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Wicked Prey
464 pages
A relentless, high-stakes procedural that tightens the screws as professional chaos collides with terrifying personal vendettas.
What it feels like
This propulsive police procedural plunges the reader into a pressure-cooker environment where professional duty and personal terror violently intersect. The mood is relentlessly tense, built on a foundation of crisp dialogue and sudden, shocking twists that keep the narrative hurtling forward. As multiple dangerous threads—from calculated heists to unhinged, deeply personal vendettas—converge on a single detective, the atmosphere grows increasingly dread-soaked. The emotional texture shifts from the gritty, chaotic energy of managing urban crime during a major political event to the chilling, claustrophobic fear of a family member being targeted. It is a perfect fit for readers who devour suspenseful, intricately plotted thrillers where the stakes are as intimately devastating as they are explosively public.
- Mood
- tense
- high-stakes
- dangerous
- dread-soaked
- Tone
- suspenseful
- crisp
- gritty
- urgent
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- professional duty vs. personal peril · collateral damage · vengeance and grudges · urban vulnerability
- The writing
- The prose is crisp and dialogue-driven, engineered to deliver sudden twists and relentless suspense.
- The arc
- The reader is plunged into a chaotic web of escalating threats that tighten from professional headaches into deeply personal, terrifying stakes.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave high-stakes police procedurals where seasoned detectives face a barrage of simultaneous, escalating threats.
Content notes
- gun violence
- threats to minors
- stalking
- criminal violence
About the book
Danger stalks Lucas Davenport at work and all too close to home, in the superlative new thriller by the #1 New York Timesbestselling author.For twenty years, John Sandfords novels have been beloved for their ingenious plots, vivid characters, crisp dialogue and endless surprises (The Washington Post), and nowhere are those more in evidence than in the sudden twists and shocks of Wicked Prey.The Republicans are coming to St. Paul for their convention. Throwing a big party is supposed to be fun, but crashing the party are a few hard cases the police would rather stayed away. Chief among them is a crew of professional stickup men whove spotted several lucrative opportunities, ranging from political moneymen with briefcases full of cash to that armored-car warehouse with the weakness in its security system. All thats headache enough for Lucas Davenportbut whats about to hit him is even worse.A while back, a stray bullet put a pimp and petty thief named Randy Whitcomb in a wheelchair, and, ever since, the man has been nursing his grudge into a full head of psychotic steam. He blames Davenport for the bullet, but its no fun just shooting him. That wouldnt be painful enough. Not when Davenport has a pretty fourteen-year-old adopted daughter that Whitcomb can target instead...And then theres the young man with the.50 caliber sniper rifle and the right-wing-crazy background, roaming through a city filled with the most powerful politicians on earth...Rich with his brilliant trademark suspense and some of the best characters in suspense fiction, Wicked Prey is further proof that Sandford is one of the most consistently entertaining crime writers working today (Booklist).
Description from Open Library.
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