Publication Date April 7, 2026

I’ve been reading and enjoying (often LOVING) books by John Sandford for many, many years. TBH,  Sandford is one of my favorite authors…and when I get a new book from one of my favorite authors, I tend to just dive in and start reading without  spending much time thinking about the series it may be part of, or whether I liked the last released title, etc. A year or two ago, thinking about the series, I came to realize the inconsistency of my opinions, noticing the last several titles my opinions had been anything but consistent. (The Investigator and Dark Angel both featured Letty Davenport, Lucas’s adopted daughter. I loved both, they were 5 stars for me.) 

And not that many years ago, I wrote “I JUST realized that for the past several years, Sandford has released two books a year: A Lucas Davenport/Prey book in the spring, and a Virgil Flowers title in the fall. (Am I the only one who never realized this???). And although I have been less than thrilled with a couple of fairly recent titles, looking back I realize those were Flowers books, and the Lucas Davenport series has been more to my liking.”

So loving Sandford as I do, when I had the opportunity (thanks to Putnam and NetGalley) to receive a copy of Revenge Prey, the latest in the Prey series, I jumped at the chance. First off, it is a classic Lucas Davenport story – plenty of action, a plot that is complex enough to be interesting but not so complex that I can’t put the book down for five minutes without forgetting WTF is going on and/or what all the people are. In this one, a man named Leonid Sokolov is in the U.S. living under the name Leonard Summers. He has been given this new identity thanks to the Witness Protection Program after defecting following his expose about Russian spies embedded in American government circles. Along with his wife, Martha, and their son, Bernard, they are relocated to a wooded Minneapolis suburb that has been expressly designed to resemble their old dacha located near Moscow. U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport and partner Shelly White have been tasked to function alongside CIA staff to get them settled.

Almost immediately, a Russian hit team finds them and strikes. There is a clever and  relentless cat-and-mouse game as Lucas (teamed with CIA agent John Sherwood) is assigned the job of finding  the assassins, determining if there is in fact a leak in the protection apparatus, and keeping the Summers/Sokolov family members who are in the area alive. 

There is action galore, with multiple assassination attempts and chases. Brief appearances by Weather, Letty, and Virgil Flowers provide some  continuity to Lucas’s story without overshadowing the main plot. John Sherwood is a great character: snarky, competent, and a good partner for Lucas, as they both are wizards of banter. The Russian hit team members are surprisingly humanized by their own motivations and moral gray areas as their  target turns out to be  a man with a dark past). 

Anyone who enjoys police procedurals, law enforcement-adjacent thrillers, and/or spy novels will enjoy this one. If you are tired of the Lucas story and action, look elsewhere. If you haven’t read anything in the series, don’t worry – this one can be read and enjoyed as a standalone. Five stars and bravo for Sandford’s consistency!