It was an inside job, and it should have been easy. Rob the pharmacy at Minneapolis' 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 he'd 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. There's 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 Weather's 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 that's captured the attention of the world's media. Meanwhile, Davenport and his team keep finding bodies of likely robbers but can't 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, that's nitpicking. On balance, this is another fine entry in a wildly popular series.

Despite its inaccurate, generic and dumb title — what's next, Murder Prey? — Lucas Davenport's 20th case is one of his best. "We don't hurt anyone," Lyle Mack tells his brother Joe and their biker buddies Mikey Haines and Shooter Chapman as he conducts one last on-site review of their plans to rob the pharmacy in the Minneapolis Medical Center. But despite the thieves' success, Haines's temper gets away from him, and he kicks pharmacist Don Peterson to death. Even worse, their car is spotted by a witness who gets a good look at Joe as they're leaving the parking garage. Worst of all, the witness is Dr. Weather Karkinnen, a reconstructive surgeon who goes home each night from her demanding job — which these days involves surgery to separate a pair of 18-month-old twins joined at the head — to the arms of Lucas Davenport, her husband. Since the cops have one way of identifying Haines, whose victim managed to get some of his killer's blood under his fingernails before he bled out, and another of identifying Joe, the conspirators have every incentive to cut telltale ends short, even if those telltale ends include each other. None of them is very smart, and Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would probably have them under lock and key by nightfall if they only stood pat. Instead, however, Lyle calls on Cappy Garner, a friend with some experience as a hit man even though he's not old enough to buy a beer, and then the fireworks begin. By the time Sandford calls it quits, eight more cast members will be dead, and virtually all the survivors will have been stalked, chased, shot at or otherwise menaced by all manner of tough guys. And by the time those two twins are finally separated, the one new relationship that will have blossomed is an unlikely friendship between an aspiring killer and his mentor. Razor-sharp dialogue, a tautly controlled pace and enough homicides for a miniseries. What more could fans want?

In his 20th Prey novel (after Wicked Prey), Sandford continues to deviate from the pulse-pounding serial killer thrillers of the early 1990s that put Minneapolis cop Lucas Davenport on the map. Davenport still has his sharp mind, quick reflexes, and dirty mouth, but now marriage and fatherhood give him something to lose. And as head of Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, he's working with a larger cast of law enforcement agents and a wider variety of criminals. The morning that his wife, surgeon Weather Karkinnen, is set to separate conjoined twins, she sees a man who just robbed the hospital pharmacy. Davenport calls Virgil Flowers to protect Weather and help him catch the robbers before they can identify her as the witness. The bikers behind the drug heist are portrayed as petty criminals, but the doctor and hit man they're working with are slowly revealed as out-and-out sociopaths. This fast-paced crime novel with bad guys so calmly amoral will have readers dead-bolting their doors for weeks.

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 thieves — planner Lyle Mack, his brother, Joe, and their henchmen — work 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.