A Prey Novel

Art history professor James Qatar’s hobby was taking secret photographs of women. At night when he was all alone, he’d dream about them and indulge his fantasies. Then one day, his fantasy went too far. Now it’s Qatar’s turn to become an obsession - of Davenport’s. And for both men, there’s no turning back.

Years ago, Lucas Davenport almost died at the hands of Clara Rinker, a pleasant, soft-spoken, low-key Southerner, and the best hitwoman in the business. Now retired and living in Mexico, she nearly dies herself when a sniper kills her boyfriend, the son of a local druglord, and while the boy's father vows vengeance, Rinker knows something he doesn't ... the boy wasn't the target--she was--and now she's going to have to disappear to find the killer herself.

Years ago, Lucas Davenport almost died at the hands of Clara Rinker, a pleasant, soft-spoken, low-key Southerner, and the best hitwoman in the business. Now retired and living in Mexico, she nearly dies herself when a sniper kills her boyfriend, the son of a local druglord, and while the boy's father vows vengeance, Rinker knows something he doesn't: The boy wasn't the target, she was, and now she is going to have to disappear to find the killer herself.

In Naked Prey, John Sandford puts Lucas Davenport through some changes. His old boss, Rose Marie Roux, has moved up to the state level and taken Lucas with her. In addition, Lucas is now married and a new father, both of which are fine with him: He doesn't mind being a family man. But he is a little worried. For every bit of peace you get, you have to pay - and he's waiting for the bill. It comes in the form of two people found hanging from a tree in the woods of northern Minnesota. What makes it particularly sensitive is that the bodies are of a black man and a white woman, and they're naked....

Police investigator Lucas Davenport is enjoying a new job and new family, but his happiness is marred when two bodies-a black man and a white woman-are found hanging in the northern Minnesota woods.

Six months ago, Lucas Davenport tackled his first case as a statewide troubleshooter, and he thought that one was plenty strange enough. But that was before the Russian got killed. On the shore of Lake Superior, a man named Vladimir Oleshev is found shot dead, three holes in his head and heart, and though nobody knows why he was killed, everybody - the local cops, the FBI, and the Russians themselves - has a theory. And when it turns out he had very high government connections, that's when it hits the fan.

Now a statewide troubleshooter, Detective Lucas Davenport is plunged into a murder investigation that involves a Russian corpse, 50-year-old bullets, and some high-level government connections. Haunting and suspenseful, each addition to John Sandford's Prey series shoots to the top of national best-seller lists.

The "Big Three" are a trio of inmates locked up in the Minnesota Security Hospital over the years, each a particularly vicious serial killer, each with his own distinct style and propensities. Everybody feels much safer knowing that they're behind bars. Except...there's a new killer on the loose. And his handiwork bears a disturbing resemblance to some of the finer points practiced by the Big Three, details that never even made the papers.

On a deceptively quiet Minneapolis evening, Detective Lucas Davenport is summoned to one of the most heinous homicide scenes he's ever encountered. Two elderly women have been brutally bludgeoned inside their home, with only a few valuable yet common stolen items indicating the killer's sinister motives.

In a wealthy Minneapolis neighborhood, two elderly women are bludgeoned to death. They are apparent victims of a random robbery, though nothing of value appears to have been stolen. But when Lucas Davenport looks deeper, he fears that the victims weren’t so random, and the items stolen were far from invaluable. As a pattern emerges it leads Lucas to...certainly not where he expected. Which is too bad, because the killers are expecting him. And that’s only the first surprise.

Lucas Davenport has had disturbing cases before - but never one quite like this, in the shocking new Prey work from the #1 New York Times best-selling author.

The Republicans are coming to St. Paul for their convention. Throwing a big party is supposed to be fun, but crashing the party are a few hard cases the police would rather have stayed away. Chief among them is a crew of professional stick-up men who've spotted several lucrative opportunities, ranging from political moneymen with briefcases full of cash to that armored-car warehouse with the weakness in its security system.

Having spent two years in hiding, a big-time robber is back. It's a couple of weeks before the Republican party convention and thousands are spending cash, which is flowing into a warehouse protected by only a few armed guards. Lucas Davenport meanwhile has problems of his own, targeted by a psychopathic pimp, it's not Davenport he's after; it's his daughter.

Very early, 4:45, on a bitterly cold Minnesota morning, three big men burst through the door of a hospital pharmacy, duct-tape the hands, feet, mouth, and eyes of two pharmacy workers, and clean the place out. But then things swiftly go bad, one of the workers dies, and the robbers hustle out to their truck-and find themselves for just one second face-to-face with a blond woman in the garage: Weather Karkinnen, surgeon, wife of an investigator named Lucas Davenport.

A daring drugs raid on a Minneapolis hospital, during which a medical orderly is murdered, takes place on the same day that Lucas Davenport's surgeon wife, Weather, is due to perform a high-profile operation to separate conjoined twin girls. Investigating the raid, Davenport concludes that it must have been an inside job and - as a witness to the criminals' desperate getaway - Weather is now in grave danger.

A house demolition provides an unpleasant surprise for the Minneapolis Police - the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic. It looks like they've been there a long time, and Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long. With the bodies discovered, an old case is resurrected - but there's something wrong with the evidence. As Davenport investigates, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: It wasn't just the bodies that were buried. It was the truth.

A house demolition provides an unpleasant surprise for Minneapolis - the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic. It looks like they've been there a long time. Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long.In 1985, Davenport was a young cop with a reputation for recklessness, and the girls' disappearance was a big deal. His bosses ultimately declared the case closed, but he never agreed with that. Now that he has a chance to investigate it all over again, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: It wasn't just the bodies that were buried. It was the truth.

In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, an entire family has been killed. There's something about the scene that pokes at Lucas's cop instincts - it looks a lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he's seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is an up-market town, and the husband was an executive at a big bank. It just doesn't seem to fit. Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life.

.Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, 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 a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.

Murder, scandal, political espionage and an extremely dangerous woman. Lucas Davenport's going to be lucky to get out of this one alive… Lucas Davenport is investigating a vicious smear on a US senator when the trail leads to a political fixer’s disappearance. Then, very troublingly, it leads to the Minneapolis police department, then, most troublingly of all, to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons.