Very Quick Review: REVENGE PREY by John Sandford (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

Lucas Davenport hunts a Russian hit squad

Leonard Summers — not his real name — is on the run. A former high-ranking Russian intelligence officer who defected to the U.S. after providing critical information about Russian spies in U.S. government service, Leonard, his wife Martha, and son Bernard have spent the past year holed up in a CIA facility near Washington. After the CIA makes a deal with the U.S. Marshal Service’s Witness Protection Program (WPP), Leonard’s family is transported to Minneapolis. The plan is to hide them in a wooded Minneapolis suburb that resembles their former home and dacha near Moscow.

The Summers are received at their destination by Lucas Davenport and fellow marshal Shelly White. Unbeknownst to them, the WPP group has been tracked by a Russian hit team. And while nobody in the WPP has ever been attacked… Leonard might be the first victim. As shots are fired and enemies dodged, Lucas must move quickly to uncover where the leak is coming from, before the hit team can strike again.

With what appears to be a perfect premise for a Lucas Davenport novel, Revenge Prey offers much of what long-time fans of Sandford’s thrillers have come to expect. However, unlike previous novels in the series, the 36th book seems to stumble in quality.

In Revenge Prey, Sandford once again keeps the action within Minnesota and the frigid north. Lucas Davenport has been attached to a WitSec protection detail. The protectee is a Russian defector, formerly close to leadership in Moscow, accompanied by his wife and son. Shortly after relocating the defectors to their new home in a Minneapolis suburb, the group are attacked by a sniper. What follows is the Marshals’ attempts to catch the assassin(s), and discover how the assailants found them. Davenport is joined by a fellow Marshal and a CIA agent who shouldn’t be operating on American soil, but due to the intelligence-related information the defector provided, he tags along for the ride.

The characters were not as consistently well-written, with strange gaps in their basic understanding of how their own country works. For example, I just don’t buy that a CIA operative would need to question the work of crime scene techs — putting aside the fact that probably the four or five most-popular TV shows of the past couple of decades have been law enforcement procedurals that very clearly explain why they are important for both law enforcement and victims, I always assumed that CIA agents were pretty well-versed in relevant law (and, you know, at least vaguely intelligent).

Many instances of what would have come across as wry or world-weary commentary on administrative and bureaucratic burdens of law enforcement in previous novels, instead come across as clunky and ill-informed “critiques” of law enforcement. Additionally, it wasn’t clear who these critiques were suppose to appeal to, as characters seemed to hold multiple, contradictory (mis)understandings of what was happening around them. Perhaps Sandford was trying to appeal to both the American pro-cop and anti-deep state right, at the same time as appealing to the “anti-cop” left. There were two instances of a law enforcement officers murdering suspects, and everyone circling the wagons, believing it was “justified”. Sandford has had at least one instance in a previous novel that left me very cold in response to something one of his “good-guy” characters does, but this one was particularly stark.

In the past, I’ve thought Sandford has done a great job of either maintaining the quality of his novels, or improving on them. Revenge Prey felt more like an author going through the motions, leading to inconsistent characterization, plotting, and also dialogue (something he has, in the past, been particularly adept at writing). Therefore, this novel was a disappointment. There are plenty of moments that felt like classic Sandford, but in quite a few other places it just didn’t feel like it was written by Sandford. (Strangely, I recently experienced something similar with David Baldacci’s latest novel.)

If you’re a long-time fan of Sandford’s novels, you’re probably planning to read Revenge Prey anyway, and regardless of what anyone says/writes about it. It’s very strange writing a negative review of one of his books. I now find myself eager to read his next novel, to see if this is just a temporary dip in quality.

John Sandford’s Revenge Prey is due to be published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in North America, on April 7th, 2026.

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, Lethal Prey, Dark of the Moon, The Investigator, and Dark Angel