It always brings a smile to my face, whether I'm at the library or Hannaford, when someone comes up to me and wants to share a new mystery novel or author they like.  

A while back one such person shared her love of the John Sandford “Prey” series. It piqued my interest. I had read a few of Sandford's novels but not one from his “Prey” series.  

The blurb on the jacket caught my attention. “A diver is spotted alone, without a boat in the middle of the ocean. When three Guardsmen come to investigate and are shot and killed the FBI enters along with protagonist Lucas Davenport. Davenport is a  maverick detective with the Minneapolis P.D. who prefers to work outside the established rules of the police force.”

I have now read numbers 1 thru 5 and skipped to his latest “Ocean Prey.”

John Sandford (John Roswell Camp) was born and raised in Iowa. He was the winner of the Distinguished Writer's Award of the American Society Newspaper Editor for 1985.  He received a Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1986 and was one of four finalists in 1980.  

There are currently 31 novels in the “Prey” series.  The first, “Rules of Prey,” was published in 1989 and is still popular today. “Ocean Prey” came out in 2021. Sandford has also written two additional series. One stars detective “Virgil Flowers” who sometimes appears with Lucas Davenport in the “Prey” series. There are currently 12 novels in this series.

For the young at heart, meet computer genius Kidd and Cat Burglar LuEllen in the “Kidd” series.  Currently this series has four titles. John and his wife Michele Cook co-authored and completed three novels in the “Singular Menace” series.

I have lots of catching up to do with the “Prey” series, only 25 more to go.

Happy reading mystery lovers!

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