Chosen Prey
He desired women. All shapes, all sizes. He would fix on a woman and build imaginary stories around her. Some of the women he knew well, others not at all. Most of them faded quickly. Only a few became objects of desire.
An art history professor and writer and cheerful pervert, James Qatar had a hobby: he took secret photographs of women and turned them into highly sexual drawings. One day, he took the hobby a step further and... well, one thing led to another, and he had to kill her. A man in his position couldn't be too careful, after all. And you know something? He liked it.
Already faced with a welter of confusion in his personal life, Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport decides to take this case himself, hoping that some straightforward police work will clear his head, but as the trail begins to take some unexpected turns, it soon becomes clear that nothing is straightforward about this killer. The man is learning as he goes, Lucas realizes, taking great strides forward with each murder. He is becoming a monster — and Lucas may have no choice but to walk right into his lair...
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John Sandford
John Sandford writes crime fiction that moves with the restless energy of the streets it describes. His novels are known for their sharp observation, moral tension, and an unsettling closeness to real violence, the kind that feels sudden and personal rather than theatrical. Long before his books filled bestseller lists, Sandford trained his eye as a journalist, learning how to notice the small, telling details that reveal who people really are under pressure. That background still shapes his fiction, where every scene feels grounded in lived experience.
Lucas Davenport
The Lucas Davenport series drops readers into a world where intelligence, impatience, and moral compromise collide. From the first pages, these novels establish a distinctive rhythm, fast moving, observant, and quietly unsettling. Crime is not treated as a puzzle to be neatly solved, but as a disruptive force that ripples outward, affecting institutions, relationships, and the people tasked with restoring order.
Lucas Davenport consists of thirty-six books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
