Silken Prey (Lucas Davenport Series #23)

by John Sandford

Overview

Murder. Scandal. Politics. And one billionaire heiress so dangerous in so many ways.

An explosive Lucas Davenport thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.

All hell has broken loose in the capital. An influential state senator has been caught with something very, very nasty on his office computer. The governor can’t believe it—the senator’s way too smart for that, even if he is from the other party. Something’s not right.

As Davenport investigates, the trail leads to a political fixer who has disappeared, then—troublingly—to the Minneapolis police department itself, and most unsettling of all, to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons in manipulation. She has very definite ideas about the way the world should work—along with the money, ruthlessness, and cold-blooded will to make it happen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425267769
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Series:	Lucas Davenport Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	38,194
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 4.20(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of twenty-six Prey novels, most recently Extreme Prey; four Kidd novels; nine Virgil Flowers novels; three YA novels coauthored with his wife, Michele Cook; and three stand-alones, most recently Saturn Run.

Hometown:

St. Paul, Minnesota

Date of Birth:

February 23, 1944

Place of Birth:

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Education:

State University of Iowa, Iowa City: B.A., American History; M.A., Journalism

Website:

http://www.johnsandford.org

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Silken Prey"
by .
Copyright © 2014 John Sandford.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for John Sandford and the Lucas Davenport novels

“If you haven’t read Sandford yet, you have been missing one of the great summer-read novelists of all time.”—Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly

“Relentlessly swift…genuinely suspenseful…excellent.”—Los Angeles Times

“Sandford is a writer in control of his craft.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“Excellent…compelling…everything works.”—USA Today

“Grip-you-by-the-throat thrills…a hell of a ride.”—Houston Chronicle

“Crackling, page-turning tension…great scary fun.”—New York Daily News

“Sandford is a master.”—Detroit Free Press

And Praise for Silken Prey

“Sandford’s...gallows humor and whip-smart dialogue seems fresher than ever in this tale of murder and political dirty tricks.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Dirty political tricksters give Lucas Davenport his most satisfying case in years… Sandford keeps every stage of the investigation clear, compelling and suspenseful.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Sandford expertly ratchets up the suspense and delivers some nifty surprises.”—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

Praise for John Sandford’s Prey Novels
 
“Relentlessly swift...genuinely suspenseful...excellent.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“Sandford is a writer in control of his craft.”—Chicago Sun-Times
 
“Excellent...compelling...everything works.”—USA Today
 
“Grip-you-by-the-throat thrills...a hell of a ride.”—Houston Chronicle
 
“Crackling, page-turning tension...great scary fun.”—The New York Daily News
 
“Enough pulse-pounding, page-turning excitement to keep you up way past bedtime.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
“One of the most engaging characters in contemporary fiction.”—Detroit News
 
“Positively chilling.”—St. Petersburg Times
 
“Just right for fans of The Silence of the Lambs.”—Booklist
 
“One of the most horrible villains this side of Hannibal.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch
 
“Ice-pick chills...excruciatingly tense...a double-pumped roundhouse of a thriller.”—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Governor Elmer Henderson hands Lucas Davenport a political hot potato in bestseller Sandford’s intriguing 23rd thriller featuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent (after 2012’s Stolen Prey). Incumbent Republican Sen. Porter Smalls had a slight lead for reelection, until a campaign volunteer accidentally discovered child porn on Smalls’s computer. Now Taryn Grant—a wealthy, ambitious, ruthless Democratic newcomer—might pull off an upset. Though Henderson is a Democrat, he believes Smalls has been framed, and tasks Davenport with quietly and quickly investigating. Up against two of Grant’s “security” men, both tough ex-military operatives, and the election deadline, Davenport needs all his smarts plus help from fellow BCA agent Virgil Flowers (the star of his own series) and computer genius Kidd. Sandford expertly ratchets up the suspense and delivers some nifty surprises as Davenport deals with political nastiness and paybacks regardless of party affiliations. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Richard Ferrone's gravelly narration speeds listeners through the latest Lucas Davenport thriller. In a slight departure from the usual "Prey" books, the villains are identified early on—catching them is another matter. Murder, mayhem, pornography, blackmail, and politics in the form of a U.S. Senate campaign add to the action. There's a bonus also: Another of Sanford's popular protagonists, Virgil Flowers, shows up in this title. Ferrone's characters are spot-on, especially when he’s portraying the two ex-military types who are the candidate’s bodyguards. As narrator, Ferrone keeps the plot moving and the listener riveted right up to the point of Sanford's less-than-satisfying ending. A.L.H. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2013 - AudioFile

Dirty political tricksters give Lucas Davenport his most satisfying case in years. Even though he's a conservative Republican, Sen. Porter Smalls is widely known to be a lot more liberal in his sexual ethics. But not so liberal that you'd expect child pornography to pop up on his personal office computer. The horrified staffer who accidentally finds it there calls her father, and he calls 911. Minnesota governor Elmer Henderson, a Democrat, is no friend of Smalls, but he's impressed by his claims of innocence, and he doesn't want any blowback if the kiddie porn turns out to have been planted. So he calls Lucas Davenport, asking him to investigate but keep everything confidential. The hush-hush first phase of the case ends when Lucas finds evidence linking the porn stash to Bob Tubbs, a political jack-of-all-trades who's disappeared and hasn't used his credit cards for days. Given the cover of a homicide investigation, Lucas' Bureau of Criminal Apprehension takes the case public, solving one problem--how can Lucas talk to anybody if he's sworn to secrecy?--but raising another. For the trail leads to some very awkward spots: the Minneapolis Police Department, from which it's pretty clear the damning pictures came, and the campaign of Taryn Grant, the wealthy, well-connected heiress who wants Smalls' Senate seat. With the election less than a week away, Lucas is under intense pressure to get results without stepping on the feet of Grant, who Sandford (Stolen Prey, 2012, etc.) indicates early on is indeed in this mess up to her eyeballs. Meanwhile, another Sandford veteran to whom Lucas turns for help hatches a plot to steal Grant's jewels from the safe in her home. Complications ensue. Sandford keeps every stage of the investigation clear, compelling and suspenseful while peeling back layer after layer of a world in which "everybody was hot, everybody was rich."

Kirkus Reviews