Golden Prey (Lucas Davenport #27)

Lucas Davenport is now a “Feelance Deputy Marshall”. Huh? Yep, not only is he rich and good looking, with a great family, but now he can pick and choose who he wants to hunt…….from all the wanted criminals in the U.S. Best of all, he is really good at solving mysteries and catching the bad guys! He’s pretty much his own boss, which makes him unpopular with the other Marshalls. He takes that all in stride, and is sure his winning personality will serve him well.

“Golden Prey” is genuine Sandford, clever, complex, suspenseful, and funny! In the first big case as a Marshall, Lucas is hunting for the men who robbed a drug cartel of millions of dollars and coldly murdered 5 people, including a 6 year-old girl. Of course the cartel boss wants his money back so he sends 2 hired killers to also hunt for the men. They torture and kill their way across the U.S., so now Lucas is looking for them, also. “His most direct contact was with a service bureaucrat in Washington named Russell Forte.” Forte just seems to be like a coach of a really good player; he encourages Lucas and gives him whatever he needs to do the job.

Lucas is helped along the way by lots of other cops and specialists. As usual, the Author’s use of dialog and interactions with other characters is exceptional. This makes for a colossally enjoyable read!

If you like thrillers, you’ve had the same experience I’ve had–author starts great, then formulaic, then the writing gets sloppy. Eventually you are halfway through a book, or even near the end, and you realize you don’t give a s**t what happens.

Has not happened with Sandford. This might be his best yet. Partway through, realized it felt like an Elmore Leonard book. Writing was that strong, lean, elegant. Found myself going back to re-read the final gunfight. I rarely do that.

If you haven’t read Sandford’s recent foray into sci-fi, Saturn Run, pick it up. Excellent.

Loved “Golden Prey”. I could not put it down, it’s incredibly well written with a fantastic attention to detail.Lucas in a new career, still feeling his feet but seems to have got everything right on this first adventure as a US Marshal. I was spellbound and read it in two evenings, I wish I could have taken longer but just had to keep on reading.

John Sandford has always been one of my favorite authors. He tells a good (sometimes tall) tale with great writing, good humor, and often salty language. What I’m really trying to say is that he is a realist with no punches pulled. Most of his characters are black and white although a few bad guys occasionally have some socially redeeming qualities.

It would be wise when picking up this book to find a comfortable and undisturbed spot to start this novel. Comfortable because you won’t be getting up very often (unless you have prostate difficulty like I do) and undisturbed because you will be angry with anyone who tries to take you away from this story.

As usual, the beginning gives you a peaceful and relaxing orientation period as he introduces characters and puts them firmly in place. Then the story accelerates from 0 – 100 mph rapidly and you need to keep your wits about you as you try to keep up with the action. Lots of things happen quickly, action followed by more frenetic action, and you’d better be strapped in for the ride or you’ll be left behind. And you don’t want to miss any of this!

“Golden Prey” is a superior work done by an author at the top of his craft offering several intertwining relationships and subtly changing subplots. This novel represents some of Mr. Sandford’s best work. I’m betting that you’ll agree with me.

As a long time Lucas Davenport fan, I wondered how the author would keep things going with the transition from Davenport the BCA poo-bah to Davenport the US Marshall. Turns out it was done seamlessly. Lucas finds scuzzbags to chase, tracking to do, and all with a new cast of characters. John Sandford makes the change to a different type of story quite nicely, and as a result you have a good summer read. Not one of the best, but a good one worth four stars.

Why four? Because there no detecting going on. There is no figuring out who the bad guy/s is/are, There isn’t even the odd little side case that helps push along the typical Prey novel (my long time favorite: the old lady who was killed because she wouldn’t move out of an apartment building that was going condo. Method? The bad guys pointed all the A/C in the building into her apartment one night and effectively froze her to death).

This is pure hunt. Pure chase. No detecting, no parsing of clues, and it happens on a wider stage than Lucas typically operates on…and that diffuses the story somewhat, making it less focused.

Wonderful read, excellent story, well worth your while-just not Sandford at the top of this game.

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