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Official Website: www.johnsandford.org


More by John Sandford:

Virgil Flowers series

Kidd and LuEllen series

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Author's Official Website:

Official Website: www.johnsandford.org


More by John Sandford:

Virgil Flowers series

Kidd and LuEllen series



Crime Series:

Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles

Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr (Burglar)

Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder

Lilian Jackson Braun's Qwilleran and Koko (Cat Who)

Lee Child's Jack Reacher

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum

Janet Evanovich's Alex Barnaby

Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg's O'Hare/Fox series

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone

Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher

Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman

Wendy Hornsby's Maggie MacGowen

Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson (Blood)

Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan

Shane Maloney's Murray Whelan

Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski

J D Robb's Eve Dallas and Roarke

Dorothy Sayers'Lord Peter Wimsey

Michael W. Sherer's Blake Sanders

Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox

John Sandford's Lucas Davenport

John Sandford's Virgil Flowers

John Sandford's Kidd & LuEllen


Fantasy/Science Fiction series:

Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series

Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Robots series

Mary Janice Davidson's Undead series

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider series

Anne McCaffrey's Crystal Singer series

Anne McCaffrey's Brain Ships series

Anne McCaffrey's Talents (psychic, rowan, tower) series

Anne McCaffrey's Petaybee series

Anne McCaffrey's Freedom series

Anne McCaffrey's Acorna series

George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones and more

Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson (Blood Lines)

Tanya Huff's Confederation

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series

Spider Robinson's Callahan and Stardance series

Roger Zelazny's Amber Series



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J D Robb (Nora Roberts) Eve Dallas (In Death) series page reading order and synopsis; 160x480space
John Sandford's Virgil Flowers series page reading order and synopsis; 160x480 space
Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan PI series page reading order and synopsis; 160x480 space
Lilian Jackson Braun's The  Cat Who (Qwilleran) series reading order and synopsisspace
Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone private investigator series page for reading order and synopsis; 160x480 space
Buy Now from Kobospace
Festivale's Pictorial Guide to Melbourne and Victoria; 160x480space
Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series page reading order and synopsis; 160x480space
See also:  Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson Paranormal Investigator series page reading order and synopsis; 160x480space
Reading order and synopsis for Lawrence Block's Burglar series; 160x480 space
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Murray Whelan amateur investigator series by Shane Maloney reading order and synopsis

Stephanie Plum Bombshell Bounty Hunter series by Janet Evanovich reading order and synopsis

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone private investigator series page for reading order and synopsis; 160x480

See also: Kerry Greenwood's Corinna and Daniel Melbourne-based series page; 160x480

See also:  Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson Paranormal Investigator series page reading order and synopsis; 160x480

Val McDermid's Kate Brannigan PI series page reading order and synopsis; 160x480

John Sandford (John Roswell Camp)

Lucas Davenport seeks his prey by his own rules

Lieutenant Lucas Davenport is a gunman with a badge. Davenport is flawed in the tradition of hard-bitten investigator fiction. He comes out fighting, has no trouble with circumventing the law and in the opening books does a lot of thinking with his smaller brain until the confusingly-named Weather.

They would drive across town, and she'd see good houses and nice gardens and kids on bikes. He'd see whores and dopers and pedophiles and retired cat burglars. At first, it had been interesting ... the lunatic, the out-of-control ... later, she understood that he sought it out.

Set in contemporary times, the series begins in the 1990s when CDs and boom boxes are the big things and the general public and police haven't heard of e-mail.

He has killed five people when this series opens, and usually after two an officer gets the desk. But Davenport is too good to sideline, and too independent to place in the hierarchy of Minnesota's Minneapolis Police Department, so he runs his own intelligence network of street contacts out of a basement office for the first three books.

In the fourth book he is writing his games and simulations for a (good) living, but is called in by the NYPD, and in the fifth, Winter Prey, he is hiding from his corporate life when he's called in to help a Wisconsin sheriff. It is here that he meets local doctor Weather.

By the sixth book he is back in grateful harness in the Twin Cities, driving his Porsche to crime scenes and using his talents for working the media and the crime to get the job done. He's taken up a political appointment as Deputy Chief and is relieved to be back in (shoulder) harness.

Davenport eventually sells out of his computer company with $10 million after tax, but he needs to work. The money enables him to indulge in his love for his Porsche and good suits.

Lucas went for Italian suits, French ties and English shoes. He read the men's fashion magazines, of the serious kind ...

But the Deputy Chief position is political and with a change in mayor, Davenport and his boss Rose Marie Roux move over to the state-based Department of Public Safety and Davenport is now working out of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the governor.

"His brief was to look at interesting and, usually, but not always, violent crimes, and to "fix shit" for the governor."

The characters from two other Sandford series make appearances in these books, Virgil Flowers and Kidd. We have tried to include notes in the reading order for spoilers.

The best prices we found for eBooks of this series, including bundles is at Diesel Ebook Store.


Summary:

Rules of Prey

Shadow Prey

Eyes of Prey

Silent Prey

Winter Prey

Night Prey

Mind Prey

Sudden Prey

Secret Prey

Certain Prey

Easy Prey

Chosen Prey

Mortal Prey

Naked Prey

Hidden Prey

Broken Prey

To avoid spoilers, read The Hanged Man's Song (Kidd and LuEllen) before Invisible Prey.

Invisible Prey

Phantom Prey

To prevent a spoiler, read Dark of the Moon and Heat Lightning (Virgil Flowers) before Wicked Prey

Wicked Prey

Bad Blood (Virgil Flowers) takes place in December, in January he appears in the following novel, Storm Prey.

Storm Prey

Lucas Davenport appears (by phone) in Shock Wave (Virgil Flowers), which takes place a month before Buried Prey begins.

Buried Prey

Stolen Prey

Virgil Flowers' investigation in Mad River seems to start in April, but mentions actions that take place in Stolen Prey.

Silken Prey

Field of Prey

Lucas Davenport phones it in during Storm Front (Virgil Flowers)

Deadline (Virgil Flowers) takes place while Davenport is investigating the Black Hole murders.


Book cover, Rules of Prey, John Sandford; 94x140
Rules of Prey, John Sandford

Rules of Prey

Lucas Davenport is called in to act independently but as part of a task force investigating a serial killer who leaves 'rules' behind with his victims. He juggles the case, his sometime-girlfriend, a journalist, and a witness who is hiding out in his rural cabin.

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Book cover, Shadow Prey, John Sandford; 94x140
Shadow Prey, John Sandford

Shadow Prey

Abusers of the Native American people are being killed and Davenport, along with a female New York detective, is brought in to identify and apprehend the wrong-doers. Once again, his liking for women and tendency towards violence cause complications.

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Book cover, Eyes of Prey, John Sandford; 94x140
Eyes of Prey, John Sandford

Eyes of Prey

Burnt out and depressed after torpedoing his relationship Davenport is brought in on a straight murder case where the man responsible seems obvious, but ungettable.

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Book cover, Silent Prey, John Sandford; 85x140
Silent Prey, John Sandford

Silent Prey

Separated from the Minneapolis Police, unsatisfied by his increasing success as a board and computer game writer, Davenport is eager to help when called on by NYPD to help catch an escaped Bekker.

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Book cover, Winter Prey, John Sandford; 85x140
Winter Prey, John Sandford

Winter Prey

Taking a break from corporate drudgery, Davenport is spending the winter at his Wisconsin cabin. He is called upon by the sheriff of a nearby county to solve a triple homicide and, deputised, he must hunt the Iceman, who is covering up his activities as a pedophile with murder.

One of his targets is the local doctor and coroner, Weather, who piques Davenport's interest and he must protect her and catch the killer while the town battles sub zero temperatures.

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Book cover, Night Prey, John Sandford; 85x140
Night Prey, John Sandford

Night Prey

Two years after leaving Minneapolis PD, Davenport is back in a political appointment as deputy chief. He is put in charge of a serial killer case that has been highlighted by a member of the Bureau for Criminal Apprehension, Connell.

With increasing media attention and political pressure, Davenport and the woman from BCA try to find the killer while the homicide department are seeking an unprecedented number of murderers, including a locked-door murder that is obsessing a member of Davenport and Connell's team.

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Book cover, Mind Prey, John Sandford; 85x140
Mind Prey, John Sandford

Mind Prey

A wealthy psychiatrist and her two young daughters are kidnapped and Davenport and the MPD are all on deck looking for a gamer with a history of mental problems. Davenport and the team must find the victims and while he's at it, he'll have to decide what to do about the diamond engagement ring he's carrying around in his pocket.

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Book cover, Sudden Prey, John Sandford; 79x140
Sudden Prey, John Sandford

Sudden Prey

After Davenport's team kill a pair of female bank robbers, their brother and husband, and his two friends embark on a plan to revenge an eye for an eye. Davenport's pursuit is complicated by a dirty cop looking to protect himself from the fallout.

Sandford's characters include an innocent bystander, distrustful of the police, who finds the more she tries to stay out of trouble, the worse things get for her.

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Book cover, Secret Prey, John Sandford; 85x140
Secret Prey, John Sandford

Secret Prey

A bank president is killed. His proposed merger is almost as unpopular as he is, which is nothing to how unpopular he'd be with his ex-wife if she knew he'd make an extra $10 million dollars from it.

After her experiences in the previous story, Weather has left Davenport and he feels himself spiralling back into depression. What can save him? Sex with a good woman, or a really interesting murder to solve?

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Book cover, Certain Prey, John Sandford; 85x140
Certain Prey, John Sandford

Certain Prey

Carmel Loan is one of the three top defense attorneys in Minnesota. She has everything -- a million-dollar-a-year job, a fabulous apartment, a murder-red Jag -- life would be perfect if Hale Allen's wife would just die. Fortunately the right money and connections can get the job done. What she doesn't foresee is the cascade of events one wish can start.

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Book cover, Easy Prey, John Sandford; 80x140
Easy Prey, John Sandford

Easy Prey

high-fashion model and an hotel hostess are killed at a party for the rich and feckless. There were drugs everywhere, but everyone denies taking any, or knowing any dealers. With the TV news crews breathing down their necks, Minneapolis PD is using Homicide and Davenport's team to investigate. And then the photographer for the model's last shoot is killed in St Paul ...

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Book cover, Chosen Prey, John Sandford; 80x140
Chosen Prey, John Sandford

Chosen Prey

Someone in the Twin Cities is strangling blondes, and harassing women by creating pornographic sketches of them. It's not Davenport's case, and worse, he knows the parents of the latest victim to be found. But Weather thinks that he'd enjoy the challenge, and, while he's on the move, why not a quick insemination?

Davenport calls in an art expert by the name of Kidd . Meanwhile the Mayor announces that he will not run again, which means the Davenport and his boss Rose Marie, will likely be out of a job.

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Book cover, Mortal Prey, John Sandford; 85x140
Mortal Prey, John Sandford

Mortal Prey

The assassin Carla Rinker has surfaced in Mexico, possibly on her way back to the United States. The FBI Agents Mallard and Malone, with whom Lucas last worked on her case, call him in and he's flying reluctantly down to Mexico. To their relief, he's leaving behind pregnant Weather, who's working on the wedding, and a team of builders replacing his old house with something bigger and better.

The investigation takes Davenport, Mallard and Malone to St Louis as Rinker targets the men she believes killed her man and her unborn child.

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Book cover, Naked Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Naked Prey, John Sandford

Naked Prey

Lucas Davenport and Rose Marie Roux have moved to state positions. Lucas now Director, Office of Regional Studies working with Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. He has a new job, a new son, and despite being a primo surgeon Weather has become the 'little woman' and taken his name. (BIG BOO!) Winter depression looms again for Davenport and an interesting case is needed. Two naked people hung from a tree up north could fit the bill.

"He felt a hum, a little spear of pleasure breaking through the blue. An evil bastard to hunt: nothing like it to cheer a guy up."

This novel introduces the pre-teen rural trapper, Letty.

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Book cover, Hidden Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Hidden Prey, John Sandford

Hidden Prey

A Russian is killed on the docks in Duluth, which wasn't urgent until it was discovered that his father was a high official in Russia. Now the Russians, the FBI, the locals and Davenport are investigating.

Meanwhile, Lucas, Weather, son Sam, and Letty are settled with their housekeeper in the Big New House, although Davenport is doing a bit of soul-searching.

"A cop, he still loved the hunt, but suspected that twenty-five years of contact with violent death and brutal criminal was beginning to corrode something essential inside him."

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Book cover, Broken Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Broken Prey, John Sandford

Broken Prey

A serial killer is loose, his victims brutalised and Davenport works with his best friend Sloan from the Minneapolis PD to identify and catch the killer. The death of a child is one too many for Sloan and everyone insists that Davenport not talk him out of retiring.

Meanwhile, Weather has bought Davenport an iPod and a certificate for 100 downloads, and everyone has an opinion on what the playlist should contain.

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Reading Note

To avoid spoilers, read The Hanged Man's Song (Kidd and LuEllen) before Invisible Prey.


Book cover, Invisible Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Invisible Prey, John Sandford

Invisible Prey

Two elderly women are killed during a break-in where the thieves seem to have done more damage than thieving. Davenport's energies are torn between this theft -- for which he calls in Kidd and a possible pederast scandal on which Virgil Flowers is working.

Sloan has opened his bar, Shooters but is still available for brainstorming.

Weather is given back her own name in this novel, but Sandford then goes on to indulge in a bit of gender-bashing:

Lucas has a theory about intelligence: there was critical intelligence, and there was silly intelligence ... with women, it was silly.

Sandford has a variety of female characters, heroes and villains, cops and murderers, this comment seems to be a little something nasty that slipped through.

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Book cover, Phantom Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Phantom Prey, John Sandford

Phantom Prey

Del and Davenport are spending some of their time watching a missing dealer's wife from the apartment across the street. With that, and the politics of an upcoming Republican convention, Davenport has to find time for another investigation when Weather asks him to look into the presumed murder of a wealthy friend. This brings him into contact with the latest Goth revival, just in time for a spate of murders of Goths.

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Book cover, Heat Lightning, John Sandford; 81x139
Heat Lightning, John Sandford (John Camp)

Reading Order Note -- Spoiler alert

Wicked Prey (below) begins almost exactly after the end of Heat Lightning, the second Virgil Flowers book. To prevent a spoiler, read Dark of the Moon and Heat Lightning before Wicked Prey.


Book cover, Wicked Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Wicked Prey, John Sandford

Wicked Prey

The Republican Convention is in town, as are cops from all over, called in for security. Davenport has made so many demands, so loudly, that he's been disinvited from the ball. When Lily calls from New York to warn him that a murderous criminal gang may have landed in his jurisdiction, Davenport rapidly suspects that the money-handlers from the convention could be targetted, but where can he get the agents to work the case? Meanwhile, an old enemy targets Letty, and she embarks on a ruthless operation of her own.

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Book cover, Bad Blood, John Sandford; 81x139
Bad Blood, John Sandford (John Camp)

Reading Order Note

Virgil Flower's adventure Bad Blood takes place in December, in January he appears in the following novel, Storm Prey.


Book cover, Storm Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Storm Prey, John Sandford

Storm Prey

Arriving at the hospital early to work on a pair of conjoined twins, Weather catches a glimpse of the men who have just broken into the pharmacy, stolen drugs and killed the pharmacist. Now she is a witness under threat, and determined not to let it interfere with her work. As a compromise, she agrees to an in-house bodyguard -- Virgil Flowers.

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Book cover, Shock Wave, by John Sandford; 93x140
Reading Note, John Sandford

Reading Note

Lucas Davenport appears (by phone) in Shock Wave, which takes place a month before Buried Prey begins.


Book cover, Buried Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Buried Prey, John Sandford

Buried Prey

The bodies of two young girls are found during a demolition. Their disappearance was Davenport's first real plain clothes case (he was still a patrol officer). We meet Davenport and Sloan as they make their ways as newbie detectives, learning how to gather information, develop contacts and influence people -- Sloan has a friendly way about him that makes him a good interrogator, Davenport's hockey rough-housing makes threats and intimidation his forte. We also see Davenport in a tiny apartment, writing his early games and developing his penchant for clothes. Del also makes an appearance as his plain clothes partner for the investigation.

Now, years later, Davenport's guilt at dropping the investigation is driving him to catch the suspect on whose trail he was all those years ago, and his friends and family fear that he could destroy himself in the process.

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Book cover, Stolen Prey, John Sandford; 81x139
Stolen Prey, John Sandford

Stolen Prey

At the end of April Davenport has his morning run rudely interrupted and by August the resultant cast is set to annoy him for another month. It's put into perspective when a family is tortured and killed in the home and the message "were coming" (sic) is written in blood at the scene.

Virgil Flowers investigates a series of muggings while Davenport and the DEA follow the trail of Mexican drug money.

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Book cover, Mad River, by John Sandford (John Camp); 93x140
Mad River, John Sandford

Reading Note: Virgil Flowers

Virgil Flowers' investigation in Mad River seems to start in April, but mentions actions that take place in Stolen Prey.


Book cover, Silken Prey, John Sandford (John Camp); 90x140
Silken Prey, John Sandford

Silken Prey

When something distasteful is found on a Republican senate hopeful's computer the Democratic governor calls in Lucas to prove it was a set-up. Davenport calls in ICE (Ingrid) to handle the computer issues, and she recommends the "totally hot" Kidd to help out. How will the "totally hot" Davenport beat a suspect with narcissistic personality disorder and loyal henchmen?

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book cover, Field of Prey by John Sandford; 92x140
Field of Prey, John Sandford

Field of Prey

Two Minnesota small town teenagers discover a cistern with a suspicious smell. The local sheriff calls in the BCA and soon there is a killer hunt on as the local towns reel with the news of fifteen young women's bodies.

It will take persistence and kilometres of travel to bring this murderer to justice.

(Virgil Flowers is off on another case during this book.)

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book cover, Storm Front by John Sandford; 93x140
Reading Order note: Storm Front (Virgil Flowers), John Sandford

Storm Front (Virgil Flowers)

Lucas Davenport phones it in during this Virgil Flowers investigation.

Read our review of Storm Front


book cover, Deadline by John Sandford; 92x140
Reading Order Note: Deadline (Virgil Flowers), John Sandford

Deadline

Virgil drags his boat into a new adventure. This time the theft of local dogs in Trippton has Virgil going to help out old friend and fishing buddy Johnson Johnson.

But there's a criminal underbelly to Trippton and Virgil is soon up to his neck in DEA agents, rednecks and corrupt officials.

Takes place while Davenport is investigating the Black Hole murders.

Read our review of Deadline