Lucas Davenport Mysteries Series

The chilling new Lucas Davenport novel by the number-one-bestselling author His old boss, Rose Marie Roux, has moved up to the state level and taken Lucas with her, creating a special trouble-shooter job for him for the cases that are too complicated or politically touchy for others to handle. Of course, 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. If there's one thing Lucas Davenport knows, it's that 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 it particularly sensitive is that the bodies are those 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, the murders are not, in fact, what they appear to be. Neither are they the end of it. There is worse to come - much, much worse...Filled with rich characterization and exceptional drama that are his hallmarks, this is Sandford's most suspenseful novel yet.

Easy Prey

by John Sandford

Published 4 May 2000

When Detective Lucas Davenport is called to the white-stuccoed house, he knows it s for no usual case. For one thing, the strangulation victim is Alie e Maison: as models go, one of the biggest. For another, there are a few small complications. Such as the drugs in her body and the fact that one of Lucas s own men is a suspect. Such as the surprise they are all about to find when they search the house: a second body, stuffed in a closet. 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 married woman now... whose own secrets may turn out to be the most dangerous ones of all...

Shadow Prey

by John Sandford

Published 28 June 1990

A series of ritualistic murders committed across the United States draws Lucas Davenport into an unimaginable conspiracy of revenge in this "classic"(Boston Globe) thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

A slumlord butchered in Minneapolis...A rising political star executed in Manhattan...A judge slashed to death in Oklahoma City...

Each victim has a history of bad behavior, but the only thing the killings have in common is the murder weapon--a Native American ceremonial knife--and a trail of blood that leads to an embodiment of evil known only as Shadow Love. Recruited to be the lethal hand of a terrorist campaign, Shadow Love has his own bloody agenda, one he will do anything to achieve.

Enlisted to find him are Minneapolis police lieutenant Lucas Davenport and New York City police officer Lily Rothenburg. But despite the countrywide carnage they needn't look far. Because Shadow Love is right behind them.

Secret Prey

by John Sandford

Published 11 May 1998

A Lucas Davenport thriller by internationally bestselling novelist John Sandford

Five men go hunting. Only four come back alive. It's up to Lucas Davenport to untangle the secrets that bind these men together and uncover his prey...

The company chairman lay on the cold ground of the woods, his eyes unseeing, his orange hunting jacket punctured by a rifle bullet at close range. Around him stood the four executives with whom he had been hunting, each with his or her own complicated agenda, each with a reason not to be sorrowful about the man's death. If he read it in a book, Lucas Davenport thought, it would seem like one of those classic murder mysteries, the kind where the detective gathers everyone together at the end and solves the case with a little speech.

But it wasn't going to be that easy, he knew. There were currents running through this group, hints and whispers of something much greater than the murder of a single man. He had felt this way not long before, sensed the curling of an indefinable evil, and not only had it nearly gotten him killed, it had lost him the woman he loves. Sometime soon, unless he could stop it, there would be another death, and then still another, and Davenport couldn't help but wonder if maybe this time, the final death might not be his own. . . .

John Sandford has written extraordinary thrillers before, but nothing to top the startling twists and unrelenting suspense of Secret Prey.

*** Praise for SECRET PREY***

'Don’t start if you don’t plan to finish it in one sitting' Richmond Times-Dispatch

'By far the best Prey' The Associated Press

'Excellent... compelling... everything works. Secret Prey enthralls' USA Today

'Full of smart suspense and deduction as well as explosive action... the villain is a masterful creation' Publishers Weekly

'This killer is a brilliant piece of work—intelligent, clever, bold, and sneaky... vivid and satisfying' The Denver Post

'Sandford has sustained his "Prey" thrillers by varying the premise with imaginative plotting; shifting points of view; a subtle, melancholy protagonist; and most of all, great villains. The ninth Prey novel may well be the best, and that's high praise in the context of such a consistently entertaining body of work' Booklist

'Events from earlier Prey novels weave intriguingly through this one, inviting the reader to plunge into the entire series' Kirkus