One late fall Sunday in southern Minnesota, a farmer brings a load of soybeans to a local grain elevator- and a young man hits him on the head with a steel bar, drops him into the grain bin, waits until he's sure he's dead, and then calls the sheriff to report the "accident."
Suspicious, the sheriff calls in Virgil Flowers, who quickly breaks the kid down...and the next day the boy's found hanging in his cell.
Remorse? Virgil isn't so sure, and as he investigates he begins to uncover a multigeneration, multifamily conspiracy-a series of crimes of such monstrosity that, though he's seen an awful lot in his life, even he has difficulty in comprehending it...and in figuring out what to do next.
 |
| Not consistent. |
John Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling novelist John Roswell Camp.
In "The Hanged Man's Song" John Sandford continues the adventures of the computer whiz named Kidd. He is a man who operates outside the law as he goes about his life's journey. Sometimes he is accompanied by a woman named LuEllen. She is also a person who commits crimes. Therefore they are the ideal couple.
In "The Hanged Man's Song," Kidd and LuEllen are on the hunt for a murderer. Someone has killed Bobby, the mastermind behind a collection of information, which is kept on a laptop computer. This information could expose Kidd's identity to the world and this can not happen. Kidd and LuEllen team up with another friend named John to chase this assassin.
These "Kidd" stories are not quite as gripping as the PREY series of books that Sandford also authors. Somehow it is more interesting and more compelling to read about the exploits of Lucas Davenport than it is to get involved in the shadowy world inhabited by Kidd.
"The Hanged Man's Song" is a book that will hold your attention, and it will stay on your mind long after you have finished reading it. But it isn't a book you will like, or recommend. You will be compelled to finish it but when you have you will want to be done with it. But you won't be. The thoughts that Sandford raises about the invasion of your privacy will stay in your mind for a long time to come.
"Shock Wave"
Critics and fans alike have taken Virgil Flowers into their hearts: "Smart, sexy, with a wicked sense of humor, Flowers is fast becoming one of my favorite series characters" (Minneapolis StarTribune); "Flowers works with gruff charm and Spenser-like efficience, a winning combination" (Entertainment Weekly); "Flowers is smart and honest, with a healthy supply of cynicism [in] a thoroughly engaging, suspenseful, satisfying story" (Associated Press).
And Flowers's new case? It's explosive — literally.
Talk about risky business.
The superstore chain PyeMart has its sights set on a Minnesota river town, but two very angry groups want to stop it: local merchants fearing for their businesses, and environmentalists, predicting ecological disaster. The protests don't seem to be slowing the project, though, until someonedecides to take matters into his own hands.
The first bomb goes off on the top floor of PyeMart's headquarters. The second one explodes at the construction site itself. The blasts are meant to inflict maximum damage — and they do. Who's behind the bombs, and how far will they go? It's Virgil Flowers's job to find out ... before more people get killed.
Filled with the brilliant plotting and compulsively readable prose that are Sandford's hallmarks, "Shock Wave" is another masterpiece by one of our very best suspense writers.
This chase puts Kidd, LuEllen and John in jeopardy, but if they are not successful in getting the laptop back the world could be in jeopardy. Sandford's theory in this novel is that those who control the information control the world. How they control it makes for the most chilling elements of the story.
"Storm Prey"
Very early, 4:45 on a bitterly cold Minnesota morning, three big men burst through the door of a hospital pharmacy, duct-tape the hands, feet, mouth and eyes of two pharmacy workers, and clean the place out.
But then things swiftly go bad, one of the workers dies, and the robbers hustle out to their truck — and find themselves for just one second face to face with a blond woman who's driven into the garage.
"Dead Watch"
Through 21 novels featuring Lucas Davenport, Kidd or the razor-edge world of the Night Crew, John Sandford has been writing brilliantly suspenseful, consistently surprising thrillers filled with rich characters and exceptional drama.
But Dead Watch sets a whole new level.
Late afternoon, Virginia, and a woman is on the run. Her husband, a former U.S. Senator named Lincoln Bowe, has been missing for days. Kidnapped? Murdered? She doesn't know, but she thinks she knows who's involved, and why. And that she may be next.
Hours later, a phone rings in the pocket of Jacob Winter. An Army Intelligence veteran, Winter specializes in what he thinks of as forensic bureaucracy. Congress, the Pentagon, the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security — when something goes wrong, Winter kicks over rocks until he finds out what really happened. The White House is his main client, and the chief of staff is on the phone now.
If Bowe isn't located soon, he is told, all hell will break loose.
What Winter doesn't realize is — all hell will break loose anyway. And he will be right in the middle of it. Large forces are at work, men determined to do whatever it takes to achieve unprecedented ends. Before the next few days are out, Winter will discover he has to use every one of his resources not only to prevail... but just to survive.
And so will the nation....
Clara Rinker is a southerner, trim, pleasant, attractive — and the best hit woman in the business. She isn't showy, not like one of those movie killers; she just goes quietly about her business, collects her money, and goes home.
It's when she's hired for a job in Minnesota that things become complicated for her. A defense attorney wants a rival eliminated, and that's fine. But then a witness survives, the attorney starts acting weird, this big cop Davenport gets on her case, and loose ends begin popping up faster than a sweater unraveling. Clara hates loose ends, and knows of only one way to deal with them: You start cutting them off, one after another, until they're all gone.
Lucas thinks the case is worrisome enough, but he has no idea of the toll it is about to take on him. For of the many criminals he has hunted during his life, none has been as efficient or as ferociously intelligent as the one who is about to start hunting him — and none knows so well what his weak spots are... and how to penetrate them.
"Buried Prey"
An entire block on the edge of the Minneapolis loop is being torn down for development, when an unpleasant surprise is unearthed: the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic, underneath an old house. It looks like they've been down there a long time. Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long.
In 1985, Davenport was a young cop just about to be promoted out of uniform, despite a reputation for playing fast and loose with the regulations. A local hockey hero, a womanizer, a superb undercover guy, he was part of the massive police effort that followed the kidnapping of two girls who were never found again, dead or alive. Eventually, the case was closed.
But not for Davenport. Now, with the bodies discovered, he has the chance to investigate the kidnappings all over again, and the deeper he probes, the more one thing becomes clear: It wasn't just the bodies that were buried. It was the truth.
"Certain Prey"
Clara Rinker is a southerner, trim, pleasant, attractive — and the best hit woman in the business. She isn't showy, not like one of those movie killers; she just goes quietly about her business, collects her money, and goes home.
It's when she's hired for a job in Minnesota that things become complicated for her. A defense attorney wants a rival eliminated, and that's fine. But then a witness survives, the attorney starts acting weird, this big cop Davenport gets on her case, and loose ends begin popping up faster than a sweater unraveling. Clara hates loose ends, and knows of only one way to deal with them: You start cutting them off, one after another, until they're all gone.
Lucas thinks the case is worrisome enough, but he has no idea of the toll it is about to take on him. For of the many criminals he has hunted during his life, none has been as efficient or as ferociously intelligent as the one who is about to start hunting him — and none knows so well what his weak spots are... and how to penetrate them.
"Buried Prey"
An entire block on the edge of the Minneapolis loop is being torn down for development, when an unpleasant surprise is unearthed: the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic, underneath an old house. It looks like they've been down there a long time. Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long.
In 1985, Davenport was a young cop just about to be promoted out of uniform, despite a reputation for playing fast and loose with the regulations. A local hockey hero, a womanizer, a superb undercover guy, he was part of the massive police effort that followed the kidnapping of two girls who were never found again, dead or alive. Eventually, the case was closed.
But not for Davenport. Now, with the bodies discovered, he has the chance to investigate the kidnappings all over again, and the deeper he probes, the more one thing becomes clear: It wasn't just the bodies that were buried. It was the truth.
"Easy Prey"
He didn't wake up thinking about murder. He woke up thinking about the blonde on his bed and a stack of pancakes.... Funny how things work out....
When Davenport is called to the white-stuccoed house, after the party, he knows it's for no usual case. For one thing, the strangulation victim is Alie'e Maison, she of the knife-edge cheekbones and jade-green eyes: as models go, one of the biggest.
For another, there are a few small complications. Such as the drugs in her body and the evidence that she had recently made love to a woman. Such as the fact that one of Lucas's own men had been at the party, and is now a suspect.
Such as the little surprise they are all about to find when they search the house: a second body, stuffed in a closet, with a deep dent in its skull.
The whole case is going to be like this, Lucas knows — secrets piled upon secrets, the ground shifting constantly under his feet.
But even he cannot suspect the earth tremors he is about to feel, when an old lover comes back into his life, a woman he has never been able to forget... whose own secrets may turn out to be the most perplexing ones of all.
"Rough Country"
 |
| More on Lake Vermilion, |
"It's a joy to announce that John Sandford is still doing everything right," wrote the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the second adventure of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers. "Virgil acts like the best series protagonists — becoming someone we just enjoy spending time with."
Virgil's always been known for having a somewhat active, er, social life, but he's probably not going to be getting too many opportunities for that during his new case. While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, he gets a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a murder at a nearby resort, where a woman has been shot while kayaking. The resort is for women only, a place to relax, get fit, recover from plastic surgery, commune with nature, and while it didn't start out to be a place mostly for those with Sapphic inclinations, that's pretty much what it is today.
Which makes things all the more complicated for Virgil, because as he begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented country singer, and the more he digs, the move he discovers the arrows of suspicion that point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, fear.
And then he discovers that this is not the first murder, that there was a second, seemingly unrelated one, the year before. And that there's about to be a third, definitely related one, any time now. And as for the fourth... well, Virgil better hope he can catch the killer before that happens.
Because it could be his own.
"Shadow Prey"
"With a single powerful slash, Leo cut Ray Cuervo's throat from ear to ear."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! And that's only Chapter One!
It doesn't stop! Relentless fast action from the first page to the last, yet enough personal exposition to get an understanding of the characters, perfect mixing of private home life with the investigation, the pacing is so good it's unnoticeable, emotional temperature is spot on, graphic sex, affairs, violence, shooting, explosions!
Lucas Davenport begins his second in the 'Prey' series tracking down the why of a public death vividly portrayed on camera in time for the 5:00 news at dinner.
An American Native kills his parole officer, is recognized and surrounded at his apartment, then commits suicide-by-cop. Around his neck hanging from a cord is a beautiful ritual knife.
It is obvious something is going on because this is the second murder with these same details, the first having occurred in New York City, but without the murderer having been caught. The timing indicates two killers AND a conspiracy; the victims indicate the long-standing grievances of the Native American community as the cause.
Since this latest killing is in Minneapolis, FBI and New York City copper lieutenant Lily Rothenburg arrive quickly to participate in the investigation, if not try to take it over. Lucas isn't having any of that, but Lily is gorgeous and Lucas does want some of that!
However, there is a little hiccup on Lucas's ability to pursue the attractive detective - his live-in girlfriend Jennifer with his baby daughter waiting for him at home.
Fireworks are guaranteed!
"Silken Prey"
"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.
"Naked Prey"
John Sandford's introduction of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers was an immediate critical and popular success: "laser-sharp characters and a plot that's fast and surprising" (Cleveland Plain Dealer); "an idiosyncratic, thoroughly ingratiating hero" (Booklist). Flowers is only in his late thirties, but he's been around the block a few times, and he doesn't think much can surprise him anymore.
Filled with the audacious plotting, rich characters, and brilliant suspense that have always made his books "compulsively readable" (Los Angeles Times), this is vintage Sandford.
Lucas Davenport finds some changes — and some nasty
surprises — in store, in the chilling new novel by the
number-one-bestselling author.
After 13 years and 13 Prey novels, John
Sandford's writing is as fresh as ever. His last book, "Mortal Prey," was "a model of the genre"
(People) and "the cop novel of the year" (Kirkus Reviews). In
the words of the Washington Post: "John Sandford does everything
right."
Now, in "Naked Prey" he puts Lucas Davenport through some changes. His old boss, Rose Marie Roux, has moved up to the state level and taken Lucas with her, creating a special troubleshooter job for him for the cases that are too complicated or politically touchy for others to handle.
In addition, Lucas is married now, and a new father, all of which is fine with him: he doesn't mind being a family man. But he is a little worried. For every bit of peace you get, you have to pay — and he's waiting for the bill.
It comes in the form of two people found hanging from a tree in the woods of northern Minnesota. What makes the situation particularly sensitive is that the bodies are of a black man and a white woman, and they're naked. "Lynching" is the word that everybody's trying not to say — but, as Lucas begins to discover, in fact the murders are nothing like what they appear to be, and they are not the end of it. There is worse to come — much, much worse.
"Heat Lightning"
John Sandford's introduction of Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers was an immediate critical and popular success: "laser-sharp characters and a plot that's fast and surprising" (Cleveland Plain Dealer); "an idiosyncratic, thoroughly ingratiating hero" (Booklist). Flowers is only in his late thirties, but he's been around the block a few times, and he doesn't think much can surprise him anymore. 
He's wrong.
It's a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives (the second one, if you're keeping count), when the phone rings. It's Lucas Davenport. There's a body in Stillwater — two shots to the head, found near a veteran's memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth.
Exactly like the body they found last week.
The more Flowers works the murders, the more convinced he is that someone's keeping a list, and that the list could have a lot more names on it. If he could only find out what connects them all . . . and then he does, and he's almost sorry he did.
Because if it's true, then this whole thing leads down a lot more trails than he thought — and every one of them is booby-trapped.
Very early one morning, a Minnesota political fixer answers his doorbell. The next thing he knows, he's waking up on the floor of a moving car, lying on a plastic sheet, his body wet with blood. When the car stops, a voice says, "Hey, I think he's breathing," and another voice says, "Yeah? Give me the bat."
And that's the last thing he knows.
Davenport is investigating the smear when the trail leads to the man's disappearance, then — very troublingly — to the Minneapolis police department, then — most troublingly of all — to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons. She has very definite ideas about the way the world should work, and the money, ruthlessness, and sheer will to make it happen.
No matter who gets in the way.
Filled with John Sandford's trademark razor-sharp plotting and some of the best characters in suspense fiction, Silken Prey is further evidence for why the Cleveland Plain Dealer called the Davenport novels "a perfect series," and Suspense Magazine wrote, "If you haven't read any of the Prey series, you need to jump on board right this second."
