John Sandford, real name John Roswell Camp (born February 23, 1944), is an American New York Times best-selling author, novelist, a former journalist and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize.
Books in order of publication:
Lucas Davenport is the protagonist of the “Prey” series. In the first three novels, he is a maverick detective with the Minneapolis Police Department. At the end of Eyes of Prey, he’s forced to resign to avoid excessive force charges, partly due to his knowledge of the connection of a senior police officer to that case. He returns in Night Prey as a deputy chief (a political appointment), running his own intelligence unit. Beginning with Naked Prey, Davenport is an investigator for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), acting occasionally as a special troubleshooter for the governor of Minnesota in politically sensitive cases. He serves in that capacity through Gathering Prey, at the end of which he quits working for the BCA, later becoming a United States marshal.
The novel Mind Prey was sold for a TV movie, and Davenport was portrayed by Eriq LaSalle. Another of the novels, Certain Prey, was adapted into a movie in 2011 by USA Network starring Mark Harmon as Davenport.
- Rules of Prey (1989)
- Shadow Prey (1990)
- Eyes of Prey (1991)
- Silent Prey (1992)
- Winter Prey (1993)
- Night Prey (1994)
- Mind Prey (1995)
- Sudden Prey (1996)
- Secret Prey (1998)
- Certain Prey (1999)
- Easy Prey (2000)
- Chosen Prey (2001)
- Mortal Prey (2002)
- Naked Prey (2003)
- Hidden Prey (2004)
- Broken Prey (2005)
- Invisible Prey (2007)
- Phantom Prey (2008)
- Wicked Prey (2009)
- Storm Prey (2010)
- Buried Prey (2011)
- Stolen Prey (2012)
- Silken Prey (2013)
- Field of Prey (2014)
- Gathering Prey (2015)
- Extreme Prey (2016)
- Golden Prey (April 25, 2017)
- Twisted Prey (April 24, 2018)
- Neon Prey (April 23, 2019)
- Masked Prey (April 14, 2020)
- Ocean Prey (April 13, 2021)
- Righteous Prey (October 4, 2022)
Kidd series
- The Fool’s Run (1989), by John Camp; reissued 1996 as by Sandford
- The Empress File (1991), by John Camp; reissued 1995 as by Sandford
- The Devil’s Code (2000)
- The Hanged Man’s Song (2003)
Kidd also has a prominent role in Silken Prey and Extreme Prey.
Virgil Flowers series
The protagonist of the series, Virgil Flowers, is described as tall, lean, late thirties, three times divorced, with long hair and often wears t-shirts featuring rock bands. Virgil works at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Prior to the BCA he was in the Army and the military police, then the police in Saint Paul. Lucas Davenport, main character of the Prey series of books, recruited him into the BCA. Virgil is an avid outdoorsman who loves fishing, and is often towing his boat, even when on duty. He’s also a writer for outdoor and hunting magazines, as well as a photographer.
- Dark of the Moon (2007)
- Heat Lightning (2008)
- Rough Country (2009)
- Bad Blood (2010)
- Shock Wave (2011)
- Mad River (2012)
- Storm Front (2013)
- Deadline (2014)
- Escape Clause (2016)
- Deep Freeze (October 17, 2017)
- Holy Ghost (October 2018)
- Bloody Genius (2019)
Virgil Flowers also has a prominent role in Ocean Prey and Righteous Prey.
Singular Menace series (with Michele Cook)
- Uncaged (2014)
- Outrage (2015)
- Rampage (2016)
Other fiction books
The Night Crew (1997)
Dead Watch (2006)
Saturn Run (with Ctein) science fiction (2015)
The Investigator (2022) ISBN 978-0593328682 — featuring Letty Davenport, daughter of Lucas Davenport of the “Prey” series
Short stories
“Lucy Had a List.” Published in Murder in the Rough: Original Tales of Bad Shots, Terrible Lies, and Other Deadly Handicaps from Today’s Great Writers (2006), a short story anthology by notable authors, the fourth title in the sports mystery series edited by Otto Penzler.
Nonfiction books
The Eye and the Heart (1988)
Plastic Surgery (1989)
Murder in the Rough (2006)
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