"Lethal Prey" by John Sanford

 

I just finished reading this latest offering in author John Sandford's series featuring Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers.

This one features a twenty-one year old cold case that is reopened when the victim's twin sister offers a $5 million dollar reward to anyone who can provide leads that will solve the case and identify her sister's murderer.  The twist is that she makes this offer via the internet and opens the door to the vast army of True Crime bloggers and podcasters that exist out there in the ether. (Might Sanford have been inspired by "Only Murders In The Building"? Probably not.)

Bringing these "true crimers" into the mix gives Sanford a chance to interject some humorous commentary into the story, and, lo and behold, they also serve to aid Lucas and Virgil, who have been given the assignment by Minnesota Senator Elmer Henderson - it seems that the surviving twin is a major donor to the Senator - to oversee the investigation.  Of course, the killer is still very much among us, may kill again now that things have reopened, and may pose a threat to both the true crimers and Lucas and Virgil.

I will say that this is a terrific entry in the "Prey" series.  I will say no more about the plot but will leave you with two thoughts.  One, many may find the ending unsatisfactory, but I found it to be a really intriguing one, and two, what is next for Virgil Flowers?

Four Stars from The  Grandstander.

Two Winners for Your Entertainment Pleasure

 "She Said"

"She Said" was a movie from last year, 2022, that was sadly ignored during the Awards Season.  Directed by Maria Schrader, it tells the story of New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, played by Carrie Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, who investigated the story and did the reporting on the sexual abuses perpetuated by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.  A story that led to Weinstein's imprisonment, and which was largely responsible for the sparking of the #MeToo movement.

Carrie Mulligan is a terrific actress.  She looks different in every movie she does, it seems (think 2020's "Promising Young Woman"), and she is always good.

In addition to this being a good story, it is also a great "newspaper movie" in the tradition of "All The President's Men" and "Spotlight".  Maybe not quite on the level of those two, but not far below them either.  Makes you realize just how important newspapers are in our world.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

"Righteous Prey" by John Sandford

Somehow I missed it when Sandford's thirty-second Lucas Davenport novel was published last Fall, but I finally caught up with it, and it was a great read.  I am happy to say this because the last couple of Davenport stories have been a bit disappointing to me.  Not so this one.

The story involves a group of highly organized, highly secret, and very wealthy folks who call themselves The Five are behind a string of serial killings that are happening all across the United States.  One of these murders takes place in Minnesota, and that brings about the involvement of Federal Marshall Lucas Davenport and his old sidekick from the Minnesota   Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Virgil Flowers.   The two of them working in concert with the FBI and local law enforcement agencies cover ground from Minnesota to San Diego to San Francisco and, finally, to Long Island in tracking down The Five and their organizer/leader,  Vivian Zhao.

It's a can't-put-it-down story.  I knocked it off in about three sittings.  It makes me look forward to the next one, due out later this year.  Among other reasons, I can't wait for it is to see what the next development will be in a seemingly new career for Virgil Flowers.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Book Review - "Ocean Prey" by John Sandford

 (This post contains no spoilers.)

Did you ever go to a movie that you enjoyed, and then learned after the fact that the original director's cut of the movie was something like three and a half hours long, and all you can think of is that the movie you liked would have been God-awful at 3 and 1/2 hours long, and thank God for editing?

Well, that is how I felt after reading John Sandford's newest Lucas Davenport novel, "Ocean Prey."  At 420 pages in length, this one was too long by about 50-75 pages.

The story:  three US Coast Guardsmen are murdered in cold blood by drug runners in Florida, who are seeking to pick up vast numbers of kilos of pure heroin that were dropped of the coast by drug dealers from Mexico (or maybe they were from Venezuela or Colombia) on the ocean floor at a specified GPS location. The FBI is gaining no traction on finding the killers so the US Marshalls Service, in the person of Lucas Davenport, is called into the case.  The Marshalls recruit Minnesota state police detective Virgil Flowers to go undercover and pose as an expert scuba diver to infiltrate the scumbag drug dealers who killed the Coast Guard guys.  The case has expanded to not only find the killers, but to recover the remaining sealed kilos of heroin on the ocean floor AND tie it all back to a Mafia kingpin who is in New York City.  There were more layers to this story than a debutante's wedding cake.

Did you get confused and tired just reading that above paragraph?  Just imagine plowing through 420 pages of it, and I left out the pages and pages and PAGES of intricate detail involving the technical difficulties in scuba diving in the ocean when a diver goes beyond depths of 50 feet....and 100 feet....and 120 feet...and 150 feet.  "ENOUGH ALREADY" you wanted to  scream.  I have loved the Sandford/Davenport Prey series over the years and usually finish them in two or three sittings.  This one took over a week and days went by where I wouldn't even pick the book back up to resume reading.  My wife, also a fan of the series, had the same reaction.

All that said, however, when Sandford finally got around to bringing this story to a conclusion,  he reverted to form and the last fifty or so pages were slam-bang top shelf stuff.  If only he could have pared it  down a bit and made the entire book like that.  Oh, and be sure to read the "Author's Note" at the end of the book.  It's kind of funny.

I also have to say that Lucas Davenport, the character, has taken a bit of a dark turn. It started in the previous novel, "Masked Prey" where Lucas went rogue to take down the bad guys, and it has continued to the point where even the other characters in the story are commenting upon it.  Makes me wonder where Sandford is leading us.

If you are a devoted fan of Sandford's Davenport "Prey" novels, you have to read this one, but to this reader at least, it was a disappointment.

One and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

"Masked Prey" by John Sandford

Every spring I look forward to the publication of a new Lucas Davenport thriller by John Sandford. This year, and especially in this year of pandemic and social isolation, was no exception.  So it is with disappointment that I have to say this this 29th tale in the Davenport Saga came as a, well, disappointment. 

(By the way, as Sandford was writing this one, I'm sure he couldn't have begun to imagine the irony of the title of this book released in America in April, 2020.)

Federal Marshall Lucas is called to investigate the seeming threats that are being made by an Alt-Right website against the children of members of Congress.  We are then led into an exploration of these hate groups and the sub-culture of Second Amendment Gun Nuts that seem to be proliferating EVERYWHERE Lucas and his colleagues turn.  That's fine, in and of itself, but then Sandford has Lucas bring the case to a conclusion in what was a disappointing way, to me at least.  I can't say more than that without giving a major spoiler.  If you are a fan of the series, by all means read it, and perhaps you will disagree with me, which is okay.  Let's just say that this is one that I won't be rereading at any point in the future, but hey, even Sandy Koufax got batted around every once in awhile.

The Grandstander gives this one only Two Stars, but I would like to quote one bit of dialog from early in the book that I really liked.  After interviewing US Senator Roberta Coil, whose daughter is one of the threatened, Lucas has this exchange with her:

"...we're dealing with crazy people with guns..."

"Why do crazy people have guns?"  Coil asked.

"You'd know the answer to that better than I would, Senator," Lucas said.

"Neon Prey" by John Sandford

I just finished reading "Neon Prey", the twenty-ninth novel by John Sandford featuring his creation, Lucas Davenport, now a U.S. Marshall.  If you are familiar with the Sandford/Davenport canon, this one gives you exactly what you have come to expect....heinous and loathsome villains, lots of snappy dialogue from Lucas and his colleagues, and lots of violent and often disturbing action.

In this one, Lucas is sent on the trail of a particularly nasty serial killer.  Along the way, he runs into a particularly nasty gang of home invasion criminals, and a "dumb blonde" moll of the gang who may not be as dumb as she seems.  The case takes him from the steamy bayous of Louisiana, to the wealthy enclaves of Los Angeles, the bright lights of Las Vegas, and the searing Nevada desert.

The story hits on a recurring theme of Sandford's - that even the most vile and terrible criminals are not especially bright, even if they can avoid the long arm of the law for over 300 pages of a 390 page book, and that there is no honor  - none! - among thieves.

A full Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Kwickie Commentaries

The Grandstander recommends a movie and two books for you.....

"Ocean's 8" follows a familiar formula, a caper theme along the lines of a the recent "Ocean's 11" George Clooney flicks, only this time, it's an all female cast with Sandra Bullock playing Debbie Ocean, Danny's sister, who has recently been sprung from jail and calls on a crew of other great looking dames to pull of a monumental heist.

Derivative and unoriginal?  Maybe, but also very stylish, great to look at, entertaining and just a lot of fun to watch. Bullock's crew consists of Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, and Rhianna.  Also, Anne Hathaway does a great turn as the dupe in the entire caper. 

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Summer vacations and beach and pool time looms ahead.  Here's two great reads for you.....

"Twisted Prey" is the twenty-eight novel in John Sandford's series featuring Lucas Davenport.  Formerly a detective with the Minnesota state police, this is the third novel where Lucas is in his new role as US Marshall.  An old foe of Lucas' appears in the novel that features an attempted political assassination, scarier than hell para-military types, the aforementioned past foe, and all sorts of political treachery.  

You might think that after twenty-eight novels a series like this would lose its steam, but Sandford and Davenport show no signs of needing to be out to pasture.

Three and one-half stars form The Grandstander.

Peter Swanson writes stand-alone thrillers, usually with a New England setting. In "All The Beautiful Lies", a young man, Harry, who is about to graduate from college in Connecticut, is called home to the Maine coast because of the accidental death of his father.  Harry must overcome his feelings of loss, while dealing with his sexy step-mother, Alice (only thirteen years older than he!), and a mysterious and beautiful young woman who shows up at his Dad's funeral.  

The chapters of the book alternate between "Now" as Harry deals with the death of his father, including the revelation that his death might not have been accidental, and "Then" where we are told of Alice and her upbringing, including a rather skeevy relationship with HER step-father, and how she came to meet and marry Harry's father.

Thrilling and suspenseful and fast read.  I finished it in two days.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Two Book Reviews for You

When we left Lucas Davenport in 2015 in the book "Gathering Prey", after having had enough of bureaucratic b.s., he had resigned from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation with a classic two sentence letter of resignation.  (In the second sentence, he told his boss to "go _____ himself", and who among us hasn't dreamed of doing that?)  Anyway, who knew where John Sandford was going to take his creation in this latest book.

Turns out, Elmer Henderson, the Governor of Minnesota, is still a fan of Lucas, and he calls upon the now retired detective to help him out with a problem that he, the Governor, thinks he may have discovered as he runs for President in the run up to the Iowa Caucuses.  Governor Henderson, who we met in a previous book, is a colorful character (think Roger Sterling from "Mad Men"), and what he is really hoping is that the front running character Michaela Bowden (think "Hillary Clinton") will choose him to be her Vice President, has encountered a couple of odd characters who may be out to kill his rival, Bowden.  So Henderson reaches out to Davenport, who is busy remodeling his fishing cabin in the Minnesota woods, to investigate the matter.

We then watch Lucas work with the security forces of Bowden's campaign and the Iowa police, as they investigate some fringe political action groups in Iowa to see if, indeed, there really is a serious threat against candidate Bowden.  We also see the actions of the plotters themselves.  This, by the way, is not to be considered a spoiler.  There is such a plot, and we learn about it and meet the plotters themselves in the very first chapter.  The fun and excitement of the story is watching Lucas and the cops investigate the plan, learn who the bad guys are, and their efforts to stop the assassination attempt.  In the course of his investigation, Lucas also uncovers the solution to a long ago crime that has haunted and frustrated Iowa law enforcement for close to three decades.

This is the twenty-sixth Lucas Davenport novel from Sandford.  It isn't easy to sustain a series over that many years and that many books, and not all of the Prey novels are home runs, but I have to say that with "Extreme Prey", both Sandford and Davenport are both at the very top of their games.  And to make us all want for more, Sandford has given us a hint as to what awaits the still retired Lucas in future stories.  Can't wait 'til next Spring for the next one.

Four stars all the way for "Extreme Prey".

********

I heard "American Pharoah" author Joe Drape interviewed on the radio about this book a few weeks ago, and it prompted me to immediately order it.

The book opens with a rather detailed description of the encounter in a Kentucky horse farm breeding shed between a stallion named Pioneer of the Nile and a mare named Littleprincessemma in March 2011.  The result of that encounter was the birth of a colt on February 2, 2012.  The people who surrounded that colt saw, almost from the very beginning, that this horse was something special, and they were right, for that horse, American Pharoah became in 2015, the twelfth thoroughbred race horse, and the first one in thirty-seven years to win the Triple Crown of racing.

This book is not only the story of the horse, but also the story of owner Ahmed Zayat, trainer Bob Baffert, jockey Victor Espinoza, and the story of the various and sundry characters that populate the world of thoroughbred racing.  It is a strange world where everyone in it is fabulously wealthy, but where nobody seems to  make any money, and where wealthy owners always seem to miss making payments to the trainers to whom they entrust their valuable pieces of horseflesh.

Ultimately, though, it is the story of an amazing horse, American Pharoah.  When I read this week that during this Kentucky Derby Week of 2016, Baffert was looking forward to visiting the stud farm were American Pharoah, whom he has not seen since last October, I could understand how emotional he was in the reunion.

I am not a follower of the Sport of Kings, save for the five weeks every Spring when the Triple Crown is contested, so I found this book to be a fascinating look at a pretty much unknown world to me.  It was not a well written as Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit" of a few years back, but still, a pretty good read.

Two and on-half stars for "American Pharoah".

Recent Books and Movies

Time to catch up on some recently read books and recently viewed movies.

First in the store will be Gillian Flynn's first novel, "Sharp Objects".  Ms. Flynn is the author of the amazingly successful best seller, "Gone Girl", which was her third novel and which I liked but found the characters to be remarkably unlikable.  I thought I would try "Sharp Objects", and guess what?  All the characters in this one were pretty much unlikable, too.  The story is about a young female reporter who returns to her small hometown in Missouri to report on a couple of murders of young girls in the town.  It is a good mystery, well written but, as I said, you can't really root for anybody in this one.  This won't stop me from reading Flynn's second novel, "Dark Places", but I'm going to wait a while before I do.  I mean, reading about the people about whom she writes kind of takes a lot out of you.

Next up is John Sandford's latest Virgil Flowers story, "Storm Front".

This one involves the theft of an archaeological relic from a dig in Israel.  The stone, and the guy who stole it, winds up in Minnesota, and Virgil has to recover the item and return it to the Israeli curator who has traveled to Minnesota to get it.  There is less violence in this one than usual in a Sandford story, and this one, in my opinion does not live up to the usual standards of a Virgil Flowers case.  Virgil is still a great character, and the dialog, as usual, is terrific, so if you are a fan, you need to read it.  However, if you are just going to dive in and "meet" Virgil Flowers and John Sandford, you need to start with earlier stories in the series.

A chance run through the TV remote last weekend landed me on C-SPAN's Book TV where I discovered a panel discussion about the JFK assassination, which led me to get this book:

Aynesworth is a Dallas newspaper reported/columnist who found himself in Dealey Plaza that November 22 morning fifty years ago.  He did some of the very first reporting on those events, and he has found himself pretty much wrapped up in this story ever since.  This book tells about the reporting that he did covering the shooting of the President, the shooting of police officer J.D. Tippett, the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, his meetings with people like Ruby, Margueritte Oswald, Marina Oswald, and various cops, FBI agents, and others who were a part of that story.  Aynesworth also, for better or worse, has found himself tracking down every oddball conspiracy story that has emerged over these past fifty years.  (It started, believe it or not, when some nut showed up at Aynesworth's home on the very evening of 11/22/63 claiming he had evidence of a conspiracy to kill the President.)

If you are a conspiracy buff, this book will disappoint you, as Aynesworth tells you that he has never found anything that purports to show anything other than what the Warren Commission reported - that lone gunman / total loser Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone when he shot and killed President Kennedy.  And he pretty much lays waste to New Orleans District Attorney  Jim Garrison and his theories, which were made more famous by Oliver Stone's "JFK" movie.  

I'm in Aynesworth's camp on this one.

As to movies, we took in two this past week, "Last Vegas" and "Gravity".  The silly one first.

Lifelong boyhood pals Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline, known as the "Flatbush Four" get together for a weekend in Las Vegas to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Douglas, who just got engaged to a woman half his age.  Old friendships never die, despite some resentments, is the theme of this one.  While the four stars can claim six Oscars among them, this is no Oscar winner, but it's always fun to watch four great actors do their thing, and the movie was funny and enjoyable to watch.  A good time!

We also took in box office and critical smash, "Gravity". 

I will start by saying that this movie is visually beautiful, almost stunning, with its views of Earth from outer space.  It will probably win a boatload of awards for design and cinematography.  It was also tension filled and gripping as you watched to see just what was going to happen. When it was all over, though, we both found ourselves saying, "wasn't much of a story".  I suspect that we will be outliers with this point of view, but before you push back at me, let me offer this juxtaposition.

In the car on the way home, I said that as really gripping space stories go, Ron Howard's 1995 movie "Apollo 13" was better than this one, and I made a mental note to pull out the DVD and watch it again soon.  Then, as fate would have it, the performance of the Pitt Panthers at Georgia Tech last night caused me to reach for the TV remote, and guess what was on one of HBO's sub-channels?  You guessed it:

Don't get me wrong, "Gravity" is worth seeing, if only for the technical wizardry that produced it, so go see it.  But "Apollo 13" will give you a better ride.

One man's opinion.

Book Review: "Silken Prey" by John Sandford (No Spoilers)

I have just finished John Sandford's latest Lucas Davenport novel, "Silken Prey", and, once again, Sandford and Davenport have hit one out of the park.

The novel begins with a political dirty trick in a knock down, drag out US Senate race in Minnesota.   Child pornography has been found on the office computer of the incumbent Senator.  Is it his? Or, was it planted there by an operative of the challenger's?  And  on top of everything else, one of those political operatives seems to have turned up missing.  The Governor of Minnesota, Elmer Henderson, asks Lucas to investigate the matter and try to clean it all up before Election Day, a mere eight days away.

In conducting his investigation, Lucas discovers just what a blood sport Politics is, and realizes how his career could be on the line depending on how the whole mess turns out.

Other Sandford characters make appearances, including Virgil Flowers, and Kidd, an artist and part time computer hacker, and his wife, Lauren, who has a very interesting background herself.  Kidd is the subject of about a half dozen other Sandford novels.  I have not read any of those, but I think I am going to have to give them a whirl.  My favorite character, however, may be that of Governor Henderson.  He has some great lines of dialog in this book, and I kept picturing him  as John Slattery, the guy who plays Roger Sterling on "Mad Men".  His lines are that good!  The door is also left open so that one of these characters may appear again to bedevil Lucas in future "Prey" novels.

As I said, "Silken Prey" is another home run for John Sandford.  Read it.

Book Review: "Mad River" by John Sandford

John Sandford has delivered to us another book featuring Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Virgil Flowers, and, as always, Sandford has hit another solid extra base hit to his loyal readers.

In this book, three young rural Minnesota kids, two guys and girl, begin a spree of murder and robbery in rural Minnesota that has the press dubbing them a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.  BCA Chief Lucas Davenport (the star of Sandford's  other series) dispatches Virgil to track down these killers before the death toll gets higher.  

In "Mad River" we get to see Virgil interact with his parents, meet up with an old girl friend, do battle with the local police as well as the three punk killers, tries to find out just what started this killing spree in the first place, and makes some very interesting observations about how people turn out and deal with the lot in life that has been dealt them, often times from the moment of their birth.

Once again, if you like to read thrillers/mysteries/police stories but have never read John Sandford, I urge you to do so. There is a great body of work out their featuring Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers.  You will not be disappointed.

Book Reviews: John Sandford, Robert Crais, and Robert J. Randisi

I had mentioned a few days back that I did a lot of reading on my vacation last week, and I know that you have all been anxiously awaiting what I have to say about what I read.  Here goes...




Let's start with John Sandford's newest Lucas Davenport novel, "Stolen Prey".  Regular readers know what a big fan I am of this series, and this latest entry doesn't disappoint.  It seems that soldiers from the Mexican Drug cartels have found their way to the Twin Cities, and are involved with the theft of vast sums of money via money laundering and leaving a path of horrible, violent death and destruction in their path.  It is up to Lucas and his BCA to work with both federal and Mexican law enforcement agencies to bring these people to justice, and, in the process, recover some $22 million in stolen, laundered money.


There is also a smaller, secondary crime under investigation and Lucas enlists his man Virgil Flowers to resolve it.  While this is a personal matter to Lucas, he is too busy with Mexican drug case, so from time to time, we hear, via Lucas' and Virgil's phone conversations, how this case is being investigated and eventually resolved.


If I have one beef with this book, it is that Sandford spends an inordinate amount of time discussing the mechanics of money laundering.  I know what money laundering is, but, even though I consider myself a reasonably intelligent fellow, I get lost when someone tries to explain how  money laundering gets done.  Just tell me "these people are laundering money" and spare me the pages and pages of how-to details.




The next book was Robert Crais' "The First Rule". Crais writes about a Los Angeles private eye named Elvis Cole and Cole's sidekick, Joe Pike.  Some of the books have Cole as the  featured character, while others have Pike.  As you can see from the cover, this was a "Joe Pike Novel" with Cole being the secondary character.  While it was an eminently readable story - i finished it in two days - I can't say that I'm crazy about the characters.  Cole seems reasonable enough, but Pike is so unbelievably smart, tough, indestructible, and unbeatable, that he is also unbelievable.  He is Steve McGarrett on steroids, and, in fact, he makes McGarrett look like a world class wuss.  So, if I try Crais again, it may be one of his novels wherein Cole, and not Pike, is the star of the show.


However, the most interesting book that I read last week may have been this one:


 

This is an old book, published in 1999 that I found in the second hand book store when I was looking for beach reading before we left for the Outer Banks.  The story itself was nothing special - a serial killer is on the loose in New York City and one determined NYPD detective is determined to track him down and bring him to justice.  It was entertaining and quick reading, another that I read in just two days, and it did have a surprise twist at the very end that was a bit of a "wow", but the real intriguing part of this book is the author himself.  Something made me Google Robert J. Randisi when I finished the book, and what I found was a revelation.


Randisi is 61 years old, has been writing since he was in high school and was first published when he was 23.  Since that time he has written, and written, and written some more.  He has had over 500 novels published in his life, and short stories too numerous to even count.  There have been years when he has had as many as 27 novels published.  He founded a professional organization called the Private Eye Writers of America, but he also has written over 300 westerns.  He has written a series of a half-dozen or so books called "Rat Pack Mysteries" where, yes, Frank, Dean, and Sammy, solve crimes.  There was even a period back in the '70's where he wrote a series of short stories for an adult publication called "Beaver Magazine".  Yes, he created a Porn Private Eye!  As he put it, they enabled him to make the mortgage payments for those months back then.


He has been called the "last of the great pulp writers", and he has been called a hack.  However you want to label him, I am in awe of someone with the ability to churn out, if not great literature, then at least entertaining fiction, at such an astounding rate.  Amazing!

Book Review: "Shock Wave"

I recently finished reading John Sandford's newest novel, "Shock Wave." Earlier in the year, I had read an reviewed Sandford's other book this year, "Buried Prey", which featured Sandford's signature character, Minnesota police detective chief Lucas Davenport. "Shock Wave" features Sandford's other series character, police detective Virgil Flowers.

(See http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-review-buried-prey.html)

Flowers was actually a minor character in the Davenport books who Sandford, I am happy to say, decided to spin off in his own series of novels. He still works for Davenport in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), and Lucas appears "off-screen" in these novels, usually as a sort of sounding board for Virgil as he conducts his investigations.

In this novel, a huge big box retailer, PyeMart, is planning on opening a new store in the small Minnesota town of Butternut Falls. Having this store in the community would virtually destroy existing small businesses in the community and, essentially, ruin the lives of many, many people in the town. So someone intends to stop it by planting bombs at both PyeMart headquarters and at or near the proposed construction site. Several people have been killed by these bombs. Finding the bomber is Virgil's job.

It's a great story with terrifically drawn characters. (There is one scene where Virgil is interviewing a teen aged boy who is working as a desk clerk at the motel where he is staying about a woman who might be somehow involved with a possible suspect. It is a classic scene.) This is the I believe the fifth Virgil flowers novel that Sandford has written, and while they are not yet quite the equal of the Lucas Davenport "Prey" novels, they are rapidly closing in on them.

Check them out.

By the way, when I read stories with series characters like these, I always try to picture the actors who would portray them if they were made into movies. I always had a hard time coming up with an actor for Lucas Davenport. I have recently earned that USA Network has made a movie of the book "Certain Prey" and that it will star Mark Harmon as Lucas. It will air next Sunday, November 6. I'm thinking that Harmon might be a little too old for the part, but I am also thinking that he just may be able to pull it off. I'm looking forward to watching it.