Police officer, detective, BCA investigator, state troubleshooter--Lucas Davenport has done it all. Now he's called in to apply his particular skills to one big mess in Washington, DC. Thirtieth in the New York Times best-selling "Prey" series.

Bestseller Sandford's 30th thriller featuring U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport (after 2019's Neon Prey) offers more of the same--a dramatic high-stakes premise and plenty of action, but not much character depth. Sen. Elmer Henderson of Minnesota, a political ally of Davenport, once again needs his help. Audrey Coil, the 17-year-old daughter of a colleague on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, has uncovered a website that could pose a danger to herself and other children of political families. When Audrey, who operates a fashion blog, looked into whether the blog's images of her were being used elsewhere on the web, she found them on a website with pictures of other children of elected officials. The site, named 1919, code for the SS, has a Nazi connection, and its discovery leads to fears that someone may threaten the children as a way of influencing public policy. Davenport doggedly investigates right-wing groups to figure out who's behind 1919 and to forestall any violence. The plot has some holes--it takes law enforcement far too long to shut down sites that had copied 1919--and the big twist isn't likely to shock anyone. Series fans are most likely to enjoy this. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (Apr.)

U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport is home in Minnesota, recovering from a chest wound sustained in his last case, when he gets a call from a U.S. senator from Minnesota. A teenage girl, the daughter of another senator, has inadvertently come across a website that seems to be a repository of violent right-wing rhetoric and also contains current photos of school-age children of prominent congressional officeholders. There is no exhortation to violence, but the information is described as "a message in a bottle." Davenport and his team trace the site to a privacy-protected server in Sweden. The legwork follows, with the team interviewing members of the right wing in the Washington, DC, area. Some are cooperative, others aggressively resistant, but none of them connects to the site. Then a teenage boy, mistaken for the son of a senator, is killed by a sniper. Davenport, a hunter beyond all else, is on it. This entry in the phenomenally popular Prey series will engage longtime fans with its intricate plot and have new readers backtracking through the entire series. Thoroughly involving and very timely.