**The brilliant new Lucas Davenport thriller from the #1 New York Times -bestselling author. **
"Sandford's track record as a bestselling author is amazing, but it's not an accident," wrote Booklist of Wicked Prey. "His plotting is sharp, his villains are extraordinarily layered, and his good guys are always evolving.
And this time, there's a storm brewing...Very early, 4:45, on a bitterly cold Minnesota morning, three big men burst through the door of a hospital pharmacy, duct-tape the hands, feet, mouth, and eyes of two pharmacy workers, and clean the place out. But then things swiftly go bad, one of the workers dies, and the robbers hustle out to their truck-and find themselves for just one second face-to-face with a blond woman in the garage: Weather Karkinnen, surgeon, wife of an investigator named Lucas Davenport.
Did she see enough? Can she identify them? Gnawing it over later, it seems to them there is only one thing they can do: Find out who she is, and eliminate the only possible witness...
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. At the start of bestseller Sandford's superb 20th Lucas Davenport thriller (after Wicked Prey), the getaway vehicle from a botched early morning robbery, which results in a pharmacy employee's death, almost collides with the car driven by Lucas's surgeon wife, Weather Karkinnen. Weather, who was on her way to work at the Minnesota Medical Research Center, becomes a key witness. Sandford masterfully handles both sides of the equation as the thievesโplanner Lyle Mack, his brother, Joe, and their henchmenโwork to cover their crime. The investigation belongs to Minneapolis deputy chief Marcy Sherrill, but Lucas of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension pulls out all the stops to protect his wife. Sandford creates additional drama throughout as Weather and a skilled team of doctors perform an operation to separate twins joined at the skull. Sharply drawn characters, intricate plotting, and smooth dialogue make this a sure-fire winner. 500,000 first printing; author tour. (May)
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From Booklist
It was an inside job, and it should have been easy. Rob the pharmacy at Minneapolisโ largest hospital: in, out, wait till things cool down, and then sell the drugs for a half million or so. But the old man had to be a hero. Who knew heโd be on blood thinners and die after he was kicked? A robbery turned murder means Lucas Davenport and his Bureau of Criminal Apprehension team are called in to assist the investigation. Thereโs another element to the case for Davenport: his wife, Weather, a surgeon at the hospital, may be able to identify one of the killers. The case starts to escalate. An attempt is made on Weatherโs life. The bodies of two motorcycle gang members are found in a rural area. Davenport guesses the gang is imploding from the pressure and murdering its members. Weather, under 24-hour guard, is part of a surgical team working to separate conjoined twins in a procedure thatโs captured the attention of the worldโs media. Meanwhile, Davenport and his team keep finding bodies of likely robbers but canโt seem to isolate either the brains behind the theft or the hospital insider who pointed them at the pharmacy. The twenty-second Prey novel includes most of the elements readers expect: sharp plot, snappy dialogue, and believable action, but the background playfulness and gallows humor that usually fill in the gaps are in short supply. But hey, thatโs nitpicking. On balance, this is another fine entry in a wildly popular series. --Wes Lukowsky