Despite its inaccurate, generic and dumb title-what's next, Murder Prey?-Lucas Davenport's 20th case is one of his best. "We don't hurt anyone," Lyle Mack tells his brother Joe and their biker buddies Mikey Haines and Shooter Chapman as he conducts one last on-site review of their plans to rob the pharmacy in the Minneapolis Medical Center. But despite the thieves' success, Haines's temper gets away from him, and he kicks pharmacist Don Peterson to death. Even worse, their car is spotted by a witness who gets a good look at Joe as they're leaving the parking garage. Worst of all, the witness is Dr. Weather Karkinnen, a reconstructive surgeon who goes home each night from her demanding job-which these days involves surgery to separate a pair of 18-month-old twins joined at the head-to the arms of Lucas Davenport, her husband. Since the cops have one way of identifying Haines, whose victim managed to get some of his killer's blood under his fingernails before he bled out, and another of identifying Joe, the conspirators have every incentive to cut telltale ends short, even if those telltale ends include each other. None of them is very smart, and Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would probably have them under lock and key by nightfall if they only stood pat. Instead, however, Lyle calls on Cappy Garner, a friend with some experience as a hit man even though he's not old enough to buy a beer, and then the fireworks begin. By the time Sandford calls it quits, eight more cast members will be dead, and virtually all the survivors will have been stalked, chased, shot at or otherwise menaced by all manner of tough guys. And by the time those two twins are finally separated, the one newrelationship that will have blossomed is an unlikely friendship between an aspiring killer and his mentor. Razor-sharp dialogue, a tautly controlled pace and enough homicides for a miniseries. What more could fans want?

No. 1 New York Times best-selling writer Sandford's (www.johnsandford.org) 20th Lucas Davenport thriller follows Wicked Prey (2009), also available from Recorded Books/Penguin Audio. In it, Lucas's wife, surgeon Weather Karkinnen, finds her life on the line when she witnesses the fleeing perpetrators of a drug robbery gone wrong. Actor/Audie Award winner Richard Ferrone, who narrates earlier titles in this series, does an excellent job of reading this latest entry, making the various characters' multifaceted personalities easily discernable through his nuanced tones, accents, and voices. Thriller fans and anyone liking Sandford's other works are sure to enjoy. ["This fast-paced crime novel...will have readers dead-bolting their doors for weeks," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Putnam hc, LJ 4/15/10.—Ed.]—Ilka Gordon, Siegal Coll. of Judaic Studies Lib., Cleveland