There are so many books in The Prey series at this point that I can’t tell you where Twisted Prey falls in the sequence. I can say that I have not read them all but I am always able to get up to speed fairly quickly. It’s like catching up with an old friend who just so happens to be a badass law enforcement officer.

Lucas Davenport is a US Marshall who has a reputation for getting the job done at all costs. Lucas is not only smart, but he is wealthy and exciting to watch as he does his investigation. This time, Lucas is asked by a U.S. Senator to investigate a car accident that was clearly an assassination tempt. The best part is that the main suspect is another U.S. Senator that Lucas has had a run-in with in the past. As Lucas and his partners get closer to uncovering the truth, the greater the risk. Luckily, Lucas is always up for the task. The action is exhilarating and there are a lot of great plot twists. It is truly a fun ride. I felt like I was right in the middle of the investigation. There are a lot of moving parts and as is always the case, the villain is driven by power. She already has money.

Although this isn’t a mystery, there isn’t much to say without ruining the fun. There’s politics, murder, and mayhem. What more could you ask for? I look forward to reading another book in the series.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

Let me be clear… I think this story is well written and I have been a fan of the Prey series for a while but maybe it is because of the storyline I found myself zoning out more often than not.

The story is set in DC and there is just too much politics already that I just kept having to force myself to read the story. Maybe it would have been better at another time but I was just so over politics right now that reading about it left me empty.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I had read a few John Sanford books before this and while I loved Lucas Davenport, I'm not sure why I did not read more. This is an excellent thriller. The story continues the Lucas series, but you do not have to read prior books to pick up the action and get deep into the book. I love reading this type of book, you know, the ones that make you forget you are supposed to be cleaning the kitchen! I have actually now started following John Sanford on Facebook and subscribed to his newsletter. All thanks to Lucas Davenport and Twisted Prey.

John Sandford is back with Twisted Prey, book #28 in the Prey series, and boy has he scored a winner with this one. I hate to use cliches, but I literally could not put this one down, and read it very fast, considering my health. This book simply amazed me.
Lucas Davenport is a U.S. Marshall now, and he is called into action by an old friend, Senator Porter Smalls. Smalls is returning to Washington, DC, with his associate and lover Cecily Whitehead after a relaxing getaway at Small’s West Virgina cabin. Cecily was driving and a pick-up truck began tailgating them. Eventually, it pulled up beside them and rammed into the side of their Escalde running them off the road. It was a steep, long and dangerous descent that was meant for certain death. Cecily skillfully navigates the descent ad deliberately tries to crash into some trees to prevent going over a cliff. Small’s survives due to this skillful manuvering, however, a tree smashes through the driver’s side window and kills Cecily.
The Escalade is totalled, but oddly, there is no other automobile damage such as paint or metal from the pick-up on the Escalade. Smalls knows that they were deliberately rammed off the road. He knows that this was an assasination attempt. And, he believes that he knows who is behind the attempt. However, finding no other damage, the West Virgina authorities attribute it to an unfortunate accident.
Things begin not to add up, and Lucas begins to get too close. No, you’re saying? Yes, it’s true. And things begin to heat up in a big way. People come after Lucas, and some people get hurt and some people get killed. Yep, it’s true. Lucas is getting into something big and dirty. He has to call in Bob and Rae for help. Danger lurks everywhere. Yep, it’s true.
All sarcasm aside, Twisted Prey is one very enjoyable book. It can be read as a stand-alone, however, one may wish to read Silken Prey before reading this one. In fact, it is one of the best books that I have read in quite a while. I believe that anyone who enjoys mystery thrillers will enjoy this book. John Sandford has established a special place in his genre, and Lucas Davenport is probably easily one of the top five American detective characters in this genre. Believe it or not, this is an easy, but very rare 5-star rating IMHO.

The rich psychopath, Taryn Grant, has a senate seat and an even more important seat on the Intelligence Comm.. She and Lucas are former adversaries. He's now a part of the US Marshalls, which means there is less interaction with his usual cast of characters.

While an excellent writer, the Prey Novel is not one of my favorites.

A book about books, and a bookstore, and a woman who works in that bookstore! A book I should have loved. But I didn't. Here I am, out on the fringe with my apparently unpopular opinion. And so I'll do my best to explain.

Problem #1: The pace is maddeningly slow. Hardly anything at all happens in the first half of the book. The second half picks up somewhat, with the last quarter being where things actually happen.

Problem #2: The main character is closed off. This is her personality, but the writing style has her closed off to readers as well as the other characters. And that leads to...

Problem #3: Because Loveday keeps herself distant, the romance aspect didn't capture me or feel real. I didn't see any playfulness, any joy, or anything other than poetry and sex that connected the characters. Even the sex was a form of release for Loveday, not a form of passion.

Problem #4: Here lies my main problem. This story is told in 3 competing timelines. We have 2016, which is the present story. Then we have 2013, where we go back and experience a prior relationship of Loveday's. Then we have 1999, where we spend a lot of time with Loveday as a child. All three timelines are different stories from her life. This approach ties into something within a poem that intrigues Loveday early in the book. In theory, or in poetry, it has appeal, but in novel form it didn't work for me.

In the end, this story touches on some powerful topics that should have been heart-wrenching. But I just didn't feel the emotion.

Senator Small from Minnesota barely survived an assassination attempt linked to his conflict with Senator Taryn Grant. He calls Lucas Davenport, now a U.S. Marshall, in to investigate. Identifying one possible link leads to other possible chinks in Grant's armor. Then Davenport's wife has a suspicious accident, things accelerate. A link is murdered, Davenport is attacked in the Watergate Hotel, more suspects go down and there is a final resolution a bit out of the blue. Not as wild as the last couple of Davenport novels, but still an interesting addition to the series.

Thanks Netgalley for the chance to read this title.

Twisted Prey is the 28th book in the bestselling series by John Sandford. The teaser here is that Federal Marshal Lucas Davenport may finally be able to put paid to the evil Taryn Grant, who got away a few books back (see Silken Prey). An “accident” involving a US Senator is brought to Davenport’s attention, and soon enough, all the wonderful characters of Sandford’s imagination come out to play. I especially enjoyed reading the pithy cop talk between officers Bob and Rae; the scene with the donuts was spot-on!

Taryn Grant is quite the narcissist in this book, as she manipulates others to do her bidding. Despite Davenport’s more-than-a-hunch feelings that she is the bad guy, there is no clear evidence linking her to the accident in the beginning of the book. She’s got plenty to hide, though, and does it well. Shame that such a smart female character has to be so evil. She is not my favorite bad character – despite her ambition she seems too flat for my liking.

There was a bit too much politics in this installment to be perfect; all the discussion of defense contracts and the like bogged the story down a bit. This was a middle-of-the-road book; familiar characters doing familiar things, yet it took just a touch too long to wrap up. This may be due to the setting being Washington, DC – when the stories take place in Minnesota there is something oddly comforting about the location. I wonder how much of the story was written out of inspiration vs having to wrap up the Taryn Grant situation?

However, no Prey book is truly heinous. We also find that Davenport isn’t untouchable, as an encounter with some bad guys leaves him screaming like a little girl (one of the funniest vignettes in the book). He is getting older and feeling it, which is a refreshing touch.

Twisted Prey is an enjoyable way to spend a few hours of your time, however, long time Sandford fans may feel a little let down with the heavy concentration on the politics. Let’s see what happens in the next installment – maybe Lucas will be back on his home turf again.

Another fantastic Prey book from Sandford. Exactly what I expected and wanted from the next installment of the adventures Lucas Davenport!

John Sanford doesn't disappoint - EVER - I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Sandford many years ago in a Chicago bookstore. I was so excited to meet him that I actually was embarrassed and lost for words which still to this day haunts me! Twisted Prey was excellent. I have read every Prey book - there were enough familiar faces that it made you feel that you were sitting with an old friend having a drink catching up. The twists and characteres were interesting as always. Thank you for letting me read it!

Lucas Davenport is now with the U.S. Marshals and a bit bored. He and his team jump at the opportunity to investigate the alleged attempt on the life of a Senator. First by proving it was, indeed, an attempted assassination and then identifying the guilty parties. As in other Sanford books, Lucas and Co. are fairly certain of the culprit's identity, but then need to prove their theories. Set mostly in Washington, D.C.'s political world, the plot seems relevant to the current political climate. Sandford gives us a satisfying conclusion to tie up loose ends. This book involves his family less than others in the series. If you enjoy police thrillers, you will not want to miss this one.

Be still my soul, Lucas Davenport is back with his 28th case. This time he’s determined to take down a U.S. Senator who he is convinced has tried to assassinate on of her fellow senators from Minnesota. Davenport is now with the U.S. Marshals service and brings a couple of his fellow marshals along to D.C. as backup. Almost immediately, there is an attempt on his life followed by a car accident back home in Minnesota that nearly ends his wife’s life. With the pressure mounting Davenport must quickly unravel this very complex and twisted plot.

A friend turned me on to this series a few years ago and I have been hooked ever since. That being said, I haven’t read one for a while so picking up this book felt like visiting an old friend. Lucas Davenport continues to be charming and thoughtful in his personal life, while also being a hard as nails when it comes to criminals. This story is a very complex knot of politicians, arms manufacturers and ex-military bad guys. And just when you think that progress is being made something happens that sets the investigation back again. All these twists and turns work seamlessly together though to make a really compelling thriller. This is book 28 in the series and one of my favorites so far. I highly recommend!

Never sure if I like Lucas Davenport or Virgil Flowers the most of John Sandford's book. This time Lucas working as a US Marshall and the case leads back to a previous enemy, now Senator Taryn Grant. As seen in Silken Prey, she's rich, vengeful, amoral and obsessed with becoming President. In his investigation, Lucas is immersed in the bureaucratic maze of Washington but handles things deftly with the aid of "friends" old and new. Just to satisfy my Virgil Flowers appetite, he makes a cameo appearance in this one. I always look forward to the next Sandford book and this one was a treat!

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on April 24, 2018

Twisted Prey would earn my recommendation just for this sentence: “Survivalists fantasize about SHTF day, when Shit Hits The Fan — Mexico invades Arizona, the gasoline runs out, all the chickens get eaten, and anybody who doesn’t have a root cellar in the backyard fully stocked with AR-15s, camouflage hats, hunting bows, and gold coins is doomed to a life of sexual slavery or death by cannibalism.” Like, totally. Fortunately, I don’t have to rely on a single sentence to recommend the latest Lucas Davenport novel, because the rest of the book is nearly as entertaining.

A senator’s SUV is sideswiped on a gravel mountain road, forcing the SUV over the edge and into a tree. The crash kills Senator Smalls’ lover. Smalls is sure that the accident was deliberate, but accident investigators tell him that there is no sign of a second vehicle’s involvement. The senator is from Minnesota, so he naturally calls Lucas Davenport for a second opinion.

Lucas is a U.S. Marshal these days, but his boss regularly lends him to politicians who need a criminal investigator because keeping politicians happy is good for the Marshal Service’s budget. Smalls believes Minnesota’s other senator, Taryn Grant, was behind the assassination attempt. He needs Lucas to prove that a crime was committed and to find out who committed it. Lucas obligingly heads to Washington and appropriately checks into the Watergate Hotel.

Lucas’ investigation leads him to a business that deals with military procurement contracts and to a number of shady characters connected directly or indirectly to that business and less provably to Grant. When a target of the investigation is murdered, Lucas has to deal with the victim’s brother (a lieutenant colonel) and lover (a CIA assassin), both of whom have been led to believe that the target was killed by Lucas.

As that story gets rolling, Lucas is distracted when his wife Weather gets into a car accident — or was it? His Marshal friends Bob and Rae join the investigation as Lucas tries to get to the bottom of the assassination attempt and a series of killings that are apparently related. He even finds himself working with the FBI, which gives John Sandford a chance to make fun of humorless, career-minded FBI agents. While the FBI is an natural target for Sandford’s humor, he also pokes fun at DHS, whose agents, for the sake of job security, pretend every crime they investigate is an act of terrorism.

Sandford often works a political environment into his stories, but he’s evenhanded about making both Republicans and Democrats the bad guys. (In this novel, a Democrat is the villain.) None of it is mean-spirited, but Sandford does have a clear-eyed view of the nation’s political environment. At one point, Lucas laments the impossibility of reading anything on the internet (including comments left on a website that gives home construction tips) that doesn’t quickly descend into caustic name calling by people on both the right and the left. “I mean, why?” he asks. “Is there a difference between a right-wing and a left-wing two-by-four?” That’s another sentence that makes the novel worth reading.

Politics aside, Lucas is more humane than most thriller characters. He’s a tough guy, but unlike most protagonists in tough guy novels, he doesn’t feel the need to let the world know how tough he is or how much he loves his guns. He’s secure, he’s self-deprecating, and he thinks of villains as people; he has no use for ideologues who dispense death casually.

The plot holds together plausibly, a rarity in modern thrillers. The ending might be predictable but it’s satisfying. In fact, the entire novel is satisfying as another example of Sandford’s reliable ability to tell a fast-moving story about down-to-Earth characters who are competent without being full of themselves.

RECOMMENDED

John Sanford never ceases to amaze with his Lucas Davenport series. This plot shimmers like gold dust from the get go. The story focuses on the near fatal car crash that involves United States Senator Porter Smalls. He is barely scratched but his mistress Cecily Whitehead is killed. From there the story spreads out like a spider’s web catching political corruption, greed and murder in its wake. Lucas Davenport and his fellow marshals chip their way through the puzzle until they solve it. No one ever says “I skipped a couple of chapters” to get to the end in Sanford’s novels. It’s all good, rich with adventure and humor and outstanding.

I can't believe this is the 28th book in the Prey Series!!!! I have loved all of them with the exception of one, Silken Prey. Maybe I was expecting too much of Sandford to have every book wrap up at the end with a pretty little bow, but after over 20 books, it's exactly what I wanted but didn't get, until now.

In book 23, Lucas went up against Taryn Grant, a wealthy, narcissistic, psychopathic would-be politician. The thing that I didn't like about Silken Prey was that Ms. Grant seemingly got away with everything that she had done. Now fast forward to Lucas being a Marshall and he gets a call from Senator Smalls to help find out who tried to assassinate him. Senator Smalls suspects now-Senator Grant. This is Lucas' opportunity to catch the bad guy that got away.

This book has everything that I love about Sandford's writing: suspense, witty dialogue, some of my favorite characters, and a storyline that kept me riveted from start to finish. I do miss Shrake and Jenkins' cameos in the Prey Series but Rae and Bob have been an awesome addition to this series.

*This is my voluntary review of an advanced reader copy*

The psychopathic Minnesota Senator Taryn Grant and U.S. Marshall Lucas Davenport have faced off in before in a murderous duel in the book <i>Silken Prey</i> The best one can say is that is was a draw between the too.
But now Grant is becoming more powerful and is eyeing the White House. Holding on to her coattails, I mean skirts, are members of a private and lethal military contracting company. Fortunately, they aren’t completely successful in their assignment to eliminate another senator but they draw the attention of Davenport. Always a big mistake.
With whip smart dialogue, returning characters and a logical but a twisting plot, the fast moving <i>Twisted Prey</i> is a pleasure to read. A pleasure, but I have a few problems.
I’m not sure I understand why Davenport would need to use a computer maven to do research on the deep web. Davenport built his fortune on designing web games; you would think he would keep up with the computer world. I’m confused also; if he was trying to hide where the information was coming from, as to why he wasn’t allowed to do this kind of research.
I also found it annoying that Flowers and Kidd would show up for very minor appearances. A couple of paragraphs? Really? Why bother?
I’m also confused about all of the Marshals in this book. U.S.Marshals are politically appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. There are very few of them. Most people who work for the Marshal’s service are Deputy U.S. Marshals. In theory Davenport could be a Marshall, but I doubt the rest of the Marshals that show up are actually Marshals, more like Deputy Marshals. Stuff like this really bothers me in a book.
I’m also confused by why if the first person they plan to arrest is killed that they wouldn’t go eyes on with their next subjects. Oh come on, that’s not a spoiler, its obvious early on that he is a red shirt.
If y’all think I am being a bit bitchy about minor plot holes, think about this being book 28. This is a hugely popular series for very good reasons. Carelessness makes no sense.
Set mostly in the Washington DC area, Sandford amusingly portrays the disdain that most hold for the area. He managed to get in some terrific shots at the current political climate too.
Everyone is fair game in this book. Big mistake, because Davenport is nothing if not Machiavellian.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Senator Porter Smalls is leaving his cabin in West Virginia with "friend" Cecily Whitehead when they are run off the road. Thanks to Cecily's driving, they don't fly off the bluff, but she is killed in the accident. Senator Smalls is appalled to learn that there is no evidence of another vehicle, and his eyewitness report is being written off. He enlists the help of Lucas Davenport, who helped him in Minnesota with another problem. Lucas has been working as kind of a fixer for politicians since becoming a marshal and having lost to Taryn Grant, the likely culprit of the assassination attempt, he is anxious to take her down this time.

This is the first Prey novel I've read where Lucas is a Marshall. (I have several on my shelves that I haven't gotten to yet. Don't judge!) I wasn't sure if I would like it, but he is his usual self whether in Minnesota or D.C. The action was very fast-paced - it seemed time just flew while I was reading it. I liked his fellow marshals, Rae and Bob, and even the FBI people weren't all horrible. I enjoyed this very much.

It’s hard to believe that “Twisted Prey” is John Sandford’s 28th novel in his Prey series. Is there really that many novels featuring the intrepid Lucas Davenport? What’s even more unbelievable is that even though this is the 28th book in the series, it is just a good as all the others. Sanford has the uncanny ability to write a compelling, interesting and un-put-downable book every. single. time. His characters are fascinating and the action is non-stop. But, better yet, the dialogue is crisp, funny and believable, with twists and turns no one can see coming. It’s a winning combination from any perspective.

In Twisted Prey Lucas, now a federal Marshall, is convinced that a US senator is responsible for three murders. This particular senator is an old foe and Lucas expects to have further dealings with her. An incredible story-teller, Sanford keeps his novels fresh and his readers guessing right up until the unforeseen ending. If you are looking for some summertime reading (or just a great book anytime of the year) then the Prey books should be on the top of your TBR pile. I guarantee you won’t be sorry.

Many thanks to Net Galley for providing a copy of this book for review.

John Sandford hits another one out of the park! Lucas Davenport investigates the supposed accident involving a Senator and his friend, and in the process finds an elaborate plot involving an old nemesis.