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Judgment Prey
by
John Sandford
It is part of the Lucas Davenport #33, series and is a crime thriller in a Kindle edition that was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on October 3, 2023 and has 395 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Rules of Prey, Shadow Prey, Eyes of Prey, Winter Prey, Silent Prey, Mind Prey, Night Prey, Sudden Prey, Easy Prey, Chosen Prey, Mortal Prey, Naked Prey, Hidden Prey, Broken Prey, Invisible Prey, Phantom Prey, Wicked Prey, Storm Prey, Buried Prey, Silken Prey, Stolen Prey, Field of Prey, Gathering Prey, Dark of the Moon, Heat Lightning, Rough Country, Bad Blood, Shock Wave, Mad River, Deadline, Storm Front, Extreme Prey, Escape Clause, The Fool's Run, Deep Freeze, The Empress File, Twisted Prey, Holy Ghost, Neon Prey, Bloody Genius, Masked Prey, The Investigator , Ocean Prey, Dark Angel
Thirty-third in the Lucas Davenport and fifteenth in the Virgil Flowers thriller series and revolving around US Marshal Lucas Davenport and Agent Virgil Flowers in Minneapolis/St Paul in Minnesota. The focus is on the hideous murder of a federal judge and his sons.
My Take
It begins with a quick look back at that shooting on Long Island that took down Virgil and Lucas. Just enough to set the scene for Sandford describing Lucas’ time off working at recovering from his injuries and contemplating no more hockey. I did have to laugh at Lucas’ revelation about his physical ability some time into the case.
It’s not just Lucas suffering from PTSD, but Maggie as well. It does make sense why she does what she does, but it made me heartsick for her.
Sandford pulls at my heartstrings with more than just Lucas’ and Maggie’s problems when he describes the killing scene. Oy. I wanna kill the guy! Then when he describes Heath . . .! Jesus. What. A. Jerk. It does help that Sandford is using a third person global subjective point-of-view enabling a perspective from a number of characters. The primary perspectives are via Lucas and Virgil, but Maggie and Ann and Heath and Bob get their bits in here as well.
Sandford makes an interesting point about bereavement hallucinations possibly being the origin of the belief in ghosts. Another point is that the person being sent to jail isn’t necessarily the one who really suffers from it. Additional points made throughout the story about who’s the, ahem, “jerk”, swap back and forth between Virgil and Lucas.
I gotta love a guy who chooses his job based on how much time it’ll give him with his kids. Unfortunately for Maggie, Alex was very conservative. He might not have understood sex that was just for fun.
Sandford has a number of possibilities rotating in this murder case, including some computer hacking going on that keeps Maggie and Ann on Lucas and Virgil’s radar. All the info on charity hustling was sad, that people actually do this.
I like Thomas Burston too. He’s honest, even at the expense of possibly losing a client. Cheryl Lundgren, well, she’s an interesting character whose life’s ills are well described by Sandford. It does make me sad for her, and yet . . . eek . . .
I did enjoy how Sandford worked in the job of writing, particularly about Virgil going back and forth, rewriting: “If something needed to be changed, enhanced, made-up, twisted . . . go back and do it. It’s fiction.” Then there’s the bit about the middle of the story being a swamp where a writer wanders like a lost soul, lol. A running joke in Judgment Prey are all those bits that Virgil might be able to use in his book.
Another good point is Lucas noting that the pills are better at helping with depression than trying to gut it out. Hey, if a man’s man like Lucas can say that, ya better believe it, lol.
I dunno, do ye reckon we could consider YouTube a character? It does provide lots of useful videos. It also help instruct about burner phones.
There are chunks of back history in here. I’m not sure how much is really necessary. The opening of the story was useful as a reminder of why Lucas is out of action, but all the info on Virgil’s writing, Sandy’s job history, and Lucas’ path to wealth seem more like filler.
On the whole, I did enjoy Judgment Prey, and yet it felt cold. Sure, Lucas’ and Virgil’s back-and-forth was funny but it didn’t feel connected.
Danged red herrings.
The Story
Three people are gruesomely murdered, destroying a family and wreaking havoc on a potential donation for a local charity.
It’s a conundrum, for Maggie can’t understand who or why someone would target her husband.
The Characters
Lucas Davenport, a.k.a. Mike Bennett, is a US marshal married to Dr Weather Karkinnen, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the University of Minnesota Hospitals. Letty is their oldest, an adopted, daughter now working for the Department of Homeland Security as an investigator. Sam and Gabrielle are their younger children. Jedediah Clark is a friend of Sam’s. Ellen is their housekeeper.
Alice is Weather’s assistant. Bulthorpe works at the hospital as well. Marie is an associate professor. Dr Senat Morat is another plastic surgeon.
Virgil Flowers is a regional agent for the BCA who writes as a sideline, so far. He’s shacked up with Frankie and they have fraternal twins, a boy and a girl. They live on Frankie’s farm 100 miles outside of St Paul near Mankato. Johnson Johnson is a good friend of Virgil’s. Esther is Virgil’s New York agent. Janey Flowers Small Klein is the second of Virgil’s three ex-wives. Olaf is the louche mailman.
The wealthy Alex Sand is a federal judge married to a former actress, Elizabeth/Margaret “Maggie” Cooper, a professor of theater arts at the University of Minnesota. She had had a part in The Old Pals. They have three children, including Blaine, Arthur, and baby Chelsea. Ann Melton, a lawyer with Alex’s old legal firm, is a good friend of Maggie’s and her biggest supporter. Alex’s father had been a major in Desert Storm. Mary is an unreliable babysitter soon replaced by Fatima Diaz.
St Paul PD
Steve and Katie McCarthy are cops. Detective Sergeant Jimmy Russo is a friend of Lucas’ and will be the lead investigator.
Ben “Binky” Pelz had been a street cop; now he’s a bodyguard. Coffman is the magistrate who signed off on the warrant. Jackson Morely is the US attorney. Yin is into dirt analysis.
The Edina PD
Detective Marsha Moss will be the lead.
The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA)
Gary Durey and George Pope are investigators. Cartwright is the director. A vegetarian hippie, Sandy Hayward, is a computer hacker/savant who practically runs the BCA now.
Random Cosby is an agent with the California Bureau of Investigation and is a friend of Virgil’s. Rex Drummin is an airport cop. Russell “Rusty” Craft is a state trooper. FBI Special Agent John Howahkan missed the Long Island investigation and has heard mostly good about Lucas.
Edie Lamb is a US marshal for the Minnesota District. US Marshals Duane Kowalska and Loren McCord had been involved in the Brickell shooting. Elmer Henderson is a former governor and now the junior US senator from Minnesota. That Elmer sure has a lot of influence. Johnny Hartcome is the mayor. Rose Marie is the state commissioner of public safety. Tallulah Brooks is an old friend of Lucas’ at the tax assessor’s office. Donald Brooks, Tallulah’s brother, is a loan officer with US Bank. Rae Givens is a fellow US marshal. Yeah, I can understand Lucas watching Justified, starring Raylan Givens, lol.
The Heart/Twin Cities is . . .
. . . a charity run by Noah Heath, a richie-rich type with a trust fund. Bob Dahl is the director. George Whitman is the board vice-chairman; his day job is as the CFO for an agriculture commodities company. Alang Thao is another board member. Doreen Pollard is the secretary — with big hair.
One of Heath’s projects is Home Streets for which he’s soliciting donations. Others include Big Grin, Minnesota Meds, and a prosthetic aid charity. Ron. Morton had been a donor. Jon Radcliffe, Cynthia Clayton, and Richard Roverson are Heath’s attorneys. The mean Helen Heath had been Noah’s first wife.
Thomas Burston is the Sands’ investment advisor with Barnes and Blue. Barb appears to be Burston’s secretary. Don Hess is a gig worker at several different gymnasiums, including the Greenway Rec Center and the Silver Star where Buddy “The Wiz” Corbin, Roger Smith, Cheryl Payton, Carol-Ann Lee, and Rudy also work. Georgia Hooper, a bartender, is a member at Silver Star; Kerry Blackburn had been a member.
Calvin Crater, a psychiatrist, looks at people weirdly. Marvin Fingerhut is a lawyer who took a criminal case. The Karr kid was a miserable jerk. John Larch had access to the BCA computer link. Tony Byrne and Arnold Drukker are rival developers. Sister Mary Joseph is a serious shrink over at St Kate’s. Professor Martin Wye at University of Minnesota Duluth, who founded and runs the Center for Predator Studies, can inherit from both Sand and Cooper. Daisy Jones is a reporter for Jonesing for News on KSTP. Ray is the floor manager at KSTP.
Darrell Hinton had a juvie record in Minnesota. May Ann Wells, a neighbor in Doreen’s apartment building, tries to save money on rent. Warren Dodd is the apartment manager. Oromo Belay is an Ethiopian cabbie. John Jacob Orregon owns Orregon’s Port-A-Potties. Martha Muller, a widow, is one of Cooper’s neighbors and on the St Paul Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission, a.k.a. Picky-Arc. Megan Ryan was in too much of a hurry at the gas station. Ben Louis Pritchard, a salesman for a barn-building contractor, had been a witness. The Bottle Cap is a bar owned by Jerry.
People sentenced by Judge Sand include Henry “Jim” James Carter, a shooter who did time for car theft (Catherine is his nervous wife while Jack is a friend with gun access) and Larry Brickell, who was convicted of killing wolves — they’re thinking he took the fall for his wife, Cheryl Lundgren, with the interesting “pull” who raises goats and indulges in bar fights (it seems Larry was doing something with the Carlson girl too).
Some of Maggie’s actor-students include Delonia and Colin. Dr Siegel is Christine’s teacher at the UM. Shirle is an old lady neighbor of Ann Melton’s.
The Cover and Title
The background of the cover is a gradation of an almost black purple on the left to a navy blue on the right, the whole sprouting jagged lightning in brighter purples, blues, pinks, and white. The text is all white with some of it experiencing a gradation of white to purple. It starts at the top with the author’s name and an info blurb to the right of his first name. Beneath, two horizontal rules frame the series info. Below that is the title.
The title could be a combination of Letty’s assessment as well as a nod to the victim, a Judgment Prey.
