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Stolen Prey (Lucas Davenport #22)

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 4,813 ratings · 601 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 402 pages

Published May 15th 2012 by Putnam Adult (first published January 1st 2012)

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Aug 26, 2012 Susan added it

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, h...more

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May 23, 2012 Kemper rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, 5-0, crime-mystery, thriller, lucas-davenport

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...more 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 arm 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. (view spoiler) Still, this yet another highly entertaining crime thriller from one of the masters of the genre.
(less)

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May 14, 2013 James Thane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-fiction, john-sandford, lucas-davenport

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 a...more 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.

As it turns out, 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.(less)

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Apr 17, 2013 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: police-procedural

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 ambival...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Book Him Danno rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 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...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Albert Riehle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another good Lucas Davenport/Prey book. I sailed through it in just a couple sittings--as I do with most of Sandford's books. This one only suffers in comparison with others in the series, it does not have any issues standing beside and above other books and writers in the genre. The previous book reset the high bar for the Prey series and was so brilliant that honestly, this book didn't have much chance to stand beside it but again--a Sandford/Prey book is always a better choice than anything e...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Doug rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a Lucas Davenport novel where he is trying to solve a brutal murder in Minnesota and also find the meth head that robbed him one morning when he was out jogging. There was a cute joke in the book.

Mary Sue, Brenda Sue and Linda Sue were sitting on their front porch in Georgia, on a hot afternoon, drinking lemon drops with extra vodka. After a while Mary Sue said, "When I had my first baby, my husband gave me a brand-new Cadillac rag-top automobile."
Brenda Sue said, "What a marvelous, ge...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Mal Warwick rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 horrif...more 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)(less)

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May 28, 2012 Lorca Damon rated it 4 of 5 stars

The NYT bestselling author of Storm Prey and Buried Prey is back with a book so suspenseful that I literally read it through squinted eyes, not sure of what I would find as I turned the page. What I found, though, was a work that carried our perceptions of what we think we know about our comfortable lives to a whole new realm of dysreality.

Lucas Davenport is simultaneously working an investigation into his Minnesota town’s most gruesome killings to date, while on the hunt for the serial petty th...more The NYT bestselling author of Storm Prey and Buried Prey is back with a book so suspenseful that I literally read it through squinted eyes, not sure of what I would find as I turned the page. What I found, though, was a work that carried our perceptions of what we think we know about our comfortable lives to a whole new realm of dysreality.

Lucas Davenport is simultaneously working an investigation into his Minnesota town’s most gruesome killings to date, while on the hunt for the serial petty thieves who beat him and robbed him at gunpoint. While it appears that the thieves were just a couple of desperately strung out meth abusers and the brutal murders were the work of meticulous Mexican drug cartel members intent on sending a message, even those firm beliefs will be called into question before it’s over.

An interesting sociological take on this book is the modern-day confusion so many people feel about the scenarios it presents. Was the computer software CEO really embezzling money from the drug cartel that used his company as a front for money laundering like the police initially suspect? Is our trust in computers misplaced, since it sets up a situation that allows the bank employees with the technological know-how to quietly pinch a few pennies here and there to the tune of $20 million?

Spoiler Alert: I guess it’s not like books come with a banner that reads, “Warning: Children get raped and murdered in this book,” but at times the violence and its descriptions were a little too gratuitous for my tastes. However, I don’t feel like it was too over the top for a different audience of crime novel fans. The other reason for the loss of a star was the almost-forced feeling of blatant product placement; by page sixteen, there were no less than five out-of-place brand name mentions, so much that I wondered if the author was being paid to mention specific shoe or clothing brands.

This was my first introduction into Sandford’s body of work and despite the grisly nature of his genre, I would certainly give his other books a read.(less)

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May 23, 2012 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Massacres, shoot-em ups, some detecting...whats not to like?

Prey #22 has Lucas Davenport dealing with Mexican narcotics dealers who slaughter a suburban family-but to what end?

The presence of the Mexican Narcos gives a different slant to this book. As opposed to so many prey books that deal with a serial killer or a serial killer mentality, the bad guy this time has a clearly defined capacity for evil that is seen when told in flashback and also in the events of the book, which gives it a very d...more Massacres, shoot-em ups, some detecting...whats not to like?

Prey #22 has Lucas Davenport dealing with Mexican narcotics dealers who slaughter a suburban family-but to what end?

The presence of the Mexican Narcos gives a different slant to this book. As opposed to so many prey books that deal with a serial killer or a serial killer mentality, the bad guy this time has a clearly defined capacity for evil that is seen when told in flashback and also in the events of the book, which gives it a very different slant than most prey books. Typically, there is a serial killer-a truly twisted person with twisted motivations, OR an amoral bad guy who has to keep on killing to try to cover up his/her crime (s)...but always an unknown. Here there are multiple groups of bad guys, but all with specific goals that are discernible even as the investigation goes on.

This book felt different because the investigation initation begins much farther along than is normal, and the "light bulbs" that go off all seem to give a large advance to the investigation...as opposed to Sandford's normal drip-drip-drip of progress followed by a giant revelation that causes everything to fall into place. There was a larger presence for Weather and Letty, but folks like Elle, Rose Marie, and the like had a much smaller presence than normal.

It has been noted elsewhere that the agent Shaffer is not not well drawn, and I have to agree. However, this is consistent with Sandford previous efforts. With the exception of the street cops who help him chase down Clare Rinker, Sandford always seems (both in Prey and the Virgil series) to write local cops better than he does the feds.

Speaking of Rinker, it seems that Lucas and his family endure more home assaults, near or actual, than any other policeman I have ever read of...and this book only adds to the count.

I enjoyed the book, but felt there was something missing. Maybe Lucas never seemed to identify with the victim-which impacts how he sees the bad guys. I guess that no matter how much talk there is about him being a hunter, there was not so much of that feel in this book. I do not think Sandford has lost something off his fastball-but I do think that a fastball works best when set up by other pitches...and without the sense of the hunt permating book it seems like all he's throwing is off speed stuff.

(less)

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May 17, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sandford, reviewed

The 22nd book in the Prey series has humor, thrills, subplots and most of what we've come to expect from this competent writer. The main plot is twisty, with two separate sets of bad guys. The story starts off with a mugging (a subplot), moves on to a brutal massacre, slides around to computer theft and brings in lots of different agencies, from the DEA to the Mexican Federales. There is a slight weakness with the investigation, because the main protagonist, Lucas Davenport, is with the Bureau o...more

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May 15, 2012 Luanne Ollivier rated it 4 of 5 stars

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...more 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!(less)

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May 02, 2012 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars

In a high end neighborhood a whole family is murdered and worse tortured and mutilated in a way that’s not often seen in the upper Midwest. In fact it’s usually associated with crimes below the border, which is what has Lucas Davenport scratching his head trying to figure how this family got in the crosshairs of the Mexican Criminales. In puzzling the pieces together it seems that there’s a deeper connection between the crime and a theft of millions of dollars and the BCA and Lucas will need to...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: detective

Stolen Prey by John Sandford is a great detective story, with the detective in question being Lucas Davenport. Lucas is a smart, honest, thoughtful, unconventional police detective who solves crimes with good solid detective work.

This story (the 22ndin the series) revolves around the cold-blooded, brutal murder of an entire family. Lucas suspects that it more than a random killing, and as he looks deeper he uncovers layer upon layer of deception. He eventually ends up solving a whole series of...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Matt Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-reads

For a series to even be readable after over twenty books is an achievement in itself. I've read every Prey novel. They're still good. Still excellent? I wouldn't say that's the case with Stolen Prey.

Sandford has a wonderful storytelling style. Even if it sometimes edges on rote procedure, it's engaging with dialogue you can easily imagine as authentic. Stolen Prey is no different, the pages fly, the story moves, and the action is tense and fun for the reader.

Where the novel falls short, and I f...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Johnb609 rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have become a fan of John Sandford and the latest (May 2012) edition of the Prey series still qualifies, but barely.

I liked Lucas Davenport when he was a little less affluent. The more recent works in the series seem more a tribute to AMERICAN PSYCHO as we learn more about what car his wife drives (I can't remember her name, though she is a surgeon and drives an A5 convertible, maybe Heather?). I do like his adopted daughter but, unfortunately Lucas has become a little long in the tooth. And s...more

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May 21, 2012 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: John Sandford fans, thriller/mystery fans

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 Me...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

At the moment, I'm actually listening to the audio version and am on disc 8 of 9. This is my first by this author and was surprised to find out it was #22 in a series! I might read more of the series and see what I've missed, but I'm not super impressed. I don't understand why it took the protagonist more than 1/2 the story to figure out who the Martinez angle! That was obvious early on--at least from the listening perspective. So far I'd rate it only a 3 star read, but might add more by the tim...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Terry Huebner rated it 4 of 5 stars

The latest installment in the Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport by John Sandford is another winner, although I must confess to being a big fan. In this one, Lucas is called to a murder scene where an entire family is tortured and murdered for for information they apparently did not possess. Soon, it is suspected that a Mexican drug cartel is behind the killings in an effort to figure out who stole millions in laundered drug money. The plot juggles the murders, the robbery and Lucas' personal...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Monnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 of...more

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May 21, 2012 Bruce Snell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book #22 in the Lucas Davenport (Prey) series by John Sandford. The book starts with Lucas being mugged by a couple small time crooks - the fact that his arm was broken makes this an incident that he will definitely follow up on. However, before Lucas can make any progress on that case, he becomes involved in the investigation of the brutal torture, rape, and murder of a local businessman and his family. That investigation leads to a Mexican drug cartel, the theft of $22 million from a local ban...more

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May 30, 2012 Felts rated it 4 of 5 stars

There is a reason that I keep reading John Sandford's books, and that reason is because they are always friggin' entertaining as all get out. Although this story starts out with a pretty explicit murder of a family (including their pets...enter sad face emoticon here..), I thought this story actually had a lot more humorous moments compared to other Prey novels. Even the bad guys in this story seem to get caught up in their own messes and it makes the whole plot a bit more...I don't know...fun....more

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Jun 20, 2012 Gina Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, favorites, law-enforcement, series

What's amazing is after 21 Davenport novels, Lucas is still one of the coolest detectives around.

Working in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, he gets called to check out a grisly crime scene where a family of four were tortured and murdered, including the dog. Located in a high scale neighborhood, the father a banker, the circumstances don't fit in Lucas's mind with that of revenge killing and drugs. To further complicate matters, Lucas becomes the victim of a mugging, suffers a br...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Ariel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller-lucas-davenport

I picked this up not realizing that it was number 22! in a series. I don't know how I missed hearing about #1-21. I just thought that Stolen Prey sounded interesting after reading a blurb about in amazon. Normally I will not jump into a series in the middle without having read any of the previous books but it did not seem that you had to know the characters from before to understand the story as it was presented in this novel.

Lucas Davenport is a police officer married to the really cool named W...more

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May 22, 2012 Keith rated it 5 of 5 stars

A sweet mystery
Stolen Prey is John Sandford's 22nd book about Lucas Davenport, an investigator with Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. All of the books have 'Prey' in the title, which distinguishes them from his other series about Kidd, a software expert and thief, and about Virgil Flowers, an investigator who actually works for Lucas Davenport but largely operates on his own.

The Prey books are masterly expositions of how crimes get solved through police procedure. Davenport is extreme...more

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Jun 26, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

John Sandford consistently writes twisty, fascinating mysteries. His villains are human and well-defined, and his hero of the Prey novels, Lucas Davenport, is a tarnished knight who drives a black Porsche instead of riding on white horse. Each of the books is a page-turner, but Stolen Prey makes you want to turn those pages even faster.

It starts with an exceedingly brutal murder in an upper-class neighborhood. A hit team from a Mexican drug gang has come looking for 22 million in stolen profits....more

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May 31, 2012 Amorak Huey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: thriller

I'm about as big a Davenport fan as there is, probably, so it's not especially surprising that I liked this book.

The challenge for Sandford has been keeping Davenport lively as Our Hero ages. Grey-haired, responsible family man just isn't as sexy as the ass-kicking tomcat we first met 22 books ago. I think the series did hit a lull in there for a while, but the last four or so have been pretty solid.

This one's good, too. Not my favorite in the series, but lively and engaging. Typical violent cr...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Justin rated it 5 of 5 stars

John Sandford never fails to satisfy me fully with his books, and the latest Lucas Davenport Prey installation is no exception.

Lucas is called to the scene of a brutal murder in which an entire family has been tortured and killed. Things quickly spiral out of control as Lucas begins to hunt a dangerous trio of Mexican criminals responsible for the murder as well as a group of thieves that may have been the cause for the massacre.

As usual, I slip into a John Sandford book like I slip into a com...more

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May 16, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 110-books-in-2012-and-do-it-again, advanced-copy-review, family-relationships, free-book-for-honest-review, mystery, police-procedural, read-in-2012, reviewed, series

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 h...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Cary Griffith rated it 5 of 5 stars

I confess. This is #22 in John Sandford's (John Camp) Prey series and I've read every one of them; some of them twice. I've read other thriller writers, some of them good. But I think there's a reason John Camp (John Sandford) rises to the top of today's thriller writers. Call it style, call it plot, call it Minnesota (or upper midwest, the locale of most of his novels), call it great writing, why not call it a Pulitzer, which Camp won as a journalist, when he was working in the trenches of the...more

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About John Sandford

John Sandford was born John 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 th...more

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Quotes from Stolen Prey

“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.” — 1 person liked it

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Stolen Prey (Lucas Davenport #22)

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