Neon Prey by John Sandford

Neon Prey by John Sandford --- 390 pages

The 29th installment in Sandford's Lucas Davenport thriller series shows Sandford hasn't lost his touch.

Sandford, author of 40+ bestselling novels, somehow makes each new novel more thrilling and ingenious than the one before. By mixing and matching elements of crime, mystery and thriller genre(s) in different combinations, he manages to keep you guessing where he's going next. There's no stock formulas or characters in a Sandford novel, and the plots are tightly woven and fast-paced.  In Neon Prey, the story line focuses on two cases involving the same bad, bad dude, over a period of time.

Clayton Deese is stone cold killer. A small-time enforcer for a New Orleans loan shark, Deese takes on what should have been a routine job that goes sideways and ends up getting caught by the cops.  Out on bail awaiting trial, Deese makes his next mistake when he decides to run. Lucas Davenport, now a U.S. Marshal, gets called in when the FBI (looking to build a case against Deese's employer) stumble onto Deese’s secret obsession, which puts him at the top of the Most Wanted list. Lucas and his team (Bob and Rae) are assigned to hunt down the fugitive ASAP.  Deese is trying to negotiate a pay off from the loan shark, who would prefer that Deese disappear forever. Meanwhile  Deese heads to L.A. to hook up with a half-brother and his criminal crew who specialize in home invasions and robberies. But when Deese gets involved, the violence escalates, the other gang members start double-crossing each other,  and soon they're on the run to Vegas, with the Marshals in hot pursuit.

Click HERE to read an interview with Sandford discussing Neon Prey from therealbookspy.com.

 Click HERE to red the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Holy Ghost by John Sandford

Holy Ghost: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford --- 373 pages

John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers novels are a spinoff from his  better known Prey thrillers starring Lucas Davenport. Virgil is a field investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, who prefers to operate in the small towns and open countryside of  rural Minnesota, where he can bring his boat along for a little fishing on the side, and find interesting stories for his other, part-time job as a free lance writer for outdoors and hunting magazines.  This is number 11 in the Flowers series and it has all the trademark humor mixed in with the details of criminal investigation that distinguish Sandford's style.

Wheatfield, Minnesota was  drifting inexorably into oblivion until the Virgin Mary suddenly manifested herself before a congregation of elderly parishioners and Mexican migrant workers at the local Catholic church. Overnight it seems the town is inundated with pilgrims hoping to witness the miracle for themselves. The apparitions jump start Wheatfield's economy and many of the local inhabitants are happy to share in the profits --- especially the mayor and his precocious teenage sidekick, who have opened a store catering to the tourists right across the street from the church, seemingly overnight. Pretty much everyone in town is thrilled with how things are going. Until somebody starts taking potshots at the pilgrims.

When Virgil Flowers arrives and starts stirring the pot, all kinds of things begin rising to the surface. As Virgil soon realizes, nothing in Wheatfield is as simple as it seems.

Click HERE to read the review in Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review in Publishers Weekly.

Twisted Prey by John Sandford

Twisted Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel by John Sandford - 387 pages

 In this 28th Lucas Davenport novel, our hero, now a member of the federal Marshal Service, has developed a reputation in certain circles for discreetly handling politically sensitive cases. So when Minnesota Senator Porter Smalls is convinced that his recent automobile accident was no accident but an attempted assassination that resulted in the death of his good friend Cecily Whitehead, he puts in a call for Davenport.

The problem is there doesn't seem to be any physical evidence to support Smalls' claim that a truck tried to run his vehicle off the road. Smalls is certain that the person who wants him dead is the junior Senator from Minnesota, Taryn Grant, with whom he has a long and sordid political feud. Smalls also knows that Lucas is convinced Taryn has killed at least three times before and gotten away with it (Silken Prey, 2013).

Lucas flies to D.C. to take a a closer look at the evidence. He discovers that the accident was very carefully orchestrated by professionals. Only Cecily’s skillful driving saved Smalls' life, but at the cost of her own. As Lucas delves deeper into the case, he encounters a shadow world of mercenaries and profiteers that spans the globe, and finds tantalizing hints of a connection to Senator Taryn Grant and her Presidential ambitions.

Sandford dives into this murky world, examining the intersections of power and greed.  U.S. Marshals Rae Givens and Bob Matees show up to assist Davenport and provide a little comic relief with their wise-cracking repartee. The sardonic humor - a Sandford trademark - provides a balance for the more violent elements in this deadly game of cat-and-mouse.

Sandford knows how to engage his readers from the first page to the final paragraph. 

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from the New York Times.

Deep Freeze by John Sandford

Deep Freeze: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford --- 391 pages

The tenth novel in Sandford's popular spin-off series featuring Virgil Flowers, an investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Virgil returns to the small town of Trippton, Minnesota where, a few years back, he was sent to investigate a dog-napping ring and not only saved the dogs but uncovered a corrupt and homicidal school board (Deadline - 2014).

Now he's back because Gina Hemming, who inherited control of the town bank from her father, disappeared after hosting a meeting of her high school 25th class reunion committee, and her body turned up a few days later frozen and floating in the icy Mississippi River. But it wasn't the cold that killed her; a blunt instrument whacked against her head was the cause of death.

What makes the book a great read however is not Hemmings' murder --- since the murderer is identified early on, although Virgil only determines the guilty party after eliminating all the other suspects.  What makes the book interesting is the way Sandford, with absolute deadpan humor, incorporates a subplot in which the governor, as a political favor, orders him to help a private investigator from California who is trying to serve a cease and desist order for trademark infringement on a group of local women who are selling Barbie-Oh and Boner-Ken (modified) dolls over the Internet in order to pay their bills and hold on to their homes. Virgil discovers trying to track down the women is far more dangerous than solving the murder --- and not just because he sympathizes with the women.

Sandford writes thrillers like no one else. Smart and funny. If you haven't given him a try I recommend you go back and read the books in order from the start (Dark of the Moon-2007)

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from the Washington Post.

Golden Prey by John Sandford

Golden Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 392 pages

John Sandford writes a mean and lean thriller,  and his latest, Golden Prey, combines his signature style with a new job  and new possibilities for his hero, Lucas Davenport.

Davenport has worked a variety of jobs in his law enforcement career, from beat cop to detective, to Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator, to politically savy troubleshooter for the Minnesota governor. But when Davenport thwarts an assassination attempt on Presidential candidate Michaela Bowden during a campaign stop at the Minnesota State Fair in 2016's Extreme Prey, he's rewarded with a job as a Deputy United States Marshal.

He's a Deputy U.S. Marshal with a special portfolio and clearly future President Bowden has plans for him, but pending her election Davenport can pick and choose what he wants to do.

Book 27 in the series sets Davenport on the track of Garvin Poole. Poole's been out of circulation for a while, holed up with his girl friend and living off the proceeds of his last job in an affluent Dallas suburb. But now he's been recruited by an old friend who's targeted the local operation of a Honduran drug cartel in Biloxi, Mississipi.  Poole and his pal get away with millions of the cartel's profits, leaving behind five dead bodies --- four of the cartel's local operators and a six-year-old gril who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Carelessly, Poole left some DNA at the scene, so now the authorities know he's involved.

Davenport starts with Poole's family in Nashville. Even though Poole left home long ago, it's possible he's maintained some kind of tenuous contact with them. But Davenport is one step behind the drug cartel, who have hired their own enforcers to get back their money and make sure no one else tries to imitate Poole's heist. Once again, Davenport pits himself against antagonists who will stop at nothing.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

Click HERE to read the review from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Escape Clause by John Sandford

Escape Clause: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford --- 392 pages

Virgil Flowers started out as a supporting character in Sandford's Prey series of crime thrillers starring Lucas Davenport, lead investigator in the Minnesota Department of Criminal Apprehension.

But Flowers was too intriguing a character in his own right and eventually Sandford spun him off in his own series of crime thrillers.

In this the ninth adventure in the Flowers series, Virgil is in charge of tracking down the miscreants who have stolen two rare Amur tigers from the Minnesota Zoo.  The clock is running, because Virgil quickly realizes the likely reason the tigers were taken is their value as ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine. So he needs to find them before the criminals (literally) put them through the grinder.

Sandford's villains are always interesting, and the villain here is a doozy: Winston Peck VI, a doctor who lost his license to practice because he couldn't keep his hands off his female patients. Peck has reinvented himself as a purveyor of traditional herbal nostrums.  He's popping Xanax like candy and that's not helping his mental processes.  He has two henchmen, the Simonian brothers, plenty of brawn but very little brain, supplied by his very wealthy Chinese backer on the west coast. The backer's angry and alienated son is the go-between for his father and Peck.

Virgil quickly picks up on Peck, but the sociopathic ex-doctor is hard to pin down as he systematically eliminates everyone who could tie him to the crime.  Virgil also has to deal with the rest of the Simonian brotherhood, who arrive in Minneapolis breathing vengeance for the deaths of their brothers, and prepared to preempt the law.

As always Sandford doesn't pull the punches when he describes the crimes committed; but at the same time, he uses the mordant humor of his cops to deal with the gruesome details.

There's also a subplot involving Virgil's now established relationship with Frankie Nobles and her family.  Is it possible that the wily Virgil has met his match at last?

A solid hit in a great series.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the Huffington Post.

Extreme Prey by John Sandford

Extreme Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 406 pages

The 27th book in the Lucas Davenport series; and just when you'd expect Sandford to be winding down the adventure, he ramps it up instead.

Following on the conclusion of Gathering Prey (2015), Davenport has finally had enough of internal politics in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and walked away from his job. Since he's independently wealthy, he can afford to do so, and seems happy enough to spend his time remodeling his getaway cabin on the lake.

When his friend and mentor, Governor Elmer Henderson, calls from the Presidential campaign trail in Iowa to report disquieting encounters with some erstwhile supporters, Lucas agrees to assess the situation. But instead of being able to reassure Henderson, Lucas is soon convinced the amorphous threat is real. When people start dying, it doesn’t take Lucas long to identify possible suspects; but stopping a political conspiracy is a tall order for a man operating sans badge, back up or even a gun. Lucas finally figures out where and when the asasssins will strike ---who has never been in doubt --- but HOW they plan to pull it off in the middle of a massive public venue crawling with security is still a question --- and the clock is ticking.

A long-established series that still delivers is taking a new twist.
Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the San Diego Examiner.  

Click HERE to read Harry Levins' review from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Saturn Rising by John Sandford and Ctein

Saturn Run by John Sandford and Ctein --- 486 pages

Frist off I am a big fan of John Sandford's Lucas Davenport novels and Virgil Flowers novels, which are police thrillers.  And I am also a science fiction fan. So. . . I went into reading Saturn Run with certain expecations and much anticipation.

The verdict: is mixed.  Basically this starts out as a tale of First Contact combined with a hard science focus.  Both of these are well-established subcategories of the genre.  Humans encounter aliens for the first time and a plot/setting built upon or extrapolating from real world scientific knowledge about the operations of the universe.

The story takes place some fifty years in the future, and the competition between the United States and the People's Republic of China has now migrated to outer space.  When the U.S. accidentally discovers what appears to be an alien presence in the Rings of Saturn, this top secret classified news quickly winds up in the hands of the Chinese. And the race is on to see who can reach the aliens first and gain access to their advanced scientific and technological knowledge.

At this point the story flips from a novel of first contact with a hard science focus to a standard geo-political thriller albeit one with an exotic deep space near future setting.  Nothing wrong with that, per se, and still an interesting read, but  not really science fiction anymore.

Click HERE to see a video interview with author John Sandford from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the Minneapolis Star Tribine.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Gathering Prey by John Sandford

Gathering Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 407 pages

This is the 25th book in the Lucas Davenport thriller series by John Sandford, and I would say it is one of his best ever.  There have been indications from the author that he is wanting to "wrap up" the Prey series, and this is that wrap up but also --- good news for Davenport fans --- hints of a new direction to come.

Davenport's adopted daughter Letty, now attending Stanford University in California, is the catalyst for his involvement in this case.  Letty befriends a young woman and her boyfriend who she meets in San Francisco. Skye and Henry are Travellers, people who choose an itinerent lifestyle, supporting themselves by panhandling, odd jobs, occasionally by petty theft; an essentially invisible group of perpetual wanderers existing on the fringes and living by their wits. On impulse she gives them her phone number and tells them to call her if they ever get to Minnesota.

Skye considers herself to be street-smart, but even she is not wary enough to avoid becoming the target of a gang of thrill seekers under the spell of a Charles Manson-like killer who calls himself Pilate. When Henry disappears in South Dakota, Skye panics and calls Letty for help. Letty arranges for Skye to get to Minneapolis, and persuades her father to listen to Skye's story.  Lucas believes Skye and gets involved. From there the story becomes a blood-soaked juggernaut careening across three states to the final showdown. I started this book at 6 o'clock in the evening and finished it at 1 a.m. after a fast, furious and viscerally satisfying read.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read a review from the Huffington Post,

Click HERE (SPOILER ALERT) to read a review and Sandford talking about Davenport's future.

Deadline by John Sandford

Deadline: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford --- 388 pages

John Sandford latest Virgil Flowers police thriller is a really great fun read. There's plenty of action, lots of earthy Midwestern humor, and Sandford juggles three different plot lines and makes it look easy.

Asked to describe the book, Sandford said: "Sort of a dog-napping, meth-chasing, mutiple murder investigation in which most of the bad guys belong to the school board." He confesses that when he worked as a newspaper reporter himself, the assignment he dreaded the most was covering a school board meeting. Having worked briefly as a reporter myself, I can entirely sympathize with him on that.

Click HERE to read an interview with John Sandford.

Click HERE to read a review of Deadline from the New York Times.

Click HERE to read a review by a reporter who also covers school board meetings.

Field of Prey by John Sandford

Field of Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 392 pages

Field of Prey is Sandford's twenty-fourth novel in the Lucas Davenport series of crime novels. I got a definite sense while I was reading this book that Sandford is getting ready to wind down the Lucas Davenport series, and I was interested to find a recent interview in the Huffington Post (click HERE) that seems to confirm my hunch.

It's been a great series, compulsively readable, but Sandford seems ready to move on to new interests. I just hope he continues to write.

In Field of Prey Davenport and his team in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are facing one of their biggest challenges when two randy teenagers stumble on evidence indicating that a serial killer has been murdering women for over twenty years and dumping their bodies in an old cistern on an abandoned farm. The Bureau is working with local law enforcement in the rural county where the bodies were found to try to figure out how so many women could have disappeared without anybody noticing.

The killer has been clever; he's left almost no evidence that could be used to identify him other than the assumption that he must have a local connection since only someone familiar with the area could have known about the cistern. But that's not much to go on. The news media is going wild with the story, and the Governor (who has national political ambitions) needs this case solved fast. But Lucas knows this is not the kind of case that is going to be solved fast. And his biggest concern is making sure the killer doesn't add any new victims to his tally before they catch up with him,

Meanwhile the killer is enjoying watching the media feeding frenzy, and looking for his next trophy, when he notices a tall, rangy blonde, Catrin Mattsson, the investigating officer from the County Sheriff's Department, being interviewed on TV.

I read the book in one sitting and wound up staying up until 1 a.m. to finish it. Sandford is one of those authors who just sucks you in and you can't stop until you finish it. Warning: this book is not for the squeamish.

Storm Front by John Sandford

Storm Front: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford --- 376 pages

This is Sandford's seventh Virgil Flowers novel, a spin off from his best selling Prey series, now 25 books strong and counting. Virgil is a laidback Minnesota good old boy who works as an investigator for Sandford's Lucas Davenport in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in the Prey novels. Virgil being a field agent, has a little looser attitude than his boss Davenport, and the spin off series reflects that.

In this book Sandford says he's poking a little good-natured fun of Dan Brown and similar authors who send their characters into murky labyrinths of worldwide conspiracies in search of centuries-old secret talismans of mystic power.

Click HERE to watch an interview with Sandford where he talks about Dan Brown and Storm Front.

But as it turns out, Sandford started his writing career in journalism, first in the Army and then at newspapers around the Midwest (including a stint at the newspaper in Cape Girardeau MO). He won one Pulitzer Prize and was a finalist for another. He left journalism after his first novel was published, and has made his living as a novelist ever since. He also has an interest in archeology and the Middle East, and has been funding an archeological dig in Israel for some years. Next year there will be a major exhibit of the findings in Jerusalem. So those parts of the book are based on personal experience.

Click HERE to visit Sandford's web site and find out more about the author and his books., including a peek at his new novel Field of Prey featuring Lucas Davenport.

As always Sandford delivers a fast-paced, cleverly plotted story with lots of action, interesting characters, a wry sense of humor and a healthy dose of Midwestern skepticism.

Storm Front by John Sandford

Storm Front by John Sandford, 384 pages.

The seventh installment of Sandford's Virgil Flowers series, but the first book I've read in the series. I was familiar with Flowers through the Lucas Davenport series, but wasn't sure I wanted to start a new series, until now.

The story begins at an archeological dig and the finding of a rare stone, and its subsequent disappearance. It's not long before the action lands smack in the middle of Minnesota - and Flowers' back yard. Lots of characters to keep track of and several biblical references will keep readers on their toes. No one will see the surprise ending coming!
I will definitely be reading the first 6 books in the series!

Silken Prey by John Sandford

Silken Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 406 pages

In the latest of Sandford's best selling thrillers featuring Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Sandford posits the theory that it takes a sociopathic personality to succeed in contemporary politics.

When a right wing Republican Senator is the target of a particularly vicious sex scandal on the eve of a too tight to call election, Lucas Davenport is tasked by the Governor for a quick and quiet investigation.

When Lucas discovers a possible link between the dirt that was planted on the Senator and a minor political operative who's suddenly dropped out of sight, he follows a trail that leads him to the inner circle of the Senator's Democratic opponent.

Fast-paced, tightly plotted, morally ambiguous; Sandford's books are totally addictive. Save this one for the weekend, because you won't put it down until you're done.

Mad River by John Sandford

Mad River: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford --- 387 pages

Virgil Flowers first appeared as a supporting character in Sandford's Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport, but soon proved interesting and popular enough in his own right to get his own spin off series of murder mysteries in addition to continuing appearances in the original series.

In this novel, Flowers is sent to assist the sheriff's department in rural Bare County when three bored teenagers with dead end lives and a lot of anger get their hands on some guns and go on a killing spree. The hard part is knowing that sooner or later this is going to end badly, Virgil thinks, and the longer it goes on, the more people will die along the way. He knows the sheriff and his deputies have no intention of taking these kids alive. But Virgil objects to that kind of vigilante justice, so he's made up his mind to bring in the kids himself, make sure they get a trial before they get locked up for the rest of their lives. He manages to get one of them into custody, and that boy tells a very troubling tale that makes  Virgil begin to wonder if maybe somebody just saw some advantage for himself in setting these kids up with guns and pointing them in a particular direction. Maybe at least one of these murders wasn't just random, aimless violence. But the only way he can get proof of what he suspects is if he can get at least one if not both of the other two kids into custody and talking to him. Which appears to be less and less likely to happen.

Stolen Prey by John Sandford

Stolen Prey by John Sandford --- 402 pages

The latest in the Lucas Davenport series of suspense thrillers by the prolific Sandford is one of his best efforts, with a plot that twists and strikes like a snake.

The Twin Cities in Minnesota seems like an unlikely place for a Mexican drug gang to run amuck, but that's what appears to be happening, when an entire family is found brutally murdered. Lucas Davenport, the head of the state's Department of Criminal Apprehension, figures out that the family's Spanish language software export business was a front for a drug money laundering operation. When millions of dollars of laundered money vanished during the process, the Mexican gang sent a team of killers to recoup their losses.
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But it appears the launderers were themselves the victims of an audaciously clever crime. A trio of rogue computer geeks working inside the bank figured out what was going on, hacked into the account, and diverted the money. Now the drug gang is hot on the trail of the hackers, more mutilated corpses are turning up on the nightly news, and Davenport has the DEA breathing down his neck, hoping to capitalize on his investigation.

The men are macho, the women are devious, and Lucas's daughter is smart, fast and deadly. This sizzling hot  thriller makes a perfect distraction on a long summer day.