Book 1

Rules of Prey

by John Sandford

Published 24 July 1989
#1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford's “haunting, unforgettable, ice-blooded thriller”* that introduced Lucas Davenport...
 
The killer was mad but brilliant.
 
He left notes with every woman he killed. Rules of murder: Never have a motive. Never follow a discernible pattern. Never carry a weapon after it has been used...So many rules to his sick, violent games of death.
 
But Lucas Davenport, the cop who’s out to get him, isn’t playing by the rules.


“Terrifying...Sandford has crafted the kind of trimmed-to-the-bone thriller that is hard to put down…scary...intriguing...unpredictable.”—Chicago Tribune
 
Rules of Prey is so chilling that you’re almost afraid to turn the pages. So mesmerizing you cannot stop...A crackle of surprises.”—*Carl Hiaasen

“Sleek and nasty...A big scary, suspenseful read, and I loved every minute of it.”Stephen King

“A cop and a killer you will remember for a long, long time.”Robert B. Parker

Book 2

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.


Book 3

Eyes of Prey

by John Sandford

Published 4 April 1991
Lucas Davenport, "one of the best hard-case cops on the crime scene today" (Houston Post) returns in John Sandford's #1 New York Times bestselling Prey series...

Lieutenant Davenport’s sanity was nearly shattered by two murder investigations. Now he faces something worse…Two killers. One hideously scarred. The other strikingly handsome, a master manipulator fascinated with all aspects of death. The dark mirror of Davenport’s soul…This is the case that will bring Davenport back to life. Or push him over the edge.
 With a New Introduction by John Sandford

Book 4

Silent Prey

by John Sandford

Published 30 March 1992
Make noise for a new Prey package and new author introduction!

Dr. Mike Bekker, a psychotic pathologist, is back on the streets, doing what he does best—murdering one helpless victim after another. Lucas Davenport knows he should have killed Bekker when he had the chance. Now he has a second opportunity—and the time to hesitate is through.

Book 5

Winter Prey

by John Sandford

Published 24 March 1993
The Iceman crept into the house on the edge of the lake. He killed the father first. Then the mother and child. And when his work was done, he set the house on fire. Lucas Davenport had tracked killers in cities across America. But the woods of rural Wisconsin are as dark and primal as evil itself. The winters are harsher and colder. And in the heart of every mother and father, there is fear ...Because tonight, the Iceman cometh.

Book 6

Night Prey

by John Sandford

Published June 1994
John Sandford's bestselling Lucas Davenport series continues with the fast-paced, compelling thriller, Night Prey. A series of deaths leads to the possibility of a brutal serial killer of unusual skill and savagery. And if Lucas is right, the killer is just getting warmed up...

Book 7

Mind Prey

by John Sandford

Published 9 May 1995
From the bestselling author of night prey and winter prey... an all-new Lucas Davenport thriller.

Run for it...

It was raining when psychiatrist Andi Manette left the parent-teacher conference with her two young daughters, and she was distracted. She barely noticed the red van parked beside her, barely noticed the van door slide open as they dashed up to the car. The last thing she did notice was the hand reaching out for her and the voice from out of the past-- and then the three of them were gone.

Hours later, deputy chief Lucas Davenport stood in the parking lot, a blood-stained shoe in his hand, the ground stained pink around him, and knew that this would be one of the worst cases he'd ever been on. With an urgency born of dread, he presses the attack, while in an isolated farmhouse, Andi Manette does the same, summoning all her skills to battle an obsessed captor. She knows the man who has taken her and her daughters, knows there is a chink in his armor, if only she can find it. But for both her and Davenport, time is already running out.

John Sandford's novels have always been extraordinary for their harrowing twists, unforgettable characters, and crackling prose. But "Mind Prey" tops them all. It is the work of a true master.


Book 8

Sudden Prey

by John Sandford

Published 7 May 1996
Revenge is the engine which powers this entry in John Sandford's Prey series starring superslick Minnesota cop Lucas Davenport. When a dangerous female bank robber is killed in a shootout, her even more dangerous husband escapes from prison and begins a campaign of retribution against the families of Davenport and his team.

Book 9

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


Book 10

Certain Prey

by John Sandford

Published 6 May 1999
The story of a professional hit woman for the Mafia in Minneapolis. She is hired to eliminate the wife of a man a woman desires. A policeman dies in the process and detective Lucas Davenport goes after her. By the author of Secret Prey.--

Book 12

Chosen Prey

by John Sandford

Published 7 May 2001
A shallow grave and a pornographic drawing draw Lucas Davenport into a deadly quest for a predator with a single-minded hunger for his chosen prey. In the mist and rain of a Minnesota spring, a shallow grave is found. It contains the body of a young woman, apparently strangled. When the murder is connected with a brilliantly-executed erotic drawing, where the victim's face has been grafted onto a pornographic internet image, Lucas Davenport becomes involved. More of the drawings come to light and Davenport, with the help of a local sheriff's deputy, makes a grisly discovery. The drawings may represent more murder victims, strangled with a starter rope from an antique outboard motor. As Lucas investigates further, he uncovers a web of deceit, related to a series of young women involved in the arts. All of them had some connection to the local university, and all of them had a new boyfriend who remained unseen by their friends. There the trail seems to end until further investigation of the grave site results in an horrific discovery.
On the misty, oak-covered hillside south of Minneapolis, the case begins to come together in Lucas' mind, but the mixture of ferocious intelligence and madness which he faces means that the deaths must continue, that the chosen prey must be stalked...

Book 13

Mortal Prey

by John Sandford

Published 31 December 1939
Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport returns in this brilliant new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of CHOSEN PREY Clara Rinker is a pleasant, soft-spoken, low-key Southerner. She's also the best hitwoman in the business. Lucas Davenport should know - she almost killed him. That was then and this is now. Clara is retired and living in Mexico with her boyfriend, the son of a local drug lord. But her new life is shattered when a sniper's bullet narrowly misses her and kills her boyfriend. The boy's father vows vengeance, but Rinker knows something he doesn't: the boy wasn't the target - she was. Now she is going to have to disappear to find the killer herself. The FBI and DEA draft Lucas Davenport to help track down the missing assassin, and with his fiance deep in wedding preparations, he's really just as happy to go - but he has no idea what he's getting into. For Rinker is as unpredictable as ever, and between her, her old bosses in the St. Louis mob, the Mexican druglord, and the combined, sometimes warring, arms of U.S. law enforcement, this is one case that will get more dangerous as it goes along.
And when the shooting starts, anyone standing in the middle won't stand a chance...

Book 14

Naked Prey

by John Sandford

Published 12 May 2003
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.

Book 15

Hidden Prey

by John Sandford

Published 1 May 2004
On the shore of Lake Superior, a Russian named Rodion Oleshev is found dead - three holes in his head and heart. When it turns out the victim had very high government connections, that's when it really hits the fan. A female Russian cop flies in from Moscow; statewide troubleshooter Lucas Davenport flies in from Minneapolis; law enforcement and press types swarm the scene - and in the middle of it all, there's another murder. Are the two connected? What is the Russian cop hiding from Davenport? Is she really a cop at all? Why was the man shot with fifty-year-old bullets? To find the answers, Davenport must follow a trail back to another place, another time, and battle the shadows he discovers there - shadows that turn out to be both very real and very deadly ...

Book 16

Broken Prey

by John Sandford

Published 1 May 2005
The first corpse is found on the riverbank. The second in an isolated farmhouse. Both have been savagely beaten, the skin flayed from their bodies, their throats cut. For both victims, there's a DNA match. Charlie Pope, a convicted sex offender recently released from mental hospital, has cut off his court-imposed leg bracelet and disappeared. Now all Davenport has to do is find him. But something about this case doesn't smell right. The killings were meticulously calculated and methodical. Pope on the other hand is of low mental intelligence, incapable of the forethought and planning these murders would require. All the evidence points to Pope - but Davenport knows it just doesn't fit. Can he prove his instincts are right, and track down a killer as cunning as he is deranged?

Book 17

Invisible Prey

by John Sandford

Published 1 February 2003
“A crackling addition to [the] Prey series” (Entertainment Weekly) from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.

In a wealthy Minneapolis neighborhood, two elderly women are bludgeoned to death. They are apparent victims of a random robbery, though nothing of value appears to have been stolen. But when Lucas Davenport looks deeper, he fears that the victims weren’t so random, and the items stolen were far from invaluable.

As a pattern emerges it leads Lucas to…certainly not where he expected. Which is too bad, because the killers are expecting him. And that’s only the first surprise…

Book 18

Phantom Prey

by John Sandford

Published 1 May 2008
A wealthy widow returns to her large home in an exclusive Minneapolis suburb to find blood everywhere, no body - and her student daughter missing. Instantly, she suspects the involvement of the weird Goth crowd her daughter was hanging around with. With no sign of the widow's daughter, dead or alive, a second Goth is found slashed to death - but it's only when a third dead Goth turns up that Lucas Davenport gets involved. But the clues don't seem to add up. And then there's the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing. Who is she? Where does she come from and, more importantly, where does she vanish to? And why does Davenport get the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here - something very, very bad indeed?

Book 19

Wicked Prey

by John Sandford

Published 1 May 2009
Having spent the past two years in hiding following a daring and successful heist, a big -time robber is back in Minneapolis, having spotted the opportunity for an even greater steal. It's a couple of weeks before the big Republican party convention: thousands of people spending cash, which is flowing into a relatively inadequate Brinks warehouse, protected by only three or four armed guards. The robber's plan is to distract the cops by manipulating and alerting them to a possible assassination attempt. Lucas Davenport meanwhile has problems of his own, targeted by a psychopathic pimp, who blames Davenport for the fact he's in a wheelchair. Only it's not Davenport he's going after; it's his innocent daughter, Letty.

Book 20

Storm Prey

by John Sandford

Published 1 May 2010

Unabridged CDs, 10 CDs, 12 hours
Read by Richard Ferrone
The brilliant new Lucas Davenport thriller from the #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author.

Book 22

Stolen Prey

by John Sandford

Published 30 April 2012
Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, 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.