Silken Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel (The Prey Series Book 23)

I love this author and this series. I have read all the Prey books and all of the Virgil Flowers books. I have not yet read his Kidd series. This one was not what I consider a "typical Prey book". It was well written and I loved the characters. But this one was slower paced than most of Lucas' stories.Silken Prey is a political story. Porter Smalls is the current senator of Minnesota. He is at the end of his campaign for re-election and way ahead in the polls. When a scandal rocks his political and possibly his personal future. Child porn is found on his office computer.Taryn Grant is a billionaire heiress, who has never been told no, nor has she ever been denied anything she wants. And now she wants to be the new senator from Minnesota. And eventually president of the United States. But no matter how much money she throws into her campaign, she cannot get ahead of the incumbent Smalls. So she and her personal security team, Dannon and Carver. decided to tip the scales in her favor. No matter what the cost. Human or monetary.Governor Henderson asks Lucas to quietly look into the child porn allegations against Smalls. What Lucas finds leads back to the campaign of Taryn Grant, but he has no real proof. It also leads to the last place Lucas wants to investigate the Minneapolis Police Department.Lucas needs help tracing this porn file through the system, he enlists the help of a former employee, Ingrid Caroline Eccols, ICE. She suggests more help would be needed and sends Lucas to his old friend Kidd. He and Lucas attended college together, now he makes his living as a very well known and expensive artist. Lucas' wife Weather owns a couple of his paintings. We first met Kidd earlier in Chosen Prey when Lucas needed help with some paintings. But he is better known in the world of computers. Hacking to be more precise.He also brings in the rest of his team. The whole gang is together again, Rose Marie, Del, Shrake, Jenkins and even Virgil makes an appearance.Like I said earlier, this is a slower paced book. A thinking mans story. It's fun to watch Lucas' mind work as he starts to put the puzzle together. There is a great chase scene towards the end. And quite a bit of tension with Kidd's wife as she quenches her addiction, I was not really thrilled with the extent she went through to get her "fix". She took a great risk, and could have lost both her husband and her child. "But she'll never do it again, just one more". Yeah right. Overall it was a great book I loved having all of Lucas' team back in action, and I loved seeing the small glimpses into his private life with Weather and their kids. I look forward to the next one.

Silken Prey is written like all of Sanford's books around the protagonist Lucas Davenport with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) and set in the area around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The book continues the style of switching cameras in each chapter between the bad guys and Lucas Davenport along with the usual set of characters in the Minnesota Police that adorn the other Prey books.The plot moves quite fast and alternates between a Republican Senator accused of child pornography and the Democratic candidate for Senator that is running against him and purportedly planted the materials to ruin his bid for the Senate seat. Set in an environment on the eve of the elections, it becomes doubly important to find out the truth and bring the perps to justice.The ending was a little anticlimactic and I found it unresolved with a lot of loose threads hanging. Could it be that John Sanford wants to continue the story in another book and pick up where this leaves off?The book is a good read and John Sanford keeps up the pace and the pressure on Davenport to solve the crime while cutting a few corners and bending a few ears in the process.

… in politics are almost as American as apple pie. In this case, the computer of an incumbent US senator is found to have salacious material on it, and that fact makes its way into the media just weeks before the election. The opposition should be rejoicing, but, wait, what if one of their own placed the damaging material on the computer?The governor asks the renowned Lucas Davenport of the MN Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to quietly and quickly get to the bottom of this situation. Davenport finds that the senator’s opponent is a hard-charging female new to politics, known for her wealth and willingness to do most anything to get ahead. Furthermore, she employs two ex-military types known for their ruthlessness. The case takes a decided turn when a political trickster goes missing and is presumed dead.Lucas has virtually nothing to work with, but he does have an old artist friend, who happens to have a background in computer hacking. Slowly Davenport is able to peel away the layers of cover-up and pressure those that seem responsible. Entertaining read if a little over the top in terms what political operatives will do to get ahead.

After reading the reviews I wondered if I was reading a different book. I do not really enjoy political books as politics leave me cold, but this one was Lucas at his best. Tasked to investigate a smear campaign, he was all alone, and then eventually had to bring in all his devoted fellow henchmen, even 'that f...n Flowers' who was not fishing for a change, although he wanted to!You know who did it early on in the book and it is all about proving that they did it, if they did it, and how they did it, with some really good asides and wanderings into other things.Lucas wanders, backtracks, ponders and does what he does best, investigates.Really, really enjoyed this, even though there was not much family interaction, but that makes for a nice change . John Sandford at his best. Bring on the next one

Davenport is required to solve a political case involving the creation of compromising pornography videos linked to the republican candidate for Senate vacancy but generated by the democratic candidate. A clever investigation identifies the culprits and sparks a blood thirsty end to their lives. It is a good s Tory but I only have give four starts because the author wraps up the story in a very short and nonsensical conclusion just poking his finger in the readers eyes.

The usual high quality story from John Sandford. I was introducted to this author by my American brother and have always enjoyed his books. Why, oh why, does Amazon not have more of his Prey books on Kindle. I enjoy them to the extent that I would love to download all of them to re-read at my leisure.Lucas Davenport is an interesting character and John Sandford is adding to his character with every book.Start off with Winter Prey and you will never look back.

The villain in this the 23rd in the series is a real piece of work, rich beyond dreams of avarice but with a cold sociopathic personality. She gets others to do her dirty work for her, but will she get away with murder once Lucas catches the scent. A guest appearance from both Virgil flowers and Kidd from two of sandfords other series mix things up a bit in this book and the cross pollination of characters from the three series adds a bit of dimension to them all.

Next one please.just enjoy reading these books, Davenport makes you feel part of the story.Davenport makes you feel part of his family.Page turner.....