A black man and a white woman are discovered hanging from a tree in northern Minnesota. Both are naked. The media labels the crime a lynching, which trumps a run-of-the-mill double murder. Fearing that he'll be a one-term wonder if the case isn't solved quickly, the governor of Minnesota calls Lucas Davenport, who has accepted an appointment to the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The only witness he and his partner, Del Capslock, have is Letty West. She's a 12-year-old who manages for her alcoholic mother and herself by trapping muskrat and raccoon. Her dilapidated home is a mere 200 yards from the hanging tree. She saw headlights on the night of the killing and found the bodies the next morning when she set about clearing her trap lines. She's a tough kid, knows everybody in her small town of Broderick, and is able to provide enough info on the car to help lead Davenport to the killer. But there's no arrest to be made because the killer and his wife have been killed just prior to Lucas' arrival. The crimes must have a common thread, but Lucas can't find it. This fifteenth Prey novel is suspenseful and cleverly plotted, and the denouement is an exhilarating example of ultimate justice convincingly delivered. Sandford has another best-seller here, and it's one of the better entries in a fine series.

By the time a series gets appreciably past its salad days, the signs of writer fatigue are usually unmistakable. Which is what makes this 14th outing from Sandford so remarkable: the brilliant Prey series goes bopping along, taking steps two at a time, acting like your basic spring chicken. Series hero Lucas Davenport (Mortal Prey, 2002, etc.), self-styled "richest cop in Minnesota"-with a fortune derived from the design of beautifully complex computer games-has a new job, crime-solving for Governor Elmer Henderson: that is, taking on those hot-potato assignments deemed political dynamite. When Deon Cash, a black man, and Jane Warr, a white woman, are found naked and dead, dangling from a tree in backwater Broderick, the Governor's men hurriedly summon Lucas, the word "lynching" much in the air. But it's not a lynching. To begin with, Broderick, a six-hour drive from St. Paul, simply doesn't have that kind of problem. Moreover, it doesn't take long for the real motive to surface: vengeance. Cash and Warr, it turns out, kidnapped and killed the young daughter of prominent Minnesota businessman Hale Sorrell. Acting as judge, jury, and hangman, Sorell has meted out vigilante justice, and savvy Lucas nails him for it – but before Sorrell can be arrested, he, too, is gunned down. Now Lucas surmises that more than Cash and Warr were involved in the kidnap plot. Back to Broderick he goes, where the evidence leads in an unforeseen direction. And where 12-year-old Letty West, freckled and gritty ("she might have been a female Huckleberry Finn") does a lot to capture a sociopathic killer-as well as Lucas's unexpectedly susceptible heart. Nonstop drive, dialogue that amuses and surprises, deft characterizations. But most notable of what Sandford continues to do-better, perhaps, than anyone in crime fiction-is humanize his monsters: that makes for a special kind of creepiness.

Lucas Davenport (Mortal Prey) is now Director of Regional Studies in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is a fancy name for the job of investigating difficult crimes as quickly as possible and answering to the governor of the state. Known for his ability to solve the unsolvable, he goes to a remote area of the state to discover why a black man and a white woman were hanged in a groove of trees. They were found by Letty West, a precocious 12-year-old trapper who helps Davenport and his partner, Del Capslock, understand the dynamics of the rural communities of Broderick and Armstrong and in so doing, places herself in harm's way. Fast paced and full of surprises, this may be Sandford's best novel yet. The plot twists and turns reveal the complexity of the characters and the well-concealed motivation for the crimes. Most public libraries should buy several copies to meed popular demand.

Sandford gets back to basics in this stellar 14th installment of his hugely popular Prey series, focusing on the long-standing duo of Davenport and Capslock. As the novel begins, the indomitable Lucas Davenport (now happily married, a contented father and bored out of his mind) is slogging through the northern tundra of Broderick, Minnesota, to inspect the naked dangling corpses of a white woman and black man ("They were frozen. Like Popsicles.") that have shocked the locals as well as Minnesota's governor with the ugly specter of a lynching. Davenport, now more or less a free agent for the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension ("I kick people's asses"), is unleashed by the governor, giving Davenport and his scruffy sidekick, Del Capslock, a chance to escape their square city lives and catch the villain(s) while staving off the media vultures, Sandford's trademark subplot. As in previous novels, the original crime (rendered in a truly horrific opening sequence) is merely the gateway to a deeper, more insidious criminal enterprise, this one an international labyrinth of stolen cars, drugs, gambling and kidnapping. Some truly vicious familial machinations in the small town contrast well with Davenport's staid and stable home life. Another pleasant surprise is the precocious Letty West, whose awakening teenage sensibilities make an impression on Davenport. Sandford's usual background details (readers will learn how to run a muskrat trapline and how an Indian casino operates) are deftly woven into the fabric. This latest installment in a series now a decade and a half old is vintage Sandford.