Righteous Prey: A Lucas Davenport & Virgil Flowers thriller

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With bodies dropping across the country followed by press releases from The Five bragging about what they’re doing, the inevitable media shitstorm has started. When the latest victim is killed in Minnesota, our favorite Sandford heroes, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers, get called in to help the FBI, and the two cops end up following twisted trails across the US as they start running down The Five.

Righteous Prey by John Sandford - Publishers Weekly Righteous Prey by John Sandford - Publishers Weekly

In Righteous Prey, Sandford does a very good job of showing how even the best intentions/politics can be twisted by psychopathy into something deadly. The group of vigilantes at the heart of the novel are a bunch of bored, wealthy self-identifying “lefties”— sort of. It’s “left” in a very American way, in that they are against much of what the Republicans are for (guns, in particular). However, each of them is clearly messed up in their own ways, and decide to take it upon themselves to use that which they oppose to make their political points. It’s an intriguing premise, and one that Sandford pulls off rather well. It also takes us into the world of bitcoin millionaires — Sandford’s always been good at tapping into something contemporary that’s making waves/news, and injecting it into his novels in some way, while also passing comment on it.Lucas Davenport's old boss, Rose Marie Roux, has moved up to the state level and taken Lucas with her, creating a special troubleshooter job for him for the cases that are too complicated or politically touchy for others to handle. In addition, Lucas... Overall, for me the good things about Davenport and Flowers made the book worth reading, but they didn’t fully outweigh the weak vigilante team opposing them. My guess is that most Sanford fans will find this an easy and fun read, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that. But for me, this will not be one of the more memorable ones from a mystery perspective. For now, I will just look forward to Virgil’s budding career as a mystery writer, as well as how he and Lucas will physically and emotionally recover from their climax ending experiences from this book.

RIGHTEOUS PREY by John - Civilian Reader Quick Review: RIGHTEOUS PREY by John - Civilian Reader

This time, there's a storm brewing...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... We’re going to murder people who need to be murdered.” So begins a press release from a mysterious group known only as “The Five,” shortly after a vicious predator is murdered in San Francisco. The Five is believed to be made up of vigilante killers who are very bored… and very rich. They target the worst of society — rapists, murderers, and thieves — and then use their unlimited resources to offset the damage done by those who they’ve killed, donating untraceable Bitcoin to charities and victims via the dark net. The Five soon become the most popular figures on social media, a modern-day Batman…though their motives may not be entirely pure. Five millionaires meet at a Bitcoin conference and decide it might be a fun challenge to personally get rid of a few people who they think do not deserve to live for various reasons. What could go wrong? Fans of the Prey/Lucas Davenport series will already be familiar with Virgil Flowers as Davenport recruits him into the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. But before he joined the team, he was a US Army and military police officer, and he also had a stint as a cop in Saint Paul.While the murderers seem to well plan and meticulously carry out each murder with an eye for escaping identification, the person who killed Sikes made an uncharacteristic mistake, which through good police work, Davenport and Flowers uncover. That leads to the man’s identity. Eventually, thanks mostly to the efforts of Davenport and Flowers, the FBI accumulates enough evidence to arrest Sike’s killer and hopes they can pressure him into giving up his accomplices. But when he makes bail, someone murders him and he is only the first of The Five who becomes a murder victim in this complex plot. The good guys wonder if someone is cleaning up loose ends. The case takes Davenport and Flowers from coast to coast, along with points in between. Davenport is the kind of detective who prefers to work outside the established rules of the police force. He drives a Porsche and is something of a womanizer. Several of the books in the series cross over with Sandford's other series that focuses on Virgil Flowers. Things changed slightly when he decided to team up Lucas Davenport with Virgil Flowers – some I have liked better than others. This one has merit. I love Virgil Flowers. I love Lucas Davenport less, but only a titch. Put 'em together and my heart is all a-flutter; tie the action to the timely topic of cybercurrency and well, you've hooked me from the git-go. They call them Travelers. They move from city to city, panhandling, committing no crimes -- they just like to stay on the move. And now somebody is killing them.

Lucas Davenport / Prey Series in Order by John Sandford Lucas Davenport / Prey Series in Order by John Sandford

Righteous Prey is like the others, the conflict is well motivated and intriguing. It's also very, unique. I truly don't know where he comes up with some of these ideas. I love Davenport and Virgil Flowers each of which have their own series. They both appear in this one, play off each other and don't vary an inch from their already established characters. Sanford is one of the best out there and if you haven't given him a try you are missing out. Its better to start the Prey series from the beginning because Davenport's personal life continues to evolve. His Daughter Letty who appears in earlier books now has her own series. Love that one as well. I’ve been a Sandford and Davenport fan since reading my first Prey novel ( Rules of Prey, 1989) and I’ve read every book in the series since. This one is unique in that Sandford billed it as a Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers novel, which I found disappointing. Not that I don’t love the Virgil Flowers character. I do and I’ve read every book in that series too. But disappointing because I assume we won’t be getting a new Virgil Flowers novel this year. That’s probably because Sandford is working on his second Letty Davenport (Lucan Davenport’s adopted daughter) novel. But that’s okay, too. I loved the first one and am eager to read the next one. As always there is a sense of urgency to stop them before one more dead body is found while still delivering good humor and an interesting resolution.Lucas Davenport pursues a prolific serial killer who has gone undetected for years in the newest nail-biter by #1 NewYork Times bestselling author John Sandford. Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers team up again to go after a bunch of crazies. This time it is a little complicated because the bad guys are killing worse guys. So who are we suppose to root for? This was a further solid police procedural from veteran writer Sandford which continues the partnership linkup of his previous separate series characters Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers. The villains this time are a vigilante group whose connection is that they are Bitcoin millionaires who have decided to become thrill-seekers by assassinating selected "bad" people. The implausibility of that, plus the fact that they issue press releases to advertise their actions did keep this out of 5 star territory for me. But if there were no foolish villains leaving clues, there would be no book of course. Anyway, the main attraction is the team-up of Lucas and Virgil and their banter.