Finished audio 9-14-12, rating 3.5/5, thriller, pub. 2012
Unabridged audio narrated by Richard Ferrone
Lucas Davenport series #22. (book 17) (book 18) (book 19) (book 20) (book 21)
Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Wayzata, an entire family has been killed—husband, wife, two daughters, dogs.
There’s something about the scene that pokes at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen in drug killings sometimes. But this is a seriously upscale town, and the husband was an executive vice president at a big bank. It just doesn’t seem to fit.
Until it does. And where it leads Lucas will take him into the darkest nightmare of his life. (Goodreads)
I’ve read all 22 books of this police thriller series and, for me, this is one of the weakest. It started off strong, with one of the more violent and bloody scenes I’ve read from Sandford and had potential with three assassins running around town killing people, but there was disconnect with the convoluted banking storyline. I missed Weather but loved the story with his daughter, especially the end.
I still recommend the series and I will still continue to visit with Lucas every year. He’s still a great wounded hero doing good even if sometimes he must be bad.
This is a great series for those who love police procedurals, but please start at the beginning since I think they are the strongest books.
I checked this audio out of the library.
Stacy's Books 
I am very impressed that you have read all 22!
Have you read the Maggie O’Dell series by Alex Kava? Maggie is an FBI profiler and deals with serial killers. Some of the books are better than others, but it sounds pretty similar to Sandford.
Adding that series to my wish list right now!
I totally agree with your assessment. I love this series but this book didn’t live up to its normal high standard. I’ll keep reading the series, though because I love Lucas.
Oh dear. I haven’t read any of this series, but this one is sitting on my shelf – I was going to start with it. Maybe I should back up and get hooked a bit before I get to this one.
I’ve only read a few of these and thought this one was ok. I’d probably enjoy going back and reading some of the earlier one. The first Sanford books I read were the Kidd series… I wish he’d write more of those and bring them up to date.
Wow … 22 books! The fact that you’re sticking with it is praise enough though.
I love this series but have to admit to not reading at least the last 3. I loved the beginning of them but after all of these years they’ve started to lose their luster.