Wicked Prey

The Republican Convention in Minneapolis is the perfect time for a group of brutal robbers to score big time, and they don't care at all if murder is involved. At the same time, an ex-con who blames Lucas for all of his woes is determined to get revenge by kidnapping Letty and having his way with her before murdering her. While Lucas is drawing on all of his resources to track down the robber-killers before they get away, teenager Letty is doing her best to stop the guy who wants to kill her, and she doesn't really care who gets in her way.

Detective Lucas Davenport is on the outs with the department for doing his job too well. It's August 2008 in St. Paul and the Republicans are in town to nominate John McCain for president. Davenport had lobbied hard for extra manpower on the streets and as payback he's been sidelined.

Which leaves him free to deal with gate crashers like the neo-Nazi who's disappeared into the city with a .50 caliber sniper rifle. Or the cop-killing hold-up gang looking for one more big score to retire on. Or his ward - soon to be adopted daughter - Letty, who is 14 and growing up to be just like her adopted Dad, smart and devious.

Letty has gotten wind of a paraplegic, meth-addicted, psychopathic pimp's plot to revenge himself on Davenport through her. He blames Davenport for all the ills in his misbegotten life. Rather than bother her busy Dad with it, Letty decides to take on Randy Whitcomb herself, befriending Whitcomb's stable of prostitutes - consisting of one sad-sack teenage runaway.

John Sandford excels in painting the life of a law enforcement official, from the slow times of walking the beat to the climatic shootouts, and "Wicked Prey" is no exception. The writing style is so elegant in the portrayal of the life looking for criminals, hoping for breaks, and running around in the thick of chaos. As he has proven time and time again, nobody writes a better criminal apprehension story than John Sandford.

In this installment of John Sandford's Lucas Davenport murder mysteries, Davenport's ward Letty plays a central role and demonstrates considerable street smarts.

Great strong crime story of some very bad guys and the Detectives after them

The 19th Lucas Davenport novel. I'd totally missed this when it was published. I realized that when I was reading the 20th book (listed above). This is set during the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in 2008. A good story of murder and political greed.

I'm a fan of John Sandford and am always entertained with his stories. "Wicked Prey," is another winner.In 2008, the Republic National Convention comes to Minnesota bringing lobbyists with lots of money to pay for political favors. It also brings a gang of robbers who have already killed 2 armored car guards in New York.There are three story lines in the novel. First is the search for the robbers. Lucas Davenport and his group from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension lead the investigation.Second is of a paraplegic named Randy Whitcomb. Lucas Davenport arrested him and he was sent to jail. Thereafter his life spiraled downward. Finally he was shot by another cop and paralyzed. He blames it all on Lucas and vows revenge.The third aspect is a sniper who was bragging about himself. Secret Service tell Lucas that he's somewhere in Minnesota and they fear that he might have a target of a politician at the convention.In the middle of this, we see Lucas's family life as he and his wife enter the final stage of the adoption of their ward Letty who is now age fourteen.Letty has a large part in the story and shows herself to be an excellent character with the promise of becoming a good investigator in the future.Sandford always leaves me wanting more and with the good suspense, excellent character descriptions and well written plot, I look forward to the next reading experience involving his novels.

The Republicans are coming to St. Paul for their convention. Throwing a big party is supposed to be fun, but crashing the party are a few hard cases the police would rather stayed away. Chief among them is a crew of professional stock-up men who've spotted several lucrative opportunities, ranging from political moneymen with briefcases full of cash, to that convention hotel with the weakness in its security system. All that's headache enough for Lucas Davenport - but what's about to hit him is even worse. A while back, a stray bullet put a pimp and petty thief named Randy Whitcomb into a wheelchair, and ever since, the man has been nursing his grudge into a full head of psychotic steam.

The Republicans have come to town. The national convention has cops from neighboring states on the streets along with protesters and money men in the hotels. Money, big money, attracts thieves. And somehow, someone knows who the money men are and where they're staying. It's a political nightmare - the money men are yelling, the politicians are calling in favors, but no one wants to admit how much money is actually in play. For Davenport and the gang, tracking down the criminals gets serious fast when one of their own goes down.A cynical view of the political machine that's a lot more believable than the pap spewed by the networks. Excellent as always.

I've been enjoying the Prey series for about six or seven years now. Always fun for light reading. Lucas Davenport is sort of like Encyclopedia Brown---he never gets skunked. I think my favorites in the series are the ones with Clara Rinker, girl assassin, but all of them are good.This one has some laugh-out-loud guy banter, but Rosie Cruz gets the best line of all: "Ahhh, God. Men and their penises. If they didn't have them, we'd have to sew one on, just to give them something to talk about."

The 2008 Republican Convention is in Minneapolis and with it comes the threat of assassinations and riots. A band of thieves takes advantage of the chaos to stage several daring robberies. The story has a couple of subplots and Sandford does a good job of keeping all the balls in the air. A good entry in the series.

Letty. She's rather frustrating in this book. She mostly lucked out with her machinations and in the end believes it's because she was that good.Other than Letty, I think this was a pretty good story. Cohn and crew where worthy of Davenport's attention and skills. Randy was a crook you liked to hate and Cohn was a crook you almost wanted to like, but not quite. Lot's of action and plenty of wondering what was going to happen. I just hope this isn't the beginning of Letty becoming a 'Mary Sue'.

Wicked Prey is the first novel I've read by John Sandford. I wasn't sure about it at first because the characters were all introduced so quickly with physical descriptions like a rundown, but I got into it as the personalities developed. I think I read somewhere that this is the 19th in the Lucas Davenport series. I couldn't tell it because Davenport was not a really strong character in the book (probably because followers already know him so well). It was more about Letty, a girl he saved during a previous case and is now adopting with his wife. She was a little unrealistic because how does a 14-year-old street kid manage outsmart and "work" her detective father?Beyond that, I liked the book for a quick, enjoyable read. ***SPOILER ALERT*** I was disappointed that Cohn and Cruz died the way they did because they were too smart for that kind of ending. ***END OF SPOILER***Whitcomb, a paraplegic, meth-addicted, deranged pimp, was hilarious.

Wicked Prey is a disappointment, although it's still much superior to the standard-issue police procedural/crime thriller. In this 19th installment in the Lucas Davenport series, John Sandford again gives us memorable villains engaged in a complex, sophisticated plot to make out like, well, bandits at the 2008 Republican National Convention. The two ringleaders of this criminal band are especially well-drawn and compelling. In a classic Sandford configuration, the bad guys seem so on top of their game that nothing could possibly go wrong as they plan their heist, but then the exigencies and randomness of real life intervene, and things start to unravel . . . .Unfortunately, Wicked Prey's solid main plot is larded out with a parallel storyline involving Davenport's ward (and soon to be adopted daughter), Letty. She's turning out to be yet another in a long line of preternaturally smart, mature kids who infest American crime fiction. I don't know if Sandford is planning to turn her into a sort of Robin to Davenport's Batman, or if he's under pressure from his publisher to work in a character that will push sales with the younger crowd, but it doesn't work. The sections of the book that involve Letty -- and they are frequent -- are turgid and implausible. So this one's recommended, but with reservations.

"The Republicans are coming to St. Paul for their convention. Throwing a big party is supposed to be fun, but crashing the party are a few hard cases the police would rather stayed away. Chief among them is a crew of professional stickup men who've spotted several lucrative opportunities, ranging from political moneymen with briefcases full of cash to that armored-car warehouse with the weakness in its security system. All that's headache enough for Lucas Davenport - but what's about to hit him is even worse." "A while back, a stray bullet put a pimp and petty thief named Randy Whitcomb in a wheelchair, and, ever since, the man has been nursing his grudge into a full head of psychotic steam. He blames Davenport for the bullet, but it s no fun just shooting him. That wouldn't be painful enough. Not when Davenport has a pretty fourteen-year-old adopted daughter that Whitcomb can target instead." And then there' the young man with the .50 caliber sniper rifle and the right-wing-crazy background, roaming through a city filled with the most powerful politicians on earth.

The 19th installment in the Luccas Davenport series gives us an interesting issue to deal with - at the Republican convention (as at the democrat's one) there are guys with suitcases of cash, giving out money to people for pizza, taxi's and generally smoothing the way. But the money is illegal, so what would happen if it was stolen? I found the criminals less interesting this time, and the Letty/ Randy/ Juliet side story very intense, but I love the dialogue, that always rings true for me, and I love how smart Davenport is, and how the women in his life still ring circles around him. I'm glad that Sandford brought back Letty and found something to do with her. I felt that he didn't quite know what to do with a faithful Lucas so he just kept Weather out of the way. Indeed she wasn't very present here, but the routine of Lucas's life felt true. I read it in a day, and look forward to the next one!

It's always a pleasure when an established genre writer finds a new way to energise their stories. Wicked Prey starts with three stories; an assassination plot, a planned heist and a personal vendetta to be settled with Davenport, the agent central the series. The heist thread is pure Sandford, with a merciless group staying one step of the authorities and providing the adrenaline for the novel. The robbers are well characterised and the narrative engaging, creating some real tension between them and the authorities - riveting reading. If that wasn't enough, the vendetta thread opens up space for Letty, Davenport's ward, to propel a storyline of her own, a moral dilemma, with a hard edge. Altogether these strands entwine creating a narrative which is a pleasure to read. Another highpoint in an already excellent series.

Another terrific piece of writing - although getting more violent - and smuttier as he goes. What's with him? - It's like he's trying to keep up with the 'off the deep end' reality TV shows with its dirt bag attraction to sex. And Lucas' bratty new step-daughter, Letty, would last around five minutes in my house. But I like his writing!

Once again John Sandford leaves me wanting more. I really enjoy the fact that at the end he was kind of leaving the story open for another possible series. This one featuring the protagonist of the Prey series adopted daughter Letty. Now Letty may be adopted but she is truly Davenports daughter. If he should happen to decide to finally write a series with a female lead character I am so there.Mr Sandford develops all of the characters in his novels including the transient one so much that by the time the novel is done you feel that you know them. Lucas Davenport is a tough talking no nonsense police officer that doesn't deal well with idiots or bad guys. And Lord help you if ou hurt someone he loves.I can only say that no matter how many Lucas Davenport novels I read I always am ready for the next one.

Too many story lines going on at once. Confusing without adding to the main plot. Too long and not very plausible.

Not the best Davenport mystery, but Letty is an interesting character that will develop I hope. I always read them ASAP however.

Not one of my favorites, but you do have to understand I like all of the Davenport books. Sandford (Camp) is one author that gets purchased in hardcover on day of release. Lawrence Block is another and John Scalzi just joined the que.