Storm Prey (Lucas Davenport, #20)

Mar 19, 2011 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars

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

Storm Prey is the twentieth entry in the Prey series. Add in the four books about Kidd, three with Virgil Flowers and two stand-alone novels, and that’s a total of twenty-nine John Sandford novels. I’ve read them all, and I’ll probably keep reading if he writes another twenty-nine. So yeah, I guess you could say I'm a fan.

When a group of bikers rob a Minneapolis hospital pharmacy for a fortune in drugs, it seems like the perfect plan. Except that they manage to kill a hospital employee in the p...more Storm Prey is the twentieth entry in the Prey series. Add in the four books about Kidd, three with Virgil Flowers and two stand-alone novels, and that’s a total of twenty-nine John Sandford novels. I’ve read them all, and I’ll probably keep reading if he writes another twenty-nine. So yeah, I guess you could say I'm a fan.

When a group of bikers rob a Minneapolis hospital pharmacy for a fortune in drugs, it seems like the perfect plan. Except that they manage to kill a hospital employee in the process and one of them gets spotted without his mask by a surgeon, Weather Karkinnen. Weather just happens to be the wife of Lucas Davenport, the Minnesota state cop with twenty books worth of experience of chasing criminals.

With the felony murder charge hanging over all of them, the thieves turn on each other and a young psycho biker gets brought in to act as an ad hoc hit man. Despite concern for Weather’s safety, Davenport and his people quickly identify the gang and seem on the verge of wrapping up the whole thing when an unexpected act by of one of the thieves surprises the cops and kicks off a string of ever more violent murders. It’s every man for himself, and Lucas and his friends (including Virgil Flowers popping in from his own series) will have to try and figure out who is killing who while watching Weather’s back. And they’ll also have to keep an eye out for the inside man at the hospital.

At this point, reading a new Davenport book is like getting a visit from an old friend. Sandford is still a master at plotting the cat-and-mouse game between the cops and the criminals, and he still keeps me turning pages way past my bedtime to see what happens next.

My only complaint is that this is the second book in a row to feature a threat to Davenport’s family. He’s used that plot device before so it’s more than a little repetitive that he uses it again so soon after the last book. I do give credit to Sandford for coming up with a logical reason why the very wealthy Davenport simply doesn’t fly Weather out of the country while they deal with the threat. She’s a key member of a surgical team doing a series of tricky operations to separate two conjoined babies so she can’t leave town. That subplot also adds some more drama to the story and helps keep Weather as a vital character and not just a damsel in distress.

Summing up: Smart, tough and funny cops. A beautiful woman in danger. A motorcycle gang. A cold blooded killer. A drug addicted doctor. Conjoined babies. Operating room drama. Robbery. Drugs. Shoot-outs. ‘Roid rage. And hand grenades. All set during a brutal Minnesota winter.

What more could anyone ask for in crime thriller?(less)

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Oct 28, 2012 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Mike by: aggie_mike2003@yahoo.com

Shelves: great-thriller-reads, crime, fiction, charity-2012

Storm Prey is a stupid 3 Stars. Honestly that is not a put down. The theme of stupid criminal runs throughout, actually is the backbone of the plot. Where Sandford used to have really devious and brilliant adversaries, he gives us a bunch of Darwin award winners for criminals here. The robbery of the hospital pharmacy begins a chain of events that puts Lucas's wife Weather in harm's way, brings Virgil Flowers into the main story, and reunites a bunch of the old gang of "Prey" characters. There i...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Michelle Lancaster rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-ve-reviewed

Published May 2010 408 pages
Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
ISBN 9781101187715
From my personal library (read in Sony Reader format) Rating: 4 - Really liked this
Storm Prey is number twenty in John Sanford's Prey series. Rules of Prey, published in 1989, is the first book in the series. It introduced our hero Lucas Davenport, a Minneapolis cop. Davenport is my favorite character in the mystery genre. He's intelligent, funny, sexy, fearless and perfectly smooth. Davenport is a man of appetites.
Sto...more Published May 2010 408 pages
Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
ISBN 9781101187715
From my personal library (read in Sony Reader format) Rating: 4 - Really liked this
Storm Prey is number twenty in John Sanford's Prey series. Rules of Prey, published in 1989, is the first book in the series. It introduced our hero Lucas Davenport, a Minneapolis cop. Davenport is my favorite character in the mystery genre. He's intelligent, funny, sexy, fearless and perfectly smooth. Davenport is a man of appetites.
Storm Prey was published 20 years after Rules of Prey and finds Davenport promoted to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. His wife is Weather Karkinnen - the most fabulous name ever, yes? She is a plastic surgeon and saved Davenport's life a few books ago by performing an emergency tracheotomy in the middle of nowhere on a frigid Minnesota winter night.
Storm Prey begins with the robbery of a pharmacy in the hospital where Weather practices. As the robbers are making their escape from the parking garage Weather pulls in and gets a good look at them. The robbers decide to eliminate the only witness. Lucas calls in all of the old characters, Shrake, Del, Virgil Flowers, Jenkins, to protect Weather. At this point the book takes off and the suspense doesn't let up as Lucas and his merry men take off in pursuit of the bad guys.
There is a subplot involving an operation to separate conjoined twins in which Weather is a key member of the surgical team. I'm not sure why this subplot is necessary. I found it a little distracting. The author is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and obviously did his homework regarding the separation of conjoined twins. A little research of my own finds that Sandford published a book in 1989 titled Plastic Surgery: The Kindest Cut. Perhaps this is where he got his inspiration.
My favorite thing about these books, besides my crush on Davenport, is the dialogue. It is quick, funny, smart and fun to read. Sandford describes the robbers as "hard men." Spare but enough. In the context of that scene you know exactly what he means. Another hallmark of the Prey books is the bad guys. They are multi-dimensional. They have pasts and personalities and you can see the pathology of their thinking. The author spent a month at a prison in Minnesota interviewing inmates. He came to the conclusion, stated in an interview, that most criminals turn out ultimately to be mundane; nothing special, although they would dearly like to believe they are.
I highly recommend this book (and the entire Prey series) for fans of quality mysteries. And for what it's worth I would read the Prey series again and that's very rare for me.
Also, as a cool tidbit, I have included a link to a list of Lucas Davenport's favorite songs from Sandford's web site. Enjoy! http://www.johnsandford.org/prey16x1.... (less)

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Mar 22, 2013 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I’ve read every book of the series and the past few have only been okay for me, so I was happy to find myself completely engaged with Lucas again. Maybe it was because this was as much about Weather as Lucas and the contrast worked. And the bad guys were really bad. The inside guy at the hospital was a real piece of work, even more so than the scary hired gun, Cappy.

There was no mystery, only a compulsion to turn the pages to see how it would all play out, not only with the bad guys, but with t...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Kenneth Hursh rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 17, 2012 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mysteries-thrillers, series, fiction

Four guys walk into a hospital pharmacy...

It sounds like the start to a bad joke, but it's really the start to John Sandford's novel "Storm Prey."

If you're a fan of Sandford's Lucas Davenport series, as I am, you'll like this one. "Storm Prey" deals a little less with Lucas's official job in the BCA.

This is because his wife, the surgeon Weather Karkinnen, has been targeted by those four guys from the botched pharmacy robbery (she saw the getaway driver's face while she was driving to work).

I've...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Jack Rochester rated it 3 of 5 stars

I’m hooked on John Sandford’s “Prey” novels, featuring the emotionally complex Lucas Davenport, and have several friends who are as well. Last year’s Storm Prey was the 20th. The first, Rules of Prey, came out in 1989. That puts him at a book a year, except he’s launched two other series, Kidd and Virgil Flowers and has written a couple others besides. The point is, John Sandford has fallen prey to the New York publishing mill, turning out more and more and, at least for me, satisfying less and...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Mal Warwick rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Series of Suspense Novels That's Going Strong After Two Decades

Storm Prey is the 20th novel (out of 21) in the “Prey” series. Why? What makes a series of crime novels sell so well and for so many years?

After all, when the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Sandford started writing fiction in 1989, he completed two books, one of them, Rules of Prey, the first in this series. The other was the first entry in another, short-lived sereries that Sandford left behind after just four books. Why w...more A Series of Suspense Novels That's Going Strong After Two Decades

Storm Prey is the 20th novel (out of 21) in the “Prey” series. Why? What makes a series of crime novels sell so well and for so many years?

After all, when the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Sandford started writing fiction in 1989, he completed two books, one of them, Rules of Prey, the first in this series. The other was the first entry in another, short-lived sereries that Sandford left behind after just four books. Why would one series sell better and last, and the other one die?

Without reading that other first book (Fool’s Run) and the three that followed it, we can’t draw any firm conclusions. Certainly, comparisons aren’t possible. But there’s value in taking a close look at Sandford’s most recent books as a start toward understanding why the Prey series can still be going strong after two decades.

For starters, John Stanford writes stories about interesting people doing interesting things, and he supplies enough detail that a reader can become deeply immersed in the tale. In Storm Prey, for example, the principal characters are a millionaire senior officer with the Minnesota state crime investigation unit, a plastic surgeon expert at microsurgery, a psychopathic skinhead biker, a Lebanese ER doctor with a ferocious coke habit, and an assortment of police officers, state investigators, and low-rent criminals to round out the scene. And none of these people is either a superhero or the incarnation of evil. They’re people.

Sandford is a master of plotting. From an engrossing outset to a heart-pounding conclusion, Storm Prey steadily builds momentum from one surprise to the next.

The chief protagonist, Lucas Davenport, provides continuity in the Prey series. A millionaire former Minneapolis cop and businessman, he runs the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in his own unorthodox way, taking chances and following his instincts — and usually, though not always, getting what he wants. His wife, Weather Karkinnen, the surgeon, is a powerful character who is a perfect match for Lucas.

If you enjoy novels of suspense but haven’t sampled the Prey series, it’s definitely worth a try.

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)(less)

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May 18, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sandford is one of those reliably good writers of police detective fiction you can count on when you are pressed for time to make a selection etc. This is a difficult book with lots of murder and mayhem and graphic details of some of it. The counterpoint is the controlled (but still gory) details of a complex surgery to separate conjoined twins. The descriptions of cold winter weather in Minnesota could only be written by someone who knows it well. He sets the scene and develops his characters,...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Kathy Hiester rated it 2 of 5 stars

This volume of John Sandford's Prey series gives more attention to the criminals and to Lucas' wife, the surgeon Weather Karkinnen, is part of the team that is separating two Siamese twin babies. Lucas is not in total control of the murder case, he makes mistakes.

A non-too-smart Lebanese ER physician at Weather's hospital is abusing drugs and is out of money. He persuades some bungling low-level crooks to steal about a half million dollars worth of drugs from the hospital pharmacy. They do so, b...more

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Mar 19, 2011 James Thane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-fiction

As I've said before here, I'm a huge fan of John Sandford's "Prey" series. I think that Lucas Davenport, Sandford's main protagonist, is a marvelously-imagined character, and Sandford has surrounded him with a great supporting cast. I especially love the humor in the books, which seems appropriate even in the darkest situations. If this isn't the way cops actually talk to one another, it probably should be. Additionally, Sandford has written some really good plots, often making it impossible to...more As I've said before here, I'm a huge fan of John Sandford's "Prey" series. I think that Lucas Davenport, Sandford's main protagonist, is a marvelously-imagined character, and Sandford has surrounded him with a great supporting cast. I especially love the humor in the books, which seems appropriate even in the darkest situations. If this isn't the way cops actually talk to one another, it probably should be. Additionally, Sandford has written some really good plots, often making it impossible to put one of these books down once you've started it.

That said, I wasn't all that knocked out by Storm Prey. I enjoyed reading it, but it's certainly not one of the better books in the series. It opens with the robbery of a hospital pharmacy. And this just happens to be the hospital where Davenport's wife, Weather Karkinnen, works as a surgeon. As it further happens, Weather is coming in early to perform a delicate surgery and catches a glimpse of a couple of the men who may have been involved in the robbery. A hospital employee is murdered during the course of the robbery and the robbers conclude that Weather must be eliminated so that she cannot identify them. The story then centers principally on the robbers' attempts to kill Weather while Lucas Davenport tries to protect her.

I'm never very happy when a writer puts into jeopardy a family member or close friend of his protagonist. Whenever this happens, I always assume that the creative juices were off on vacation in Mexico and, rather than calling them back, the writer decided instead to resort to a tired old plot device. And as much as I love these books, Sandford has done this a lot. Over the course of this series virtually everyone close to Davenport has at one time or another been targeted by some nasty antagonist, and to see it happen yet again just makes you want to groan.

To further complicate matters, the villains in this book are a gang of Really Dumb Guys. They are among the least interesting and least scary villains that Sandford has ever created--and he's created some great ones. But not for a moment is any reader ever going to believe that THESE are the guys who are finally going to outwit Lucas Davenport, penetrate his defenses, and do serious harm to someone he loves.

Ultimately, it's the interaction between Davenport, Weather and the rest of the cast that saves the book and makes it an enjoyable read in spite of these shortcomings. It's a fun way to spend an evening or two, although someone coming fresh to the series would probably want to start with one of the earlier books in the series. For my own part, I still eagerly await Lucas Davenport's twenty-first outing. I'm just praying that it doesn't open with Davenport's infant son, Sam, being kidnapped on the way to his nursery school.(less)

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Dec 04, 2010 Fennecgirl rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've sat on this book for some time now - Sandford is my favorite author and I just wasn't ready for to turn the final page without knowing when I'd be able to get my hands on the next in the series (which I now see is early 2011).

Unfortunately this book never made it up to par with the titles in the earlier series, but that's been the case since Davenport lost some of his his appeal by getting married, having kids, etc. And the characters just aren't as intriguing as some of the criminals of pa...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Quinn Kershner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Honestly, the reason I chose this book is that it was sitting on my desk in class. I picked it up and read a couple pages, and then the bell rang. When I came back the next day, I read some more, and left it on the table when class was over. The next day, it was still there so I read some more, and decided to take it home with me and read it for my outside reading book.
John Sandford was born as John Camp on Feb 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He graduated from Washington High School in 1962. In...more Honestly, the reason I chose this book is that it was sitting on my desk in class. I picked it up and read a couple pages, and then the bell rang. When I came back the next day, I read some more, and left it on the table when class was over. The next day, it was still there so I read some more, and decided to take it home with me and read it for my outside reading book.
John Sandford was born as John Camp on Feb 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He graduated from Washington High School in 1962. In 1966, after four years, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from the University of Iowa. In the same year, he married Susan Lee Jones, a fellow student from the University of Iowa. He was in the Army for two years, and in 1970, when he went back to the University to get his master’s degree in journalism. From 1971-78, he was a reporter for the Miami Herald, then a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press from 1978-1990. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986, after being a finalist for it in 1980. From 1990 to the present, he has been an author of many thriller novels, as well as two non-fiction books about plastic surgery, and art. He funds a major archeological project in the Jordan Valley of Israel. He enjoys art, photography, hunting, and fishing. He has two children, Roswell and Emily, along with one grandson, Benjamin. His wife Susan died of breast cancer in 2007 (Wikipedia).
This book is about a group of robbers, who robbed a hospital pharmacy, but in the process, a pharmacist was killed and one of the men was seen by a woman, who happened to be the wife of a police investigator. The robbers decided that to tie up loose ends, they needed to eliminate the witness, and get rid of any connection to the man who killed the pharmacist. So they hire a man named Caprice Garner, or Cappy for short, to kill the other two men. “Cappy was right there with the shotgun. He shot Haines in the face and, without looking or waiting or flinching, pumped once and shot Chapman” (Sandford 58). The next thing the robbers wanted Cappy to do was take out the woman, a surgeon at the hospital. She was part of a surgical team that was working to separate a pair of Siamese twins. When Cappy found out who she was, he followed her on his bike and was going to shoot her, but when he pulled his gun out,
She flicked the car left, into his lane, and at the same instant she hit the brakes on the Audi, hard, and the bike flicked left and surged past her, the rider, snapping his head around, dropped whatever it was, tried to grab it with his clutch hand, lost it, and she still thought, Gun, and she yanked the wheel left and fell in behind him, and with a surge of road rage, floored the accelerator again. (Sandford 78)
He didn’t get her. The book progresses, with the woman, Weather Karkinnen, trying to save the Siamese twins, and the robbers, along with Cappy, trying to kill her and any other witnesses. In the end, Weather’s husband, Lucas Davenport, a police investigator, finds out who is trying to kill his wife, and he sets up an ambush outside his house. Cappy gets away in a truck, but not for long, as Lucas chases him down and shoots him with a shotgun. His last act, though, was to end himself. “The grenade had gone off in Cappy’s lap. He was long gone” (Sandford 387). Also, Weather and her team managed to successfully separate the twins and both of them lived.
This book was a very good book and it was really suspenseful as well. I never knew when something was going to happen, so I was always looking forward to it. The author used a bit of foreshadowing, as well as similes and metaphors. The theme of the book was, to my knowledge, that thieves never prosper, and people who do evil are always beaten by people who do good. I would recommend this book to anyone who is an avid reader and who likes a more mature book, with good people triumphing over bad people.

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Jun 16, 2012 Monnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

After a less than stellar 19th book in his "Prey" series (Wicked Prey), I'm delighted to report that Sanford is back in top form in the 20th. If nothing else, it's always a treat when Virgil Flowers, the character in Sanford's other popular detective series, makes an appearance. In this one, Flowers takes on a bigger role; he's assigned to guard Davenport's wife, Weather, a surgeon who probably can identify one of the robbers who stole drugs from her hospital's pharmacy and killed an employee in...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Wayne Wilson rated it 4 of 5 stars

A master of the mystery genre. Sanford's pacing of the plot is impeccable and the way his recurring protagonist, Lucas Davenport, solves the crime is very believable. It has been many years since I read the first Prey book and so I may not be remembering correctly but it seems to me that Sanford may be mellowing. In my mind his early novels were almost horror novels, more like Silence of the Lamb; while these latest Prey novels seem to me to have less gore and thrills and more detailed detective...more

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Jun 02, 2010 Ilsa Bick rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've read every Prey book--many several times over. I have to agree with other reviewers who have noticed a decline in the overall quality of Prey books. Beyond copy-editing issues, there are several times where there are point-of-view shifts between multiple characters in the same scene. Sandford would never have done this in earlier books. The plotting isn't THAT intricate either. Not only are the villains not much of a threat--they're actually pretty incompetent and dumb--there's really no se...more I've read every Prey book--many several times over. I have to agree with other reviewers who have noticed a decline in the overall quality of Prey books. Beyond copy-editing issues, there are several times where there are point-of-view shifts between multiple characters in the same scene. Sandford would never have done this in earlier books. The plotting isn't THAT intricate either. Not only are the villains not much of a threat--they're actually pretty incompetent and dumb--there's really no sense of urgency here (not even in the relatively distracting B-storyline about the operation-which was pretty much of a snooze, even if technically correct).

I think the problem here is what Sandford has Lucas realize midway through the book: Lucas is happy. (And another baby? Please, say it isn't so. I can see it now; Lucas retires because he realizes he wants to be around for his kids and/or Weather nags him into a guilt trip about it.) The problem here is that a happy Lucas doesn't make for a compelling read. Nothing really shakes him up; no one's really in danger; he doesn't stand to lose much (the threat to Weather was no threat at all); and no character is very interesting for long without conflict or something to lose. There is none of that here. (This was the problem with the last book, too. You knew nothing was REALLY going to happen to Letty--which was a shame because I'd been waiting for a Letty book since Naked Prey.)

Also, it was pretty obvious to me that this novel felt like an excuse to have Virgil Flowers trot onto the stage--a pretty bald attempt to get readers accustomed to him and, perhaps, ready to embrace him when Sandford decides that Lucas has to retire. Certainly, if Sandford's tired of writing about Lucas, you can understand that; it's a Conan Doyle kind of thing. But that doesn't mean that Virgil Flowers can really take Lucas's place. Flowers just doesn't do it for me--a surfer-looking dude with a gun and rock band t-shirts who likes to think about God at night is pretty uninteresting. I don't think the Flowers books are nearly as well-written as the Prey books either--even the not-so-great Prey books--and Lucas's seal of approval for Flowers isn't reason enough for me to climb on the Flowers bandwagon.

And I also agree that the ending of this book is pretty lame--yet another problem that didn't use to be. I think about the endings of books like Mortal Prey and Sudden Prey--and I just want to weep.

Phantom Prey was a pretty good Prey book, but the last *decent* Prey book before that was Broken Prey (which was a fabulous exercise in misdirection and I think the only one where Sandford kept us ALL in the dark about the killer's identity until nearly the very end). Problem is: a couple of years between good Prey books is just too darned long to wait.

I used to preorder all of Sandford's books, but next time I'm gong to wait until I snag a copy at the library. You can't keep churning out a substandard product and expect people to keep buying out of loyalty. I feel guilty saying this because I've been a Sandford fan from the beginning, but his writing is just getting sparer and sparer and the spark is gone. Don't know if he'll find it again, but I sure hope so.(less)

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Jul 29, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

The 20th of Sandford's 'Prey' series and possibly one of the best. John Sandford usually does not disappoint when it comes to the villains of his books, bringing us some of the most disturbed, diabolical, and interesting foes for his Minnesota cop Lucas Davenport, and 'Storm Prey' is no exception to this. It all starts off with a robbery at one of the Twin Cities hospital pharmacies and takes us on a taught journey through the back woods of Wisconsin and the seedier parts of Minneapolis. In my o...more

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Jul 02, 2010 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

John Sandford is such a guy's author- the language is coarse, the jokes are dirty, and the style of writing is very blunt- but I love him anyway. There's something so appealing about a protagonist who is as flawed as Lucas but who I find myself rooting for anyway. The great thing about these books is how the narrator lets us in on everything- there's really no "whodunit" aspect, in fact we usually know whodunit in the first 50 pages, but I am still glued to every page in anticipation. Every char...more

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Jun 13, 2010 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am stupidly dedicated to the Prey series and I will probably always love me some Lucas Davenport. And Virgil Flowers. But I've been wondering: what happened?? Why is the Prey series now a run of the mill mystery?

Lucas is incredibly intelligent, shrewd and will kill you if he needs to. He used to go up against some intelligent, shrewd killers in previous books but the last few have been disappointing. He's having to go against some of the dumbest damn people ever. There's no mystery or challeng...more

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May 24, 2010 Giovanni Gelati rated it 5 of 5 stars

Happy Monday to everybody. The week before Memorial Day is upon us and we have an awesome lineup this week. He it is in a nutshell:
Today- Storm Prey
Tuesday- Lee Child -61 Hours
Wednesday- Mark Greaney Guest Post –Author of The Gray Man
Thursday- Richard Thomas- Transubstantiate
Friday-Graphic Novel –Supreme-The Story of the Year
Saturday- Jack Coughlin- Clean Kill- A Marine Sniper Novel
Sunday-Richard Marcinko/Rogue Warrior Richard Marcinko
Monday Memorial Day- Guest Post by Bob Hamer former U.S. Mari...more
Happy Monday to everybody. The week before Memorial Day is upon us and we have an awesome lineup this week. He it is in a nutshell:
Today- Storm Prey
Tuesday- Lee Child -61 Hours
Wednesday- Mark Greaney Guest Post –Author of The Gray Man
Thursday- Richard Thomas- Transubstantiate
Friday-Graphic Novel –Supreme-The Story of the Year
Saturday- Jack Coughlin- Clean Kill- A Marine Sniper Novel
Sunday-Richard Marcinko/Rogue Warrior Richard Marcinko
Monday Memorial Day- Guest Post by Bob Hamer former U.S. Marine & FBI undercover Agent

I think you can see we mean business this week. I must say I was lucky enough to get both John Sandford and Lee Child’s newest novels right away. I was totally amped as I looked them both over and cracked the spine on them; I must admit I enjoy the sound. I know, the simple joys of the simple minded. I jumped right into Storm Prey as it won the coin toss over 61 Hours. Davenport & company are back and going full bore. There is not a boring or slow page contained in the 408 pages of the novel. Sanford hits another grand slam here in his 20th, yes 20th, Davenport Prey novel. I am not bashful in saying I have read them all in order, and have thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Davenport is again central in Prey as are Shrake, that #@*% Flowers, Weather, Jenkins & Marcy. Letty for some reason or another is only mentioned briefly in the novel.

I am not going to do any spoilers here but the plot as usual is excellent, the bad guys are good, Sandford engages us the reader, right away. Storm Prey is hard to put down. Davenport, as a fictional character, has stood the test of time and has only gotten better and better. Sandford has crafted a detective for a lifetime here. To observers he is a goon and a killer, a well dressed one they admit. But to us, his fans, he is much more than that. Davenport is deep, introspective and caring as well as a killer, but I don’t think a goon. I think one can only love the character as he kicks some butt and worries about the consequences later, only trying to do the right thing.

If you are craving a great character driven novel that has all the right elements to it, then Storm Prey will take care of it. Sanford has yet to lay a dud on us. Suspense that you cannot turn away from or put down, a roller coaster ride with white knuckles included, John Sandfords Storm prey is for you. My copy still has the indentations from my fingers in it .Sanford will be releasing a Virgil Flowers novel in September. Gotta love that #@*&% Flowers, I can’t wait.

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Feb 14, 2012 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who likes crime drama/thriller

Recommended to Stephanie by: My Memaw :)

Shelves: memaw-s-suggestions, own-printed-book, series

Loved this book.. But then again when my memaw passes a book to me it hardly ever disappoints. Cant wait to read more from John Sandford, I definitely will be checking out the other books in this series. I believe this is like the 20 in the series so I hve some serious catching up to do lol.

I loved the characters in this, Lucas Davenport is the min one and hes a heartfelt tough on the outside person who invests everything for his job. Especially when its his wife Weather thats a target. I liked...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Daniel Audet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Storm Prey is now one of my favorite books by John Sandford. Tight, really tight writing. Also, minimal description was needed because of great dialogue and narration. Sandford is at the top of his game with this series featuring Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers, and this installment in particular, for me, is one of the standouts in the entire body of Prey Series works. The pair work well together well out of the norm of "cop" behavior and the wit and humor between them is truly funny. This ep...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Paula Hebert rated it 3 of 5 stars

just the latest in the lucas davenport prey series, storm prey follows lucas, his wife weather, and their growing family through another crisis. after three stupid lowlifes botch a robbery at weather's hospital, and end up killing a pharmacist, weather happens to see the driver of the get away van as she is coming to work. bodies begin to pile up as the bad guys try to cover their tracks, only to make the situation worse and worse, and weather ends up on their hit list. all of lucas' old bunch s...more

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May 25, 2010 Jeff Talbott rated it 4 of 5 stars

John Sandford has been at the crime thriller game for over two decades now, and it is easy to dismiss that achievement as simply scaling the mountain of pulpy fiction success. But every May I buy his new book because I read the series in tandem with my mother, and then am lost for several days in the rush of his talent. Because what he does is not easy. And when I say several days, it's because he delivers that page-turning pump of power time after time after time. His latest is a perfect exampl...more

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Sep 20, 2012 ♥Bella★✰ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, fiction, library-book, mystery, series

Before you ask, I skipped books 1-19. My friend, who I have know for years and never knew her to do much straight pleasure reading, if you don’t know what I mean, she would read books on child rearing, her children has disabilities, so she has books on dealing with that, books to help with her job etc. Recently she bought an iPad, then she discovered iBooks. Then our conversations became littered with referenced to John Sandford and a cop in Minnesota who drove a Porsche and had a daughter and a...more Before you ask, I skipped books 1-19. My friend, who I have know for years and never knew her to do much straight pleasure reading, if you don’t know what I mean, she would read books on child rearing, her children has disabilities, so she has books on dealing with that, books to help with her job etc. Recently she bought an iPad, then she discovered iBooks. Then our conversations became littered with referenced to John Sandford and a cop in Minnesota who drove a Porsche and had a daughter and a wife. I decided I needed to read one (or two) of these books to see what the fuss was all about. So I headed to the library, not a lot of ebooks to borrow for this series. This and the other one I’m going to review were all that was available.

The story starts with the robbery of a hospital pharmacy, as so often happens, things go wrong and one of the robbers kills one of the workers. As they are leaving the hospital they are spotted by Weather Karkinnen, the wife of Lucas Davenport. Things go from bad to worse for the robbers and as this makes things get much more interesting for the reader. Lucas calls in his “pack” to protect Weather, the robbers hire a (psycho)killer to go after her, there is a doctor working with the robbers feeding them information. Did I mention the killer is psycho?

There are multiple story lines, the search for the robbers conducted by the police and aided by Lucas and his investigators, the robbers actions to cover their tracks and eliminate those who are ‘weak links’, the doctor and his cocaine addiction that lead to the robbery, a delicate operation to separate twins joined at the head, and Lucas actions to protect his wife. Through all this the reader knows all, we walk along with the robbers, with the doctor and with Lucas. At times I was wondering, Lucas has to find this out! How is he going to do that?

Since I read true crime there were times when I said, “That’s not how that works!” But then, things could be different in Minnesota. This was a fast paced story, the action went at a good pace, not breathless but not plodding. For Lucas being referred to as a ‘killer’ I didn’t see much evidence of that, there were not any wild west shoot-outs. There were some references to past events, but having not read any of the previous books I was able to follow along the story, if anything the past remarks made me want to go back and read some of the old one. If I had the time and didn’t have a mountain of books to read already.

An enjoyable book that I would recommend to mystery/detective story fans.(less)

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Apr 08, 2013 Tess Mertens-Johnson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I Love John Sanford. I think Lucas Davenport is one of the best fictional characters in today's writing. (I also feel Mark Harmon was a great choice to play him).
BUT, this book just did not grab me like the others. The characters were very weak.
The book beings with a robbery gone wrong at a hospital pharmacy where one of the culprits is lost and a hospital employee is killed. The only witness to the crime is Weather, Lucas' wife who is a doctor at the hospitals.
What ensues after this is a manhu...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Danny Tobey rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was my first John Sandford novel, and so it was my first in the Prey series as well. I'm hooked! After hearing John Sandford speak at Thrillerfest, I was inspired to try the series. I don't know how this compares to other Prey novels, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The pacing and structure are the work of a skilled craftsman. Sandford ups the ante so gradually and seamlessly that the hooks get into you without warning. And then the night is shot and you're up till 3am reading. I wasn't surpri...more

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May 12, 2010 Samantha rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love the Prey series by John Sandford. This is his 20th book and some of it is getting tiredsome. I can't give it 5 stars because again the plot is about Lucas Davenport's wife, Weather being followed, chased and more. It's getting old. It seems like if they aren't after Letty then they are after Weather. However, Mr. Sandford makes up for it by bringing in numerous villians in this book including a fellow doctor at Weather's hospital. I enjoyed the fast pace of the book and it has a lot of go...more

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Jun 01, 2010 big hiker 2 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sandford definitely did it again; the story is fast-paced, witty, full of suspense and with many unpredictable twists and turns. Sandford is still able to keep Davenport fresh and humane even in his twentieth adventure; Lucas is not slowing down and he is not becoming a bore to the readers. To the contrary, he is doing better than ever and can hold the attention up throughout the entire 408 pages.

A 'mistake' during a hospital pharmacy robbery starts a snowball tale where the bad guys turn on on...more

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Jul 31, 2010 Johnny Williams rated it 4 of 5 stars

OK OK I admit it -- I am hooked on Sandford and the Prey series-- If I was to rate the book standing on its own I would have to push the pen hard to get to three stars -- However if you are a fan this is yet another of the series-- I am worried though that Sandford is lying down on the job -- just run of the mill stories jotted down knowing many of us will buy the next book -- common John get with it don't let the adage that an author has but one great book in them --

Your main character has a gr...more

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Storm Prey (Lucas Davenport #20)

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