Lethal Prey by John Sandford

Published by ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons on March 25, 2025

Nobody uses humor to soften the drama of crime as effectively as John Sandford. Few other writers have produced a long running series of crime novels with such immensely likable characters. Lethal Prey follows Sandford’s winning formula by mixing drama and humor to tell a good story.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport is the protagonist of the Prey novels. Lucas has a comfortable life thanks to wealth he earned from building and selling a tech business when he was working for Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Lucas left law enforcement to focus on his business but returned to it because he missed chasing bad guys. He often becomes involved in cases at the request of politicians (including the senator who slotted him into his current position), providing him with a shield against bureaucrats.

Lucas’ friend Virgil Flowers has his own series, but the two often team up for the reader’s pleasure. Virgil works for BCA but has published three novels and is working on his fourth during Lethal Prey. Virgil hopes he can quit BCA and make writing a fulltime career.

As he often does, Sandford begins the novel by showing the reader a crime as it unfolds. Lethal Prey isn’t a whodunit from the reader’s perspective because we see Amanda Fisk fly into a rage and murder a young woman who was shagging her boyfriend. The reader soon learns that Fisk is a psychopath. Through a combination of luck and smarts, she managed to conceal her involvement in the murder. It has gone unsolved for two decades.

The murder victim, Doris Grandfelt, was working as a clerk in an accounting firm where Fisk also worked. Fisk’s soon-to-be husband, Timothy Carlson, was a client of the firm. Timothy did the deed with Doris after business hours on a couch in the accounting offices. Using a table knife from the company cafeteria that she sharpened against a brick wall, Fisk stabbed Doris to death after Timothy left, then buried her body in a wooded park near her childhood home.

Twenty-one years later, Doris’ twin sister, Lara Grandfelt, decides to spend her fortune to reopen the case and find her sister’s killer. Lara is a significant donor to a senator’s political campaign. The senator happens to be Lucas’ benefactor. He pulls strings to make Lucas part of the renewed investigation. Virgil joins the team with the hope that he’ll avoid the daily drudge of his BCA duties and devote more time to his novel.

Sandford often grounds his novels in current events or social trends. Lethal Prey focuses on true crime blogs and podcasts. To bring fresh eyes and extra manpower to the investigation, Lara invites the true crime community to compete for a large reward. The results are hilarious. Much of the novel’s comedy comes from true crime podcasters competing with other, not just to win the reward, but to be first to break each new clue and thus attract more clicks to their websites.

Lucas and Virgil cringe at the thought of involving amateurs in the investigation. As Lucas explains with tongue embedded in cheek:

“Every one of them has a website and they live on clicks and followers. If they get enough clicks, they can get ads from true crime publishers. Some of them probably make upwards of eight hundred dollars a year.”

The real cops nevertheless take advantage of crowdsourcing resources. For example, they provide old photos recovered from Lara’s camera to be posted on the websites with the hope that viewers will identify men who might have known (or slept with) Doris twenty years earlier. The true crime bloggers turn out to be useful when they aren’t fighting with each other.

Following their usual pattern, Lucas and Virgil leave the pavement pounding to officers with less seniority while they analyze the evidence and identify the important interviews that they should do themselves. Fisk is now a prosecutor and thus knows how criminals get caught, so she takes care to get rid of evidence that Lucas, Virgil, and the bloggers might find as they revitalize the investigation. A couple more murders ensue as she covers her tracks. She also targets Virgil in an effort to distract hiim from the investigation.

Fisk makes mistakes in judgment along the way. Will Lucas and Virgil puzzle out the small clues she leaves behind? While series fans will know the answer to that one, the process of detection is the most entertaining feature of these novels — apart from the snarky dialog.

The Prey series is remarkable for its steadiness. Every novel seems fresh. While the personalities of its main characters are familiar to fans of the series, each book allows the characters to grow a bit. Sandford finds the right balance of credible storytelling and atmosphere as his characters roam around Minnesota, northern Iowa, and western Wisconsin. Collateral characters display the eccentricities of people who live in that part of the Midwest without mocking them. Lethal Prey won’t disappoint series fans and, since each novel stands alone, new readers can pick it up without worrying that they’ve missed too much background to understand the story.

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Friends Helping Friends by Patrick Hoffman

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on March 18, 2025

Friends Helping Friends tells an unusual crime story. For that reason alone, the novel is better than its more predictable competitors.

The novel’s first half focuses on Bunny Simpson, Jerry LeClair, and Helen McCalla. Helen is a lawyer who has issues with her ex-husband and his new wife. Helen pours her heartbreak into exercise, then scores steroids from a gym rat to fuel her workout body obsession.

Helen hears the words You will not be okay until you make him pay, a message she attributes to God rather than steroid-induced psychosis. Helen wants to have her ex roughed up without doing serious damage. The gym rat connects her with Jerry, who enlists the help of his friend Bunny. Both guys need money, but this isn’t their typical line of work. They confront Helen’s ex in a park and are surprised when he fights back. Bunny comes to the defense of Jerry and does just enough damage to get himself arrested.

ATF Agents Howley and Gana visit Bunny in jail. They threaten him with a lengthy sentence but promise to help him avoid the consequences of his crimes if he’ll go undercover in their investigation of Bunny’s uncle. Bunny knows his Uncle Willard served some time for manslaughter but doesn’t know the details. He hasn’t seen Willard in years.

The ATF agents are vague about the nature of their investigation — they mention conspiracy and racketeering — but they tell Bunny that Willard is leading a Christian Identity group of white supremacists. Snitching on Willard doesn’t appeal to Bunny until they promise him a payment of $100 a day. Bunny’s lawyer should know better than to trust ATF agents but he tells Bunny to take the deal.

At ATF’s direction, Bunny takes a janitorial job with a used car dealer where his uncle makes occasional appearances, perhaps in connection with the used car dealer’s drug dealing.. Pretending to meet his uncle by chance, Bunny takes a job on his uncle’s ranch, where he sees young men training with firearms. He knows they are planning a major operation but the ATF agents only seem to be interested in recovering a notebook that Willard keeps in his safe. The novel’s second half follows Bunny’s effort to recover the notebook, his discovery of its purpose, and his hapless attempt to rip off Willard and foil the ATF agents.

Bunny and Jerry are affable losers, the kind of young men who have big dreams and little hope of achieving them. They don’t shy away from hard work but they are attracted to the possibility of easy money. It is in their nature to assume that attractive women are essentially good (a bad assumption to make if you’re a character in a crime novel). As earnest and uncomplicated dudes with reasonably good hearts, they easily win the reader’s sympathy. Helen is ambitious and petty, making her a good foil to the protagonists, but she’s likable in her own way.

The plot is a fun mixture of light and dark. The bad guys are evil but a bit bumbling. The novel’s violence is not particularly graphic although it features one of those "his head exploded in front of me" scenes that have become ubiquitous in crime stories. The story moves in unexpected directions as it nears the end -- it almost turns into a road novel -- but surprises are telegraphed by earlier events, so Patrick Hoffman plays fair with the reader. Early scenes that seem important to the story turn out to be relatively inconsequential while events that seem insignificant are important by the end.

The final bro bonding scene is a bit sappy and the conclusion is improbably happy. Those aren’t really complaints. The protagonists deserve a happy ending, so even if it stretches the boundaries of plausibility, I don’t care. Set against a disturbing backdrop of white straight male supremacy, a happy ending for decent people is a good way for the story to end.

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The Trouble Up North by Travis Mulhauser

Published by Grand Central Publishing on March 11, 2025

The Sawbrook family owns six hundred acres adjacent to Crooked Tree Park in Northern Michigan, but developers want their land. The Sawbrooks live on the edge of society and constantly fight with each other, but they aren’t dysfunctional. Within their limits, they function surprisingly well. The Sawbrooks are a crime family, but the crimes are low-key — brewing moonshine, smuggling cigarettes into Canada — and the Sawbrooks take pride in never being caught. Although they spend much of their time on the river, they are equally proud that no Sawbrook ever died by drowning.

Rhoda’s grandfather was “not well after the war,” a diagnosis that explains his decision to plant land mines in the woods to kill as many invaders as possible when they came for him. Rhoda’s father placed barbed wire around the mined land, although an occasional black bear tears down the fence and explodes while trying to snack on berries.

Rhoda’s husband is living with lung cancer. He would like to die but Rhoda can’t bear the thought of living without him. Their daughter Lucy is a park ranger. She's the only Sawbrook with an education and the only one who has any interest in obeying the law.

Rhoda gave equal parcels of the family land to her three children. Lucy sold her share to an environmental trust for $20,000 to keep it from being developed, causing Rhoda to complain that she gave it to communists — i.e., the conservation group that purchased the land.

Lucy paid her sister Jewell $20,000 so she could sell Jewell’s share of the land to the trust, but Jewell promptly lost the cash in a high-stakes poker game in Vegas, thwarting her hope of doubling her money and buying the land back. Lucy spent half the cash she received from the trust on treatment for her alcoholic brother Buckner. She regards that investment as a waste when Buckner goes off the wagon after hearing bad news about his stripper girlfriend.

Against that background, a story unfolds, although the plot is an excuse to explore the family dynamic. A man named Van Hargrave offers Jewell $10,000 (but only $1,000 up front) to set his boat on fire. Hargrave says he wants to collect the insurance. Hargrave runs poker games in his garage and promises to set up a game with high rollers that will allow Jewell to win more money than she lost in Vegas.

Jewell manages to burn the boat but the fire spreads to the forest. As Lucy evacuates campers from the park, she spots Jewell running through the woods and gives chase. They both end up in the river, creating the risk that one of them will be the first Sawbrook to drown — or to be captured after a crime. Buckner enters the mix by getting drunk and stealing an ATV from the park rangers. Lucy spots him as she’s chasing Jewell.

The Trouble Up North blends a crime story with a family drama. At the end, it becomes a story of enduring love. Travis Mulhauser crafts a fast-moving plot that will capture the reader’s attention, but characterization is the novel’s strength.

Buckner is a veteran but he doesn't blame war for his alcoholism. “Buckner had always been a drinker but it really picked up after he got back from Iraq, which people liked to say was because of trauma. Buckner had not been traumatized, but after a while he stopped arguing and just let people believe what they wanted.”

Buckner’s girlfriend has more depth than most fictional strippers. Her relationship with Rhoda showcases two capable women with soft hearts and hard attitudes. They aren’t afraid of bullies.

Lucy and Jewell are at odds through much of the novel. Lucy’s job is to enforce the law (at least within the park). Will Lucy notify the authorities that her sister started the fire? Someone may have died in the fire, so Lucy worries about her own criminal liability if she protects Jewell. Yet protecting each other is the drive that holds the Sawbrook clan together. How the mess the family members have made of their lives will be resolved is the question that gives the story its tension.

The story is tight. Like Chekov’s Gun, seemingly insignificant details become important later in the narrative. The resolution, like the story that precedes it, is smart and surprising. The Trouble Up North is an easy novel to recommend to fans of literary crime fiction.

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Hang on St. Christopher by Adrain McKinty

Published by Blackstone on March 4, 2025

The eighth entry in Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series takes place in 1992. Duffy has the rank of Detective Inspector in Northern Ireland, but his checkered record (lots of crimes solved but few convictions because Duffy cares more about solving problems than personal glory) caused him to join the police reserve as a prelude to retirement. He lives in Scotland with his wife and daughter but takes a ferry to his native country for the six days of work per month that he needs to maintain eligibility for a full pension.

When Duffy worked full time, he was a case officer who ran an IRA double agent. Now he shares a desk in Carrickfergus with his former partner, Detective Sergeant McCrabban, another reserve officer. Neither detective is assigned to serious cases. That changes when a homicide occurs in Carrickfergus. The head of the criminal investigation department is on vacation so Duffy and McCrabban catch the case. Duffy grumbles about having to work a few extra days (McCrabban welcomes the overtime), but he’s secretly thrilled to be doing meaningful work again.

The murder victim seems to have been killed during a carjacking, but Duffy believes the death is more consistent with an execution. Duffy’s first task is identifying the victim. A search of his house reveals a couple of original Picasso etchings, but they may have been purchased under a fictitious name. The story builds interest as Duffy trudges from clue to clue, apparently chasing a ghost, before he uncovers the victim’s true identity — and his true occupation. It is a disturbing but credible reveal.

The novel’s title comes from a suitably dark Tom Waits song of the same name. The lyrics mention a Norton motorcycle. An assassin riding a Norton is tied to the murder in Carrickfergus and then to a second. When Duffy seems to be getting close to identifying the assassin, he becomes a target.

Hang on St. Christopher blends the traditional crime-solving of a police procedural with the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The politics of the IRA provide an interesting background that moves to the forefront when internal differences in the IRA power structure suggest a motive for the murders.

When Duffy ventures into the Republic of Ireland to talk to an IRA leader, tension grows. The novel’s best action scene involves a shootout between IRA assassins and cops on the Republic’s side of the border. McKinty deserves credit for describing a credible clash without elevating the aging Duffy to the status of superhero.

Duffy’s characterization is familiar — apart from resisting the sedate joys of retirement, Duffy drinks quite a bit, thinks about cheating on his wife, and ignores orders that he regards as inconsistent with crime solving — but there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when you’ve got one that rolls. Duffy stands apart from other disgruntled cops in his ability to quote classic literature, identify all sorts of music, and discuss the details of history. He’s not afraid to admit that he’s afraid of death, now that he has a daughter who gives him a reason to live. That doesn’t stop him from exercising questionable judgment when he charges toward danger.

Fictional cops on the other side of the Atlantic (at least those in Great Britain and Ireland) tend not to be as insufferably self-righteous as their American counterparts. Hang on St. Christopher is an excellent choice for police procedural fans who would enjoy spending time with a snarky Irish cop working in a difficult time.

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Galway's Edge by Ken Bruen

Published by Mysterious Press on March 4, 2025

Jack Taylor’s life is not quite as miserable in Galway’s Edge as it often seems to be. He takes a few beatings but his dog is left alone. He interacts with nuns but none of them are murdered. Two women break up with Taylor but he doesn’t have to kill either of them. Series fans will understand that any day without the death of a dog or nun or girlfriend counts as a good day for Taylor.

Taylor takes on his usual causes in Galway’s Edge. A vigilante group called Edge that has assisted Taylor in the past is now headed by five people, including a priest. Father Richard, special envoy to the Archdiocese of Galway, Tuam, and Athenry, asks Taylor to find the vigilante priest “and dissuade him of his activities.”

Father Richard thinks “Edge has mostly been a force for good, but lately, its members seem to have drifted off into matters personal, neglecting their purpose. The Vatican feels they are now more of a threat than a help.” Edge got on the wrong side of an Englishman named Benson when it rejected him for membership. He retaliates by doing away with Edge’s members. The church can’t have a British protestant going after Edge, so Father Richard hires Taylor to solve the problem.

Benson gets on Taylor’s wrong side by stealing a jeweled cross from a convent. Taylor enlists a thief to recover the cross and a hacker to make trouble for Benson. Taylor’s actions will doom at least one of those men. They will also doom a promising relationship with a new lover while making him unpopular with a neighbor who is shagging Benson.

Taylor visits two brothers who stole a client’s dog and introduces them to his hurly. He takes on a cop who is beating his wife. He takes on another kiddie fiddling priest. A cancer victim wants Taylor to kill him. In other words, the plot is typical of a Jack Taylor novel: seemingly random events all connect in the end.

Bruen’s unconventional writing style is all about the rhythm he creates with paragraph breaks. Bruen writes wonderful and surprising sentences. My favorite in Galway’s Edge: “I had to dial it back not to smack him in the mouth, but in my experience no good comes of beating the clergy, they keep coming back.”

Bruen grounds his stories in current events and references to pop culture. He quotes song lyrics, sentences from novels, and lines from movies that relate (more or less) to Taylor’s life. Taylor sometimes comments on the news. More often he lets the news sit — thousands of deaths caused by an earthquake in Turkey, a shortage of housing for refugees from Ukraine — to illustrate the larger tragedies that overshadow his smaller ones. There may be no character in crime fiction more tragic than Taylor, but he never loses his understanding that he is living a small life in a big world — and a good life, despite the beatings he takes, compared to earthquake victims or Ukrainian refugees.

I particularly enjoy Taylor’s discussion of the books he’s reading. “I have always found calm, solace, and comfort in books. When my mind is on fire and I’m not quelling it with booze, I rely on books,” he says. I don’t drink much these days, but I can relate to finding solace and comfort in books. I always find entertainment, if not comfort, in Bruen’s novels. Galway’s Edge isn’t as edgy as some, but it’s still a good read.

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