Ocean Prey by John SandfordMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jacket Blurb: An off-duty Coast Guardsman is fishing with his family in the Atlantic just off south Florida when he sees, and then calls in, some suspicious behavior in a nearby boat. It's a snazzy craft, slick and outfitted with extra horsepower, and is zipping along until it slows to pick up a surfaced diver . . . a diver who was apparently alone, without his own boat, in the middle of the ocean. None of it makes sense unless there's something hinky going on, and his hunch is proven correct when all three Guardsmen who come out to investigate are shot and killed. They're federal officers killed on the job, which means the case is the FBI's turf. When the FBI's investigation stalls out, Lucas Davenport of the U.S. Marshals Service gets a call. The case turns even more lethal and Davenport needs to bring in every asset he can find, including a detective with a fundamentally criminal mind: Virgil Flowers. Librarian's note: as of 2021, there are 31 volumes in John Sandford's Lucas Davenport "Prey" series and 13 in his "Virgil Flowers" series. The latest for each, "Ocean Prey," was published in April 2021. It is part of the "Prey" series but Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers share the billing; it is considered the most recent in both series. Read as an audio book.
I am writing this on the assumption you've read most of the previous books in both series.
This was kinda straight up/classic John Sandford with an interesting melding of Davenport and Flowers. I greatly enjoyed this one - there's one "Aw...jeez..." moment, just enough dramatic tension to keep the plot interesting but not overly anxiety producing, and it bounces fairly equally between Davenport and Flowers.
Sanford must have hit a nerve with some folks in his previous Lucas book, because there was a fair amount of ethical discussion or explanation occurring between our sub-characters regarding what Lucas did. Not so much was Lucas right or wrong, but how Lucas handled the situation and how said sub-character would handle any future situation should they find themselves in one. Perhaps that's why this book took Davenport away from the scene of the crime (so to speak) and put Virgil in the line of fire. Pure speculation on my part.
Bottom line, I enjoyed this latest installment. Not a lot of time spent in the antagonist's heads, all my favorite characters make an appearance and the characters I don't care for didn't. In some regards, character development was minimal in this one and I was completely okay with that. The story just churns along quite nicely on it's own.
Lastly, Richard Farrone is an excellent narrator and I'm thrilled that he's been the narrator for all 31 Davenport books. What would have made this an outstanding narration, is if they had used the narrator for the Virgil books too. That would have just been the cat's meow.
Recommended if you've been reading the Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flower's series.
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