Thiller, Suspense
The Prey Series
by John Sandford
26 Books (2017)
This series all takes place in chronological order and should be read in order. I'm usually not one for sticking with a book series or the same story/character over and over because I get bored, but these books have had me riveted from the very beginning. Currently I'm on book 14, Naked Prey. Sometimes another book will catch my attention and I'll read something else but I always come back to these. Maybe because I like Lucas Davenport, the main character.
Davenport is a cop/detective/special agent/other in Minneapolis. Like the character himself, his job changes and evolves throughout the series for the simple fact that he is excellent at finding and capturing the bad guy (or girl). He's known for his "unorthodox and manipulative behavior", kind of a "Dirty Harry". He's a tall, tanned, blue-eyed loner that trusts a small circle of capable police friends to help him finish his cases. Throw in some wry comments, quick thinking, and a little romance and he's perfect.
While some of the books are better than others, they are each a great read. I like that the characters are multi dimensional and that there's usually more going on than just the crime Davenport is solving. The books always capture my attention and bring me right into the world of Davenport's crime drama.
John Sandford is a great writer and, so far, has kept the characters (good and bad) interesting enough for me to want to keep reading.
When interviewed by Huffington Post, this is how Sandford described his villains.
"My villains are more of an engineering construct than anything coming from inspiration. When I’m setting up a book and thinking about what I want the villain to be, I will survey a range of possibilities. Will these be impulse murders? Is it going to be someone who has a psychotic break? Are the murders done for money, love, power or sexual gratification? I pick the gender of the person — it can be either a man or woman. The killer was a woman in my previous novel, Silken Prey. Then I assign the villain certain characteristics, which are mostly taken from people I didn’t like in the past."
Sandford was first known as journalist John Camp. He won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his five-part series about an American farm family faced with an agricultural crisis. He went on to start his novels with the Prey Series, then the Vigil Flowers series and others.
Photo from The Huffington Post
For more about John Sandford, check out his Website and Facebook Page.
Buy his books on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Read this article in the Huffington Post.
I would, so far, give this series a solid
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