at an ATM.
The only puzzling aspect of the book was the three Mexican characters, or should I say caricatures, Unos, Dos, and Tres. They seemed to be a mixture of ridicule and cartoon and seemed slightly off-kilter from the rest of the book. I did enjoy the hints of humor that seemed more prevalent in this book than some of the others in the series.
I like all of the Sandford series although the Kidd books, with their emphasis on computer technology, are horribly dated. But take all the Sandford works for what they are worth, just fun reads and a good way to pass the time while mowing the lawn or getting teeth drilled.
June 22, 2012
When is it possible to be happy and bummed out at the same time? If you're me, it happens when you've finished the last book in a series you love (22 of them, in fact, but who's counting). Like most of the others, it's a terrific read, but now there's no next installment waiting on my Kindle.
Once again, Sandford is in top form here; this one centers on a Mexican drug ring that has been laundering huge sums of money through a U.S. bank. Then, a handful of mostly U.S. geeks find a way to siphon off millions, shifting it from company to company and finally using it to buy gold, thus slamming a gate on the usual money trail. If that weren't enough, Davenport, himself a victim of an ATM theft of a few hundred bucks, is quite pissed off and assigns subordinate Virgil Flowers -- the maverick hero of Sandford's other popular series -- to track 'em down, if not kill 'em.
As expected, Davenport and Flowers emerge triumphant, but not before a shootout that takes Davenport -- and this reader -- totally by surprise. The ending, too, comes with a twist -- but one that brings the promise of a follow-up. Soon, I hope! (Note: A new Virgil Flowers book is set for publication near the end of this year).
Once again, Sandford is in top form here; this one centers on a Mexican drug ring that has been laundering huge sums of money through a U.S. bank. Then, a handful of mostly U.S. geeks find a way to siphon off millions, shifting it from company to company and finally using it to buy gold, thus slamming a gate on the usual money trail. If that weren't enough, Davenport, himself a victim of an ATM theft of a few hundred bucks, is quite pissed off and assigns subordinate Virgil Flowers -- the maverick hero of Sandford's other popular series -- to track 'em down, if not kill 'em.
As expected, Davenport and Flowers emerge triumphant, but not before a shootout that takes Davenport -- and this reader -- totally by surprise. The ending, too, comes with a twist -- but one that brings the promise of a follow-up. Soon, I hope! (Note: A new Virgil Flowers book is set for publication near the end of this year).
May 25, 2012
Okay 'Prey' fans, and if you're not, read this book, and you WILL be. I just started this killer thriller and it's one of those action stories where, like "The Secret Spy" by Alex Berenson, the first few pages are so well written that you can't wait to continue. Sandford is clearly at the top of his game with the last few in this series, I think I've read the last ten or so, and this one looks to be one of, if not, the best. Take a scan next time you're in the book-store, you'll see what I mean, just the first 3 pages is enough to hook you.
Anyway, more soon on this latest effort by one of our generations true thriller masters. Stay tuned thriller fans!
Anyway, more soon on this latest effort by one of our generations true thriller masters. Stay tuned thriller fans!
September 13, 2020
Gods help me but I was not bowled over by this book, which while not ranking in the most depressing events of 2020 by any means Totally Sucked. Writing paragraphs about one of my most beloved stress-easing series letting me down is not what I’d consider a fun activity so I’m not doing it, but this seemed rote by Sandford’s standards. The ending was totally underwhelming and relied on a plot device that has been used before to much greater effect and left me cold. Moving on...
June 5, 2013
John Sandford, the pseudonym for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, John Camp, writes two main series of police/crime procedurals featuring Lucas Davenport (the Prey novels, started in 1989, and currently at 23 novels) and Virgil Flowers (the Virgil Flowers series, started in 2007 and now at 6 novels). Lucas Davenport started as a police officer in the Minneapolis Police Force. Writing computer/video games in his spare time, he later sold his company for a large amount of money. He also rose quickly to be a homicide cop dealing with extremely violent and dangerous criminals who, often in the earlier novels of the series, were serial killers. Because of his independent loner attitude and methods, he eventually was forced to resign, although he returned as a Deputy Chief. He now is the lead investigator for Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Davenport is very smart and dogged in his investigations. He’s also usually unorthodox and not afraid of taking the law into his own hands. In many ways, he is “Dirty” Harry Callahan.
Virgil Flowers is an investigator for Davenport with the BCA. Davenport sends Flowers out into rural Minnesota to investigate and solve difficult crimes. Flowers, an avid fisherman who is a successful writer for outdoor magazines, has been divorced several times and is referred to by other officers and associates as “that f***ing Flowers” for his propensity to sleep with women while on a case. He always seems to take his boat with him in case he has the chance to do some fishing. Flowers is an extremely intelligent detective whose appearance in heavy metal or obscure band t-shirts tends to make people underestimate him.
Both of these series are very fast reads and thoroughly enjoyable. I am always excited when a new one comes out. I tend to stop whatever else I’m reading and read these immediately. One of the parts I enjoy most in Sandford’s writings is his strength in writing dialogue. There are passages of dialogue that are filled with cop humor which I enjoy. The only other genre writer that is as good, if not better, is Elmore Leonard.
Stolen Prey is Davenport’s 22nd run around the block. The novel opens with Davenport being mugged by two drug addicts at an ATM. During the scuffle, he breaks his wrist. This angers Davenport so he sends Virgil Flowers downstate to find the muggers. Periodically, throughout the novel, we return to Flowers’ investigation, but that is only a subplot. The main body of the novel is the investigation of the brutal torture and slaying of a man, his wife, two children and three dogs. The violence leads the investigators to suspect that a Mexican drug gang is behind the murders, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason why. The husband runs a software company that sells software in Spanish, but the Federal investigators can’t really locate any type of money-laundering operation. A Mexican detective and his assistant also arrive to help the investigation. As it turns out there are three Mexican hitmen looking for stolen money. Their attempt to find and recover the money leads to more and more violence. The tension is continually ratcheted up and makes the book difficult to put down. By the end the main plot and the subplot are resolved, but not in a neat bow.
Shock Wave is the 5th Virgil Flowers novel. In this one, Flowers is investigating a bomber who seems to be upset with the construction and building of a Walmart-like superstore in the small town of Butternut Falls. Not only was the headquarters in Michigan somehow bombed, but several other targets were hit in Butternut Falls, including an attempt on Virgil Flowers himself that results in the destruction of his fishing boat. In the course of solving the bombing, Flowers encounters political corruption and uncovers the complex reasons behind the crimes. As with Stolen Prey, the dialogue is great and the novel is engrossing.
If anyone enjoys crime procedurals, the Davenport and Flowers’ novels are great choices. I readily recommend them.
Virgil Flowers is an investigator for Davenport with the BCA. Davenport sends Flowers out into rural Minnesota to investigate and solve difficult crimes. Flowers, an avid fisherman who is a successful writer for outdoor magazines, has been divorced several times and is referred to by other officers and associates as “that f***ing Flowers” for his propensity to sleep with women while on a case. He always seems to take his boat with him in case he has the chance to do some fishing. Flowers is an extremely intelligent detective whose appearance in heavy metal or obscure band t-shirts tends to make people underestimate him.
Both of these series are very fast reads and thoroughly enjoyable. I am always excited when a new one comes out. I tend to stop whatever else I’m reading and read these immediately. One of the parts I enjoy most in Sandford’s writings is his strength in writing dialogue. There are passages of dialogue that are filled with cop humor which I enjoy. The only other genre writer that is as good, if not better, is Elmore Leonard.
Stolen Prey is Davenport’s 22nd run around the block. The novel opens with Davenport being mugged by two drug addicts at an ATM. During the scuffle, he breaks his wrist. This angers Davenport so he sends Virgil Flowers downstate to find the muggers. Periodically, throughout the novel, we return to Flowers’ investigation, but that is only a subplot. The main body of the novel is the investigation of the brutal torture and slaying of a man, his wife, two children and three dogs. The violence leads the investigators to suspect that a Mexican drug gang is behind the murders, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason why. The husband runs a software company that sells software in Spanish, but the Federal investigators can’t really locate any type of money-laundering operation. A Mexican detective and his assistant also arrive to help the investigation. As it turns out there are three Mexican hitmen looking for stolen money. Their attempt to find and recover the money leads to more and more violence. The tension is continually ratcheted up and makes the book difficult to put down. By the end the main plot and the subplot are resolved, but not in a neat bow.
Shock Wave is the 5th Virgil Flowers novel. In this one, Flowers is investigating a bomber who seems to be upset with the construction and building of a Walmart-like superstore in the small town of Butternut Falls. Not only was the headquarters in Michigan somehow bombed, but several other targets were hit in Butternut Falls, including an attempt on Virgil Flowers himself that results in the destruction of his fishing boat. In the course of solving the bombing, Flowers encounters political corruption and uncovers the complex reasons behind the crimes. As with Stolen Prey, the dialogue is great and the novel is engrossing.
If anyone enjoys crime procedurals, the Davenport and Flowers’ novels are great choices. I readily recommend them.
May 24, 2012
We’re long-time Sandford fans and wouldn’t miss a Prey novel for anything. In this 22nd entry in the über-detective Lucas Davenport series, the plot starts out rough as the Brooks family of four are found murdered, obviously hideously tortured in the process. Since Lucas tends now to work just high-profile cases, he assists the assigned homicide cop, Shaffer, in pursuing what appears to be a complicated money-laundering scheme involving Mexican drug criminals. Meanwhile, early in the story, Lucas is mugged at an ATM machine, losing $500 and getting a broken wrist in the process, and you know he’s gonna get those perps if humanly possible. Interestingly, he recruits Virgil Flowers (who has his own Sandford series) to help him find the culprits in that crime.
As usual, there is no shortage of further violence as more parties get identified as part of the scheme (of the main plot) and start double-crossing each other; and the tale ends with a chilling and dangerous episode at Davenport’s house. While we won’t say “Stolen” was our favorite story, Sandford manages to deliver novels of consistent entertainment quality despite his swelling bibliography – and has done so herein once again.
As usual, there is no shortage of further violence as more parties get identified as part of the scheme (of the main plot) and start double-crossing each other; and the tale ends with a chilling and dangerous episode at Davenport’s house. While we won’t say “Stolen” was our favorite story, Sandford manages to deliver novels of consistent entertainment quality despite his swelling bibliography – and has done so herein once again.
May 16, 2012
The story is in three parts.
In one part, a group of people who work in a bank and are good at computer operations figure a way to steal over twenty million dollars from an automated account. They didn't know that the account was owned by a Mexican drug cartel.
The next segment is the police investigation. An entire family is tortured and killed. On the wall is a sign 'were coming'. Without an apostrophe. Lucas Davenport is on the case and from the brutality of the killing and torture it reminds him of a Mexican retribution killing. Later, an official from Mexio gives information that makes him believe the name of the group is Los Criminales del Norte.
The final segment is the killers and their actions as they murder various people to get a lead on where the money is.
John Sandford is a master of dialogue and rates with Elmore Leonard in that area. His character, Lucas Davenport, is a legendary criminal investigator whose actions and manner of apprehending criminals is very realistic and make him a pleasure to read.
I enjoyed the story and the excellent conclusion and was sorry to see the story end.
In one part, a group of people who work in a bank and are good at computer operations figure a way to steal over twenty million dollars from an automated account. They didn't know that the account was owned by a Mexican drug cartel.
The next segment is the police investigation. An entire family is tortured and killed. On the wall is a sign 'were coming'. Without an apostrophe. Lucas Davenport is on the case and from the brutality of the killing and torture it reminds him of a Mexican retribution killing. Later, an official from Mexio gives information that makes him believe the name of the group is Los Criminales del Norte.
The final segment is the killers and their actions as they murder various people to get a lead on where the money is.
John Sandford is a master of dialogue and rates with Elmore Leonard in that area. His character, Lucas Davenport, is a legendary criminal investigator whose actions and manner of apprehending criminals is very realistic and make him a pleasure to read.
I enjoyed the story and the excellent conclusion and was sorry to see the story end.
March 11, 2013
Mr Sandford is usually good for an entertaining criminal diversion. Some of his recent novels have not measured up to his early ones. But he is back on track with Stolen Prey, an up-to-date computer hacker tale of drug-money-laundering bank fraud by a group of amateurs who get on the wrong side of the Mexican narcotrafficantes. Some pretty graphic scenes play out as the story unfolds. Even if it wasn't much of a surprise who is a bad "guy" and who isn't, the chase is exciting right to the end. The final scene clinched the 4 Star rating easily.
August 26, 2012
An affluent family is found tortured to death, and suspicion quickly falls on a Mexican drug lord called the Big Voice. A Federales investigator and his female assistant and the DEA are called in to find out how a modestly successful software company could be laundering money, which quickly traces back to some local Minneapolis banks. Meanwhile Lucas Davenport is mugged at an ATM after his morning run, and sends Virgil Flowers in pursuit of a pair of suspected meth heads. Lucas makes a number of key deduction, but in trapping the Mexican killers, endangers his loved ones (again.)
July 9, 2017
As I read this book, I wondered if I had read it before. Rivera and Martinez seemed familiar, and the ATM thieves. I never really determined if I had, but probably not, because I think I would have anticipated the ending more. At any rate, I enjoyed it. Maybe not my favorite in the series, but it was good, and kept my attention. (And I still would not be surprised if I found it listed somewhere as a book I had read; a daughter sometimes gives me paperbacks that she picks up in her travels, and I could have had two copies.)
March 5, 2024
4.5 Stars. Not my favorite Prey book, but it's in the top 6 or 8. I think these Prey books are at their best when there are multiple bad guys with multiple agendas, such as the case with this installment. Sanford's such a great writer, he can juggle all these characters & agendas without things ever getting too convoluted, confusing or ridiculous. Highly recommend!
April 30, 2016
Best book by John Sanford I have read. 402 pages & each one full of drama, entertainment and action. Lucas Davenport and his team of officials can figure out how to draw information from a cactus & get real results.
May 4, 2020
Buried Pey, number 21, was one of my favorites of the series. Unfortunately, this book, Stolen Prey is one of my least favorites.
As the book opens, Davenport is at an ATM, withdrawing $500 in cash. Unfortunately he is robbed at gunpoint by two men who are high. They knock him to the ground and break his wrist. The money is one thing, but Davenport is angry because the break has put him in a cast and on desk duty, for three months. Determined to find the men, he assigns the task to Virgil Flowers. (I have not read the Flowers series, but enjoy his periodic showings in this series.)
Then a wealthy family is tortured and murdered, the crime looking much like the signature of a Mexican drug gang. The drug lords whom Davenport suspects are involved are missing $22M. They want their money and have three killers on the trail. Davenport needs to find the murderers, track down the cartel's money, and prevent more murders from happening.
One of the things I like best in this series is Sandford's use of humor in his subplots. This story was ripe for it, what with Davnport being stuck in a cast. Unfortunately it just didn't play out in the way I would have expected. On top of that the villains weren't unique and shocking, and actually come off as quite stupid.
Disappointing. But not enough to have stopped me from continuing the series.
As the book opens, Davenport is at an ATM, withdrawing $500 in cash. Unfortunately he is robbed at gunpoint by two men who are high. They knock him to the ground and break his wrist. The money is one thing, but Davenport is angry because the break has put him in a cast and on desk duty, for three months. Determined to find the men, he assigns the task to Virgil Flowers. (I have not read the Flowers series, but enjoy his periodic showings in this series.)
Then a wealthy family is tortured and murdered, the crime looking much like the signature of a Mexican drug gang. The drug lords whom Davenport suspects are involved are missing $22M. They want their money and have three killers on the trail. Davenport needs to find the murderers, track down the cartel's money, and prevent more murders from happening.
One of the things I like best in this series is Sandford's use of humor in his subplots. This story was ripe for it, what with Davnport being stuck in a cast. Unfortunately it just didn't play out in the way I would have expected. On top of that the villains weren't unique and shocking, and actually come off as quite stupid.
Disappointing. But not enough to have stopped me from continuing the series.
June 18, 2012
The one thing that makes John Sandford stand out is his Pulitzer Prize winning writing. Oh. And his thrilling stories. … And his deep, developed characters. Right. Three things that make him stand out are his writing, his stories, his characters, and his compelling conflicts. That’s four. Four things that make* … OK, fine. Lots of things make Mr. Sandford stand out.
One thing that strikes me every time I read one of his books is the criminal element. Each character becomes part of the criminal conspiracy for reasons that are realistic and believable, maybe even a bit sympathetic. And each one of them is an individual so real you could swear his/her character was based that second cousin your family never likes to talk about. (“What ever happened to the Sweeney’s kid?” “Shush, we got comp’ny.” “No we don’t.” “Shush anyway.”) Not only are the criminals distinct and realistic, but so are the interactions, and struggles, between them.
In this Lucas Davenport story, there are lots of criminals. An almost confusing array, with competing agendas and surprising alliances. In the hands of a lesser author, one would need to chart the various factions and viewpoints. Mr. Sandford’s Pulitzer Prize was not awarded for confusing readers. He lets the reader ride shotgun with eight different criminals and god-only-knows how many policemen without eliciting a single ‘wait, what?’ (Quite an accomplishment when this reviewer is involved.) Recently, I castigated another famous author for having too many POV’s, losing us in unnecessary side stories and diversions to nowhere. Not the case in Stolen Prey. In this story we follow the dim witted killer who talks to saints and find ourselves hoping he finds a happy ending. Come to think of it, one might argue, he did. In another group of criminals, we follow a woman so anxious (for good reason) that we want to reach into the story and save her from the mistakes she’s making. “No, honeychild, that is a bad decision.”
And the cops? Their interactions are slices of life common to any mega-corporation or government agency. We’ve all witnessed the familiar situations that range from friendly aide to stingy power trips. Mr. Sandford’s work should be standard deconstruction material for Creative Writing classes. He defines perfection.
Review continues on Seeley James with details on how many cuss words he uses in this book (less than you'd think:).
One thing that strikes me every time I read one of his books is the criminal element. Each character becomes part of the criminal conspiracy for reasons that are realistic and believable, maybe even a bit sympathetic. And each one of them is an individual so real you could swear his/her character was based that second cousin your family never likes to talk about. (“What ever happened to the Sweeney’s kid?” “Shush, we got comp’ny.” “No we don’t.” “Shush anyway.”) Not only are the criminals distinct and realistic, but so are the interactions, and struggles, between them.
In this Lucas Davenport story, there are lots of criminals. An almost confusing array, with competing agendas and surprising alliances. In the hands of a lesser author, one would need to chart the various factions and viewpoints. Mr. Sandford’s Pulitzer Prize was not awarded for confusing readers. He lets the reader ride shotgun with eight different criminals and god-only-knows how many policemen without eliciting a single ‘wait, what?’ (Quite an accomplishment when this reviewer is involved.) Recently, I castigated another famous author for having too many POV’s, losing us in unnecessary side stories and diversions to nowhere. Not the case in Stolen Prey. In this story we follow the dim witted killer who talks to saints and find ourselves hoping he finds a happy ending. Come to think of it, one might argue, he did. In another group of criminals, we follow a woman so anxious (for good reason) that we want to reach into the story and save her from the mistakes she’s making. “No, honeychild, that is a bad decision.”
And the cops? Their interactions are slices of life common to any mega-corporation or government agency. We’ve all witnessed the familiar situations that range from friendly aide to stingy power trips. Mr. Sandford’s work should be standard deconstruction material for Creative Writing classes. He defines perfection.
Review continues on Seeley James with details on how many cuss words he uses in this book (less than you'd think:).
September 17, 2021
Notes to remember story:
Lucas at ATM robbed at gunpoint, his wrist broken in cast for three months
he has someone on the case looking for the robbers
while Lucas is on a new case
the worst murder scene Lucas has ever seen
in an upscale town a whole family tortured and murdered wife, 2 daughters, dogs and the husband killed last
father owned software company had clients in Mexico
Davenport suspicious had a feeling drugs were involved in business transactions to Mexico
Lucas was right, druglord missing $22mill & wants his money back
Lucas searching for killers and missing money
Lucas found gold which turns into war zone gold eventually goes to the government
Lucas has the identity of female robbers that stole from him, they were caught, convicted,& went to jail
one of them was excited to go back to jail
Mexican persons broke into Davenport’s house
Letty told Weather to run with her brother
Letty shot and killed both intruders
Letty was shot in the arm.. went to hospital, surgery, then cast
Weather worried about Letty psychological state after killing people
Letty has no regrets or remorse for her actions
Lucas said Letty is like him & he turned out mostly ok
Lucas at ATM robbed at gunpoint, his wrist broken in cast for three months
he has someone on the case looking for the robbers
while Lucas is on a new case
the worst murder scene Lucas has ever seen
in an upscale town a whole family tortured and murdered wife, 2 daughters, dogs and the husband killed last
father owned software company had clients in Mexico
Davenport suspicious had a feeling drugs were involved in business transactions to Mexico
Lucas was right, druglord missing $22mill & wants his money back
Lucas searching for killers and missing money
Lucas found gold which turns into war zone gold eventually goes to the government
Lucas has the identity of female robbers that stole from him, they were caught, convicted,& went to jail
one of them was excited to go back to jail
Mexican persons broke into Davenport’s house
Letty told Weather to run with her brother
Letty shot and killed both intruders
Letty was shot in the arm.. went to hospital, surgery, then cast
Weather worried about Letty psychological state after killing people
Letty has no regrets or remorse for her actions
Lucas said Letty is like him & he turned out mostly ok
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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