John Sandford (1) (1944–)

Once again, John Sandford has produced a great novel. That he's branched out with a series where Virgil Flowers is the main character is great. Of course Lucas Davenport, Shrake and Jenkins make an appearance, but Virgil's the star.
In the small town of Shinder, there appears to be a murder spree and it doesn't take long for Virgil to figure out who the culprits are, 3 teenagers. Rather than being an open and shut case, it soon is apparent that there is more to play than meets the eye. Where are they and what started it in the first place. As Virgil is trying to track them down, there are a lot of unpredictable twists and turns, which was a real surprise. Very original.… (plus d'informations)

Rules of Prey by John Sanford is a 1989 publication.

One of my book hobbies is reading through older, long-running series. Usually, that turns out to be cozy mysteries as some of them tend to go on for ages. But, instead of starting another cozy series, I decided to pick a different type of crime fiction series. This one has a whopping 34 installments- the latest sitting atop the NYT bestseller list, so I thought that made it a good pick.

Unfortunately, the jury is still out on this one…

This first installment seems basic, really, but that’s probably because I’ve read countless thrillers in which a serial killer is targeting women- and he has a type. It’s almost gotten to the point where I’m so desensitized to that type of reading material it very nearly elicits a yawn…

But… As though the author knew that this was an oversaturated trope- and would be for many decades to come- he shockingly begins the book with the voice of the killer- which grabs your attention immediately- and effectively– no matter how old or new the book is- or how many similar plotlines one has read. The inside of a killer’s mind is never a pleasant place to be.

From there, the novel slid down hill for a good while. Some of these problems might have been due to the age of the story. Davenport is not an easy character to love- or even like, for that matter, especially if you are a female reader who dislikes womanizers. Ugh- too much sleeping around for my taste.Ugh.

But it was the juvenile locker-room banter between cops that was the most annoying and offensive-and the expletives were far too frequemt for my taste. Ugh… again.

But despite all that, Davenport is a good detective, and I could see, despite some incohesive execution, why this series became so popular. I’m hoping that as the series progresses, some of the language, banter, and promiscuity trails off and the writing tightens up a bit. I have the first few books- but won’t look at adding more until I see how the series progresses from here.

Overall, despite the issues I had- most of which were a matter of personal taste-
I ended up liking the crime fiction parts- with Davenport and the killer dueling it out- so the cause is not lost… yet. I'm going to give it my best open-minded effort and hope the series gets better as it goes along because I was really hoping this one would work out.

3 stars… (plus d'informations)

The fate of the world and most of its inhabitants is the subject of Toxic Prey: A Lucas and Letty Novel by John Sandford. Dr. Lionel Scott has a vision to save a planet besieged by global warming and human overpopulation. Kill a lot of people. Create a new pandemic far more lethal and wider ranging than Covid. Kill billions of people to stop the strain on the world and possibly reverse the coming collapse.

Letty Davenport is sent to England by her boss, Senator Christopher Colles. Officially, she works for the Department of Homeland Security, but the reality is that she is sort of a fixer type for Colles. She is sent to England to talk to three of Lionel Scott’s friends and find out what they know about Scott and if they know where he is.

There is a concern as the good doc previously worked at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and was currently working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Scott is an infectious disease specialist and has a lot of knowledge in his head. That knowledge could be dangerous if used by others.

Met by Alec Hawkins of MI5, Letty is shown Oxford, and A few other things. It soon becomes clear that Lionel Scott has a history of depression and a fascination with the possibilities of the Gaia hypothesis.

Simplifying greatly, the theory is that the Earth is a living organism and all life on Earth live in a sort of harmony and are protected by the Earth. That balance has been destroyed by human overpopulation. If you remove billions of humans from the planet, the survivors would live in a world that would steadily improve as nature healed itself. Climate change would immediately stop and would probably reverse. Species and plants would rebound, improving the quality of life for the humans that remained. Those humans would have improved access to housing, resources, etc.

It becomes clear to Letty that Scott might be trying to make that event happen by way of a virus. He has the medical skills to engineer one. He probably has folks with him that believe in the same mission. She knows she needs help and starts raising the alarm.

Before long, Lucas Davenport, Letty, Hawkins, and many others are in New Mexico on Scott’s trail and trying to stop the end of the world before it starts.

A top-notch thriller that offers an all too real scenario, Toxic Prey is a mighty good read. Intense, often violent, it carries readers along at a rapid pace as Lucas, Letty, and others do everything they can to stop a group of people committed to wiping out the vast majority of the human population. Toxic Prey is not only a mighty good read, it is also a scary predicator of what could be done by one man with knowledge and resources easily bought online.

My digital ARC came by way of the publisher, G.P. Putnam's Sons, through NetGalley with no expectation of a review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024… (plus d'informations)

Lucas vs an Expected "Inferno"
Review of the Penguin Audio audiobook edition (April 9, 2024) narrated by [author:Robert Petkoff|2889695] of the simultaneously released G.P. Putnam's Sons hardcover/eBook.

John Sandford's Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers novels have often been annual favourites of mine in the suspense thriller genre. They often feature good comic banter to keep the mood light even when the main plots are police procedurals focusing on the pursuit of dangerous criminals. Very rarely there has been a dud along the way, the last being Neon Prey (#29 - 2019) which I reviewed as Only Half a Book, and a Repulsive One at that. Although Toxic Prey is certainly disturbing, I didn't totally dislike it. A 3-star "Liked It" would be a step too far though, so a 2 & 1/2 star it is.

Toxic Prey finds Lucas Davenport and fellow U.S. Marshal Rae Givens together with Davenport's adopted daughter Letty from Homeland Security and MI-5 agent Alec Hawkins seeking to stop a planned world-wide death pandemic virus lab-engineered by a mad scientist and his fellow cult of eco-terrorist believers. This is the tie-in to my lede which hints at Dan Brown's Inferno (2013) which had a similar plot of a population reduction virus.

The engineered virus (a fictional hybrid between Marburg and Measles) is expected to be so deadly that it would wipe out half the earth's population. This leads to some rather disturbing moral choices along the way. The several members of the cult have both infected themselves (having produced their own vaccine ahead of time) and are carrying several vials of the virus with the intention to spread it in transportation hubs such as airports.

The authorities are thus forced into situations of "shoot on sight", as even approaching the suspects becomes a guaranteed further spread of the possible infection. Though the cult is obviously mentally disturbed and dangerous (one is definitely murderous to begin with), it is not quite the same as hunting down vicious criminals. It just left me feeling empty somehow. That is not the feeling I usually expect in a Sandford book. Perhaps the absence of Virgil Flowers from this book also lowered the usual comic relief of cop banter. It became more of a cold-blooded hunt instead.

The audiobook edition is well narrated by the continuing new narrator Robert Petkoff, who takes over duties from the series regular narrator Richard Ferrone (1946-2022). I still miss Ferrone's gravelly voice which always added an additional gravitas to Davenport's voice.

Soundtrack
I didn't notice any musical references during this book unlike the previous book. However, in keeping with the theme, here is a listing of Best Apocalyptic Songs. Add your selections in the comments if you like.

Trivia and Links
There is an April 17, 2024 interview with author John Sandford about Toxic Prey by Barbara Peters at The Poisoned Pen Bookstore's YouTube channel which you can watch here.… (plus d'informations)