Summer is here. For movie-goers, it's the first blockbuster weekend. For cottagers, it's the first opening weekend. For thriller readers, it's the new Lucas Davenport novel.
John Sandford's "Stolen Prey" is the 22nd of the Prey series featuring the ongoing character of Lucas Davenport with his Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) associates and family. The main case this time involves a group of hackers who have found a way to divert funds from a money laundering account set up by a Mexican drug cartel in a Minneapolis-St. Paul bank. The cartel is on the trail of the hackers as well and have sent a merciless kill-team of trackers after them. Lucas and his team have to find the hackers before the cartel does because there isn't going to much of the evidence or of the people left behind if they don't. Various DEA investigators and Mexican federal authorities are interested as well to add further complications. Davenport's family have brief and strong cameo appearances, but if you aren't a fan of the occasional medical subplots with wife/surgeon Weather Karkinnen or kid-reporter subplots with daughter Letty you can relax about those, this is a straight-ahead Lucas story. The main subplot involves Davenport himself getting robbed at an ATM with an investigation that leads to the southern part of the state which allows Sandford to bring in his other recurring series character, the BCA country/fishing detective Virgil Flowers, into the storyline as well. That case takes a turn that involves horse farms and a running gag about horse manure that adds to the usual phone banter between Davenport and Flowers. This was a solid forward-rushing thriller read that I tried to pace out as much as possible but still ended up finishing in 2 days. Summer is definitely here!