Stolen Prey by John Sanford

Stolen Prey is John Sanford’s 22^nd in his prey series featuring Lucas Davenport.  By this point in his career with Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Lucas handles politically sensitive and media frenzied cases… and pretty much whatever else he chooses.

Lucas is out jogging one evening and stops at an ATM to withdraw $500.  A pair of tweekers who smell of horse manure mug him breaking his wrist and bruising his ego.  He is between big cases worthy of his skill set so he hyper focuses on finding the petty but smelly thieves.

Then in Wayzata, a small upscale suburb of Minneapolis, an entire family is violently tortured and murdered… husband, wife, two daughters and their dogs.  The brutality of the crime suggests drug lord revenge killings and the husband’s vocation, owner of a Spanish language software company, implies Mexican money laundering.  The DEA sends auditors to inspect the company’s books and the Mexican Federale send two of their own investigators.

Financial forensics reveal a group of hackers employed by a Minnesota bank has diverted $22 million away from a Mexican drug cartel.  The cartel has sent a trio of vicious assassins to find the hackers, retrieve their money and kill everyone remotely associated with the heist.  Lucas’ tenacity in hunting down the killers ultimately makes himself and his family targets of the cartel… much more personal than he ever imagined.

 

Stolen Prey is just one more good read in what we’ve grown to expect from John Sanford.  His self-important, over confident protagonist, Lucas Davenport, once again redeems himself by delivering on the big case.  But more importantly we feel for him for what he risks and almost loses to get there… great entertainment.