Now that he's moved on from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to the elite U.S. Marshals Service, you might expect Lucas Davenport (Golden Prey, 2017, etc.) to deal with a distinctly higher class of lowlife. That's not how it works out.Minnesota Sen. Porter Smalls insists that the crash that nearly killed him and did kill his unacknowledged lover, Republican fundraiser Cecily Whitehead, was deliberately caused by a Ford F-250 truck that rammed his car and sent it plunging off a cliff. When the West Virginia accident investigator finds no sign of any such impact on his wrecked car, Smalls calls on Lucas to dig up the evidence that he's not just hallucinating and, ideally, that the crash was engineered by first-term Minnesota Sen. Taryn Grant, a proven sociopath who'd hate him even if she didn't already have her eyes on the White House. Smalls is right, of course, but making a case against someone as wealthy, ruthless, and well-connected as Grant won't be easy. While Lucas and fellow marshals Rae Givens and Bob Matees are chasing down leads, Grant, who's just as clearsighted as Smalls about her enemies, is issuing orders to her fixer, hustler Jack Parrish, about how to take Lucas out: mug him seriously enough to hospitalize him for a crucial month or so, arrange a distraction that will send him back to Minnesota, or, if all else fails, kill him dead. Spoiler alert: Even when they succeed short-term, Grant and her army of minions fail to derail Lucas' investigation into a particularly nasty episode in which the awarding of a military contract was manipulated to the significant detriment of the military services. The only thing that slows Lucas is the fact that every time he gets enough evidence against one of the underlings, his target is quite properly killed before he can testify against his fellow conspirators.Sandford is as professional as the evildoers aren't. The result is lots of great setups but remarkably few follow-throughs. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Taryn's target, a rival senator named Porter Smalls, hires Lucas to keep him alive, but as an extreme right-winger, his enemies are legion. The designated hit man, Jack Parrish, has his own adversaries, including a colleague he shafted when they both worked for the C.I.A. and an Army colonel who watched him steal military equipment and sell it to outside contractors. Sadly, for readers hoping someone will succeed in bumping off obnoxious Senator Smalls, it's his lover who dies in a suspicious auto accident. The political angle adds more bile to Taryn's plan to crush Lucas, who's determined to unmask her as the villain she is. But the senator herself acknowledges Lucas's adversarial strength. "He is intelligent and he is dangerous," she admits. "When I say dangerous, I mean a killer." She's right about that. Sandford has been working on Lucas for more than two dozen books, and by now Lucas can handle just about anything, including a group of bad-apple mercenaries. He's a hero for these perilous times, a man's man who can take on three big brutes at once and isn't afraid to wear pink. "I HAVE SKILLS that are dormant, rusty, but not forgotten," acknowledges the hired assassin who goes by the name Columbus in Derek Haas's thrillers. THE WAY I DIE (Pegasus Crime, $25.95) finds this enigmatic protagonist in northern Michigan, on Mackinac Island, preparing to eradicate a predatory schoolteacher before the man can pounce on the teenage girls in his care. But in a disturbingly funny plot turn, another pupil takes the initiative and heads off this human raptor. "She has the disposition of some of the greatest killers I know - razor-sharp wit buried inside a forgettable package," Columbus (who's calling himself Copeland these days) observes of short, chubby, nearsighted Meghan, whom he might consider training in his own profession. That memorable scene introduces a plot that takes this self-exiled assassin to the Pacific Northwest to protect a software inventor named Matthew Boone from being eliminated by persons or governments unknown. The face-recognition program Boone designed sounds fascinating, but there's no time to linger on the particulars when Columbus is stocking up on the latest weaponry and getting ready to face a killer as cool as he is. MURDER IN THE RANKS of high society provides heady entertainment for the servants who toil in obscurity in A DEATH OF NO IMPORTANCE (Minotaur, $24.99), a lively upstairs/downstairs mystery by Mariah Fredericks set in New York City in 1910. Jane Prescott, a smart and sensible lady's maid in service to the nouveau riche Benchley family, has a front-row seat for the mischief that ensues when pretty, vapid Charlotte Benchley rises above her station and becomes romantically entwined with a rich nitwit ne'er-dowell, Robert Norris Newsome Jr. When Norrie is murdered on the night their engagement is to be announced, Charlotte becomes a suspect and only Jane seems inclined to clear the silly girl's good name. The murder mystery becomes entangled, at times awkwardly, with larger social issues like unionism, anarchism and the women's suffrage movement. But the scenes that work best feature oblivious upper-crust swells, dancing while the victims of a terrible mine disaster lie moldering in their graves. Not even the most disciplined author can write a novel set in France without salivating over the local cuisine. In Sorcha McDonagh's translation of the pseudonymous Jean-Luc Bannalec's enchanting THE FLEUR DE SEL MURDERS (Minotaur, $24.99), Commissaire Georges Dupin ponders the disappearance of a crusading investigative reporter named Lilou Breval while contemplating a meal of pan-fried Breton sole, a specialty, "along with langoustines, prawns, scallops, delicious sea bass, and squid," of the port of Le Croisic. In the nearby salt-producing region, an elaborate system of canals and pools yields a crop that's been called White Gold. But fierce global competition has taken its toll, and Dupin suspects the pools are currently being used for something more sinister than processing salt. Ancient legends impart a pleasing frisson to his sleuthing ("I had warned you about walking through the salt marshes at night or early in the morning"), and he learns that this mineral isn't as ordinary as it seems. MARILYN STASIO has covered crime fiction for the Book Review since 1988. Her column appears twice a month.

The last time Lucas Davenport tangled with Taryn Grant, she was running for the U.S. Senate. She eked out a narrow win over an incumbent, Porter Smalls, on the basis of a manufactured child-pornography scandal and a couple of murders, too. Grant is rich, beautiful, smart, and a psychopath. Davenport was with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension back then, and he was unable to tie Grant to the murders. Smalls is now doing all he can to thwart Grant's presidential ambitions, but, while he is on a weekend tryst with a longtime lover, Smalls' car is purposely run off the road. He survives, but his lover doesn't. He's sure Grant is behind the accident and uses his clout to get Davenport, now a U.S. marshal, assigned to investigate. The latest Davenport novel is one of the best in an always-strong series. Given the current geopolitical reality, it's timely, too, and the conclusion is a rockin' didn't see that coming beauty.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2018 Booklist

Sandford's 28th Lucas Davenport novel, enhanced by an appropriately gruff narration by Ferrone, pits the lawman against an old foe: the beautiful and wealthy sociopath Senator Taryn Grant. Davenport was unable to stop the three-times murderer from winning her senate seat in Silken Prey (2013). Now, as she sets her sights on the presidency, he's hoping to right that wrong. Assisting him is Senator Porter Smalls, another character from the earlier book, who's at the top of Grant's current hit list. Voice actor Ferrone presents Davenport as hardboiled and unyielding on the job, tender with his family, and relaxed with his pals (like the author's other series lead, Virgil Flowers, who drops by for a cameo). Smalls sounds eager to assist, though understandably nervous and on edge. Grant speaks with almost unrelieved, hissing fury. Assassin Jack Parrish, who works for Grant, is a stoic professional, outwardly unruffled, though a flatness in his delivery suggests he's not amused by the threats and insults she aims at him. Ferrone's reading helps make this outing one of the best of the series. A Putnam hardcover. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.