Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces to track down a ruthless killer who will do whatever it takes to keep the past buried, in this latest thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.
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.
The series
The Lucas Davenport series drops readers into a world where intelligence, impatience, and moral compromise collide. From the first pages, these novels establish a distinctive rhythm, fast moving, observant, and quietly unsettling. Crime is not treated as a puzzle to be neatly solved, but as a disruptive force that ripples outward, affecting institutions, relationships, and the people tasked with restoring order.
Read full series description
At the center of the series is an investigator who refuses to fit comfortably into a single role. He is sharp, strategic, and often steps outside conventional boundaries, not out of recklessness, but because he understands how power actually works. Across the books, his career evolves alongside shifting political landscapes and changing methods of crime, giving the series a sense of forward motion rather than repetition. The cases grow more complex, and so does the cost of solving them.
What sets this series apart is its atmosphere. The Midwest settings feel authentic and grounded, shaped by seasons, bureaucracy, and social tension. Violence arrives suddenly and leaves consequences behind, never glossed over or romanticized. The prose is lean and precise, influenced by investigative journalism, with scenes that trust the reader to keep up rather than slowing down to explain every move.
Themes of control, obsession, and ethical gray areas run through the novels, creating a tone that is both suspenseful and reflective. Law enforcement is shown as effective but imperfect, driven by individuals whose decisions carry lasting weight. This balance between momentum and introspection has helped the series resonate with readers who want crime fiction that feels intelligent and uncomfortably real.
Spanning decades of storytelling, the Lucas Davenport novels have helped shape modern crime fiction by proving that long running series can grow darker, sharper, and more relevant over time. They offer gripping investigations, but more importantly, they explore what happens to a person who lives too long at the edge of violence, and why stepping back is never as easy as it sounds.
#1 · 1989Rules of Prey 
#2 · 1990Shadow Prey 
#3 · 1991Eyes of Prey 
#4 · 1992Silent Prey 
#5 · 1993Winter Prey 
#6 · 1994Night Prey 
#7 · 1995Mind Prey 
#8 · 1996Sudden Prey 
#9 · 1998Secret Prey 
#10 · 1999Certain Prey 
#11 · 2000Easy Prey 
#12 · 2001Chosen Prey 
#13 · 2002Mortal Prey 
#14 · 2003Naked Prey 
#15 · 2004Hidden Prey 
#16 · 2005Broken Prey 
#17 · 2007Invisible Prey 
#18 · 2008Phantom Prey 
#19 · 2009Wicked Prey 
#20 · 2010Storm Prey 
#21 · 2011Buried Prey 
#22 · 2012Stolen Prey 
#23 · 2013Silken Prey 
#24 · 2014Field of Prey 
#25 · 2015Gathering Prey 
#26 · 2016Extreme Prey 
#27 · 2017Golden Prey 
#28 · 2018Twisted Prey 
#29 · 2019Neon Prey 
#30 · 2020Masked Prey 
#31 · 2021Ocean Prey 
#32 · 2022Righteous Prey 
#33 · 2023Judgment Prey 
#34 · 2024Toxic Prey 
#35 · 2025Lethal Prey 
#36 · 2026Revenge Prey 
#37 · 2027Ruthless Prey 
#38 · 2027Lucas Davenport Book 38 Be the first reviewer
Sign in and write the first reader review.
