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Explore John Sandford's Prey books in order, with summaries and series background on Lucas Davenport's investigations, dangerous opponents and changing career.

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Prey books in publication order

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17 books

1

Mind Prey

by John Sandford

1995

A respected psychiatrist and her two young daughters are kidnapped in broad daylight. As the abductor taunts Lucas Davenport with phone calls and puzzles, Lucas races to decode his moves before the captive family’s nightmare turns permanently fatal.

2

Secret Prey

by John Sandford

1998

A powerful executive is shot during a hunting trip, and every man in his party has a motive. Lucas Davenport’s search for the shooter uncovers decades of buried crimes, a twisted domestic history, and a killer hiding behind a façade of respectability.

3

Certain Prey

by John Sandford

1999

Clara Rinker is a charming professional hit woman whose latest job for an ambitious defense attorney should be simple—until a witness survives. Lucas Davenport, hunting a killer who knows his weak spots, finds himself up against two ruthless minds working in tandem.

4

Easy Prey

by John Sandford

2000

A glamorous model is found strangled after a wild party, and one of Lucas Davenport’s own officers becomes a suspect. As more bodies turn up around the Twin Cities celebrity scene, Lucas has to untangle fashion-world rivalries, drugs, and obsession to catch a predator.

5

Wicked Prey

by John Sandford

2009

During a major political convention in St. Paul, Lucas Davenport juggles two threats: a crew planning to rob big-money delegates and a vengeful paraplegic criminal who blames Lucas for ruining his life. With the city on edge, any misstep could turn into disaster.

6

Storm Prey

by John Sandford

2010

A crew of thieves botches a robbery at a hospital pharmacy and crosses paths with surgeon Weather Karkinnen—Lucas Davenport’s wife. When the criminals decide the only safe move is to eliminate the witness, Lucas must protect his family while dismantling a deadly conspiracy.

7

Buried Prey

by John Sandford

2011

Demolition at a Minneapolis construction site uncovers the long-hidden bodies of two girls abducted in 1985—a case a young Lucas Davenport once worked and never solved. Given a second chance, he reopens the investigation and discovers that the truth was buried along with them.

8

Silken Prey

by John Sandford

2013

A smear campaign involving child pornography detonates in a heated Senate race, and a political fixer vanishes soon after. Lucas Davenport follows the trail to a relentlessly ambitious candidate and her ruthless inner circle, where murder and dirty tricks blur into each other.

9

Field of Prey

by John Sandford

2014

A teenager smells something wrong in a Minnesota cornfield and discovers a cistern packed with bodies—victims killed over many summers and left to rot underground. Lucas Davenport digs into the cold trail of a patient serial killer who’s been hiding in plain sight.

10

Gathering Prey

by John Sandford

2015

Lucas Davenport’s adopted daughter Letty calls him after a young traveler friend vanishes while following a dangerous drifter known only as Pilate. The search drags Lucas into a roving community of street kids, cultish followers, and a murderous gang that treats the highways as hunting grounds.

11

Extreme Prey

by John Sandford

2016

No longer with the BCA, Lucas Davenport joins the staff of Minnesota’s governor during a presidential campaign. On the trail he discovers a pair of extremists convinced the governor must die to save the country, and he has to stop them without derailing the race.

12

Golden Prey

by John Sandford

2017

Now a U.S. marshal who can pick his own cases, Lucas Davenport goes after a legendary stickup man who robbed a cartel counting house and left a child dead. As cartel enforcers close in, Lucas races brutal professionals willing to butcher anyone in their way.

13

Twisted Prey

by John Sandford

2018

A suspicious crash in Washington, D.C., points Lucas Davenport back to Taryn Grant, a billionaire psychopath he once failed to nail who is now a U.S. senator. Working as a marshal, he probes a circle of hired killers and political power that won’t hesitate to kill him too.

14

Neon Prey

by John Sandford

2019

Chasing a low-level enforcer who skipped bail, U.S. marshal Lucas Davenport discovers the man has been burying victims in a Louisiana swamp and may have turned cannibal. The pursuit drags Lucas across the country as the fugitive joins a violent robbery crew out West.

15

Masked Prey

by John Sandford

2020

When the teenage children of prominent politicians discover their photos on a hate-filled extremist website, Washington turns to Lucas Davenport. With no obvious crime yet committed, Lucas has to trace anonymous agitators through fringe groups before ugly rhetoric turns into real bloodshed.

16

Ocean Prey

by John Sandford

2021

After three Coast Guardsmen are murdered investigating a suspicious dive boat off Florida, the stalled case lands on Lucas Davenport’s desk. He teams up with Virgil Flowers, going undercover around a dangerous offshore drug operation where the evidence lies a hundred feet below the surface.

17

Righteous Prey

by John Sandford

2022

A secretive group calling itself The Five announces online that it will murder people who “need to be murdered” and then donates cryptocurrency to charity after each kill. Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers team up to track the bored, ultra-wealthy vigilantes before the killings spiral.

Series background & context

John Sandford's Prey novels follow investigator Lucas Davenport through cases involving murder, deception and dangerous opponents. The series begins with Lucas working as a police officer and develops through successive investigations rather than one continuous crime. His decisions and relationships provide the continuing thread, while each book introduces a new problem. Minneapolis and the surrounding region give many of the stories a familiar base, with apparently ordinary settings becoming places where people hide violent intentions.

The title of a case rarely tells Lucas how far it will reach.

Rules of Prey introduces him through the pursuit of a murderer who treats killing as a carefully controlled game. The killer leaves rules intended to prevent the police from identifying a motive or pattern. Lucas must work against an opponent who has already thought about how an investigation might proceed. This starting point establishes the series' interest in the contest between a detective and someone trying to control what that detective can learn. It also makes the danger personal, rather than leaving the investigation at a distance from the people involved.

Later cases bring different forms of criminal planning. In Certain Prey, a contract killing becomes complicated when a witness survives. The professional killer Clara Rinker tries to eliminate the loose ends, drawing Lucas into a case where his own vulnerabilities matter. Her practical approach to violence makes her an opponent with motives and habits of her own. The novel places the pursuit alongside the consequences of trying to remove everyone who could expose a crime, giving Lucas a problem that keeps changing as he follows it.

Invisible Prey begins with the deaths of two elderly women in a wealthy Minneapolis neighbourhood. The apparent explanation is robbery, but the items taken do not seem valuable. Lucas looks more closely and finds reasons to question both the choice of victims and the meaning of the theft. This kind of setup is central to the series: the first version of events gives the police somewhere to begin, while closer attention reveals a different set of interests. The investigation depends on understanding what other people have overlooked or deliberately concealed.

The Prey books combine police work with thriller pacing and direct confrontations. Readers spend time with the investigators, but also with opponents whose plans create the pressure behind a case. The tone is tense, with violence and difficult choices shaping the pursuit. Publication order is useful for following Lucas's changing circumstances and recurring relationships, beginning with Rules of Prey. Individual novels also provide their own central investigations. The wider appeal lies in watching a continuing character face different kinds of threats, from a killer with elaborate rules to criminals who exploit the assumptions surrounding an apparently routine crime.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shape MRB and its growth.

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