JOHN SANDFORD

Virgil Flowers-tall, lean, late thirties, three times divorced, hair way too long for a cop's-had kicked around for a while before joining the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. First, it was the army and the military police, then the police in St. Paul, and finally Lucas Davenport had brought him into the BCA, promising him, "We'll only give you the hard stuff."

On a cold late Autumn Sunday in Southern Minnesota, a farmer bringing in his harvest is bludgeoned around the head by a young man wielding a bat. Leaving the unconscious farmer to drown in the grain bin, the young man calls the sheriff's office to report the 'accident'. Suspicious about the nature of the incident, Sheriff Lee Coakley quickly breaks the teenager down. But when she finds him hanging in his cell the next morning, she doubts it was remorse or guilt that led him to take his own life. In fact, she's not convinced it was suicide at all. Worried that she is up against a far more complicated case than she first thought, Coakley calls in Virgil Flowers. For an investigator with his expertise, it doesn't take long for Flowers to uncover a conspiracy that has bubbled away under the surface of this sleepy community for generations - and a series of crimes so monstrous that the small town can never be the same again.

Special Investigator Virgil Flowers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension uncovers his most complex case to date.

The night after the fourth of July, Layton Carlson Jr., of Red Wing, Minnesota, finally got lucky. And unlucky.He''d picked the perfect spot to lose his virginity to his girlfriend, an abandoned farmyard in the middle of cornfields: nice, private, and quiet. The only problem was... something smelled bad like, really bad. He mentioned it to a county deputy he knew, and when the cop took a look, he found a body stuffed down a cistern. And then another, and another.By the time Lucas Davenport was called in, the police were up to fifteen bodies and counting. And as if that wasn''t bad enough, when Lucas began to investigate, he made some disturbing discoveries of his own. The victims had been killed over a great many years, one every summer, regular as clockwork. How could this have happened without anybody noticing?Because one thing was for sure: the killer had to live close by. He was probably even someone they saw every day....

Murder, scandal, political espionage and an extremely dangerous woman. Lucas Davenport''s going to be lucky to get out of this one alive.A Minnesota political fixer has hit the jackpot - or so he thinks. Hired to take down the incumbent U.S. senator with a vicious smear, to open the way for an ambitious, take-no-prisoners heiress who sees the Senate as merely a stepping-stone, he decides his payoff should be larger. The blackmail demand should yield some pretty large numbers, he thinks.Instead, he gets only a small one - 9 millimeters, to be exact. In the heart.Davenport is investigating the smear when the trail leads to the man''s disappearance, then - very troublingly - to the Minneapolis police department, then - most troublingly of all - to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons. She has very definite ideas about the way the world should work, and the money, ruthlessness and sheer will to make it happen.No matter who gets in the way.

The night after the fourth of July, Layton Carlson Jr., of Red Wing, Minnesota, finally got lucky. And unlucky. He'd picked the perfect spot to lose his virginity to his girlfriend, an abandoned farmyard in the middle of cornfields: nice, private, and quiet. The only problem was...something smelled bad - like, really bad. He mentioned it to a county deputy he knew, and when the cop took a look, he found a body stuffed down a cistern. And then another, and another. By the time Lucas Davenport was called in, the police were up to fifteen bodies and counting. And as if that wasn't bad enough, when Lucas began to investigate, he made some disturbing discoveries of his own. The victims had been killed over a great many years, one every summer, regular as clockwork. How could this have happened without anybody noticing? Because one thing was for sure: the killer had to live close by. He was probably even someone they saw every day...

Lucas Davenports first case as a U.S. marshal takes him into unexplored territory, in the thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Prey seriesThanks to some very influential people whose lives hes saved, Lucas Davenport has a new job. He is a U.S. marshal, but not just any marshalone with unusual scope. He gets to investigate whomever he wants, wherever he wants across the country, and once in a while, he might be called upon for special cases. How special? They couldnt come from anyone higher.

Murder. Scandal. Politics. And one billionaire heiress so dangerous in so many ways.Its the explosive new Lucas Davenport thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author.All hell has broken loose in the capital. An influential state senator has been caught with something very, very nasty on his office computer. The governor cant believe itthe senators way too smart for that, even if he is from the other party. Somethings not right.As Davenport investigates, the trail leads to a political fixer who has disappeared, thentroublinglyto the Minneapolis police department itself, and most unsettling of all, to a woman who could give Machiavelli lessons in manipulation. She has very definite ideas about the way the world should workalong with the money, ruthlessness, and cold-blooded will to make it happen.

In Israel, a man clutching a backpack searches desperately for a boat. In Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a message from Lucas Davenport: You're about to get a visitor. It's an Israeli cop, and she's tailing a man who's smuggled out an extraordinary relic-a copper scroll revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon. Wait a minute, laughs Virgil. Is this one of those Da Vinci Code deals? The secret scroll, the blockbuster revelation, the teams of murderous bad guys? Should I be boning up on my Bible verses? He looks at the cop. She's not laughing. As it turns out, there are very bad men chasing the relic, and they don't care who's in the way or what they have to do to get it. Maybe Virgil should start praying.

A daring drugs raid on a Minneapolis hospital, during which a medical orderly is kicked to death, takes place on the same day that Lucas Davenport's surgeon wife, Weather, is due to perform a high-profile operation to separate conjoined twin girls. Investigating the raid, Davenport concludes that it must have been an inside job and - as a witness to the criminals' desperate getaway - Weather is now in grave danger.