Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces to track down a ruthless killer who will do whatever it takes to keep the past buried…
Doris Grandfelt, an employee at an accounting firm, was brutally stabbed to death… but nobody knew exactly where the crime took place. Her body was found the next night, dumped among a dense thicket of trees along the edge of an urban park, eight miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite her twin sister Lara Grandfelt’s persistent calls to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the killer was never found.
Twenty years later, Lara has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Confronted with the possibility of her own death, she’s determined to find Doris’s killer once and for all. Finally taking matters into her own hands, she dumps the entire investigative file on every true crime site in the world and offers a $5 million reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest. Dozens of true crime bloggers show up looking for both new evidence and “clicks,” and Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to review anything that might be a new lead.
When one of the bloggers locates the murder weapon, Lucas and Virgil begin to uncover vital details about the killer’s identity. But what they don’t know is the killer lurks in plain sight, and with the true crime bloggers blasting every clue online, the killer can keep one step ahead. As the nation maneuvers the detectives closer to the truth, Lucas and Virgil will find that digging up Doris’s harrowing past might just get them buried instead.
In this, the 35th novel in Sandford’s superb Prey series, the author’s two main protagonists team up again to investigate a 20-year-old murder. It’s another fast-paced and engaging mystery, showcasing everything that has made Sandford’s series so compelling for so long. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
Lethal Prey kicks off with the brutal murder of Doris Grandfelt, 20 years ago, and a short account of the initial investigation. In the present, Doris’s twin sister, Lara is determined to get some justice for her sister. Using her considerable wealth, Lara announces a $5 million reward for information that brings Doris’s killer to justice. Naturally, this attracts the hordes of true crime bloggers, who swarm the Twin Cities, hoping to be the ones to solve the mystery.
Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers, as two of the state’s best investigators, are called in to lead the state’s official, re-opened investigation into the case. Initially, they see the swarms of bloggers are a nuisance and a potential hindrance to doing their jobs. This I expected, as in the past the characters (especially Lucas) have not been fond of independent sleuths. However, here Sandford surprised me; quite quickly, Davenport and Flowers adopt some of the more-competent true-crimers to crowdsource some of their data gathering. Nevertheless, there are moments that manage to offer some commentary on the motives of the bloggers, when they note that a tragedy is “great” or “content” that will generate clicks and get them on a particular news blast website.
The novel takes a conventional approach to a cold-case murder investigation, spiced up with presence and input of the bloggers. As the investigation inches closer to the killer, additional murders take place — this, in some ways, is the main constant in Sandford’s books: often, murder investigations succeed because the killer starts to panic, or scramble, and makes more an more mistakes in their attempt to control their environment and the investigations. Sandford does a great job of making these decisions feel in-character, and rarely have I felt that one of his characters has done something totally daft or out of character (Hollywood crime show writers’ rooms and movie-writers could learn a thing or two from Sandford’s novels). It all comes to a head with an arrest, and the beginnings of a trial — however, the novel ends on a cliffhanger, which I was surprised by. I wonder if the next book will pick things up where this one leaves off? (I hope we don’t have to wait too long for it…)
The series leads continue to grow with each novel. They are aging, their lives are changing, and some of their priorities are shifting. Flowers, for example, is now becoming a successful author, and he wishes he could spend more time with his family and writing. (In fact, I wondered multiple times if Flowers’s participation in the Sandford-verse may be winding down…) Davenport is getting on in years, but nevertheless retains the singular drive for catching dirtbags. The banter and relationship between them, and also with recurring characters and others who enter their orbit, is natural and often witty. Dialogue remains one of Sandford’s main authorial talents.
Thirty-five novels in, and the series is still going very strong. If you haven’t read Sandford’s books yet, I would highly recommend them all. He is one of the most consistently-excellent crime writers. If you are already familiar with his books, rest assured that this is another excellent instalment in his series. Definitely recommended.
*
John Sandford’s Lethal Prey is out now, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in North America. (At the time of writing, there was no information about a UK publisher, but past novels in the series are all available via Simon & Schuster.)
Also on CR: Reviews of Phantom Prey, Wicked Prey, Storm Prey, Buried Prey, Stolen Prey, Silken Prey, Field of Prey, Golden Prey, Neon Prey, Masked Prey, Righteous Prey Judgement Prey, Toxic Prey, Dark of the Moon, The Investigator, and Dark Angel
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