Happy Thursday, my lovely peeps
!
After a snail-ish January and a somewhat speedy February, we’re once again back to months flying by! Another 2 Thursday reviews, and it’ll be the start of a new month!
For this week’s review, I’ll be featuring my first Letty Davenport read, coming soon on April 9th. It’s actually the third in this spin-off series and the 34th in her father, Lucas Davenport’s, series: the Prey series! It was a wowzers of a book and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on it with you guys! So without further ado, let’s go!
Title: Toxic Prey
Author: John Sandford
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Action, Police Procedural, Crime
Length: 400 Pages
Published: [Coming Soon: 9 April, 2024]
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP Putnam > G.P. Putnam’s Sons
LINKS:
Goodreads: [LINK]
Amazon: [LINK]
Disclaimer: Thank you to G.P. Putnam’s Sons and the author for this NetGalley copy. An e-ARC copy was provided to me in return for a fair and honest review. This does not affect the review, and all opinions are my own.
Lucas Davenport and his daughter, Letty, team up to track down a dangerous scientist whose latest project could endanger the entire world, in this latest thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.
Gaia is dying.
That, at least, is what Dr. Lionel Scott believes. A renowned expert in tropical and infectious diseases, Scott has witnessed the devastating impact of illness and turmoil at critical scale. Society as it exists is untenable, and the direct link to Earth’s death spiral; population levels are out of control and people have allowed disarray and disorder to run rampant. While most are concerned about deadly disease, Scott knows that it is truly humanity itself that will destroy Gaia. It’s only by removing the threat then the planet can continue to prosper, and luckily, Scott is just the right man for the job…
When Scott then disappears without a trace, Letty Davenport is tasked with tracking down any and all leads. Scott’s connections to sensitive research into virus and pathogen spread has multiple national and international organizations on high alert, and his shockingly high clearance levels at various institutions, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, make him the last person they’d like to go missing. As the web around Scott becomes more tangled, Letty calls in her father, Lucas, help her lead a group of specialists to find Scott as soon as possible. But as Letty and Lucas begin to uncover startling and disturbing connections between Scott and Gaia conspiracists, their worst fears are confirmed, and it quickly becomes a race to find him before the virus he created becomes the perfect weapon.
I’m so used to seeing Sandford’s books (at least based on his Flowers series) start off with either a victim about to die or the POV of the villain about to go for the kill that the story starting off with a doctor musing about the death of Gaia and saving a boy from appendicitis (even going so far as to help pay for whatever the mother isn’t able to pay, out of his own pockets) and then that very prologue chapter ending with him pondering over the death of one person being a tragedy vs the death of many being just a statistic…it was a fantastic entry into the 34th installation of the Prey series!
I have not started Letty’s spinoff series [of the Prey series] just yet because I figured, I’m so far behind in the main Prey series, I really ought to get to know her first in the base series before joining her in her investigations. However, I found it to be a pretty good read and enticing enough that it really pushes her first two books up on my TBR list. She is such a strong and well-written character, and I loved the dialogue between her and the other characters in the book. I’ve had peeks of her over in the Virgil Flowers books and I haven’t even gotten to meet her in her father’s books, but I’m definitely in love. There are a lot of mentions of her prior cases including one that involved a big shooting, and past characters like Barb are here to team up with her. All of these mentions only make me more ready to read what I’ve missed so far.
This was a great book and I loved the plot. When it comes to apocalypse settings, I used to love watching zombie and killer virus movies. Biological terrorism, patient zero, crazy guy trying to spread viruses (or already has) and the main protagonists have to either stop him or try to contain the spread. That with the mixture of good ol’ investigations and crime thriller made me love Toxic Prey. I was a little disappointed at how little action there was in the prior Prey book, Judgement Prey, but it was great getting to see Lucas back in action, shooting and running, healthy and ready to go again.
However, the thing that kept me turning pages and keep on reading were actually the bad guys! Back in the Prey or Virgil Flowers books, I mostly enjoyed only the main character’s perspective chapters, but this time around, it’s different. While I still enjoyed following Letty and Lucas on their investigation and trying to track Scott and his crew down, it was that very same crew’s perspective chapters that really caught my attention. Seeing their plan being revised quickly and constantly, while always dodging law enforcement; watching them become fugitives and trying to see how they process their current situation, was what kept the book alive. Their desperation to save Gaia and willingness to sacrifice themselves was quite scary!
All in all, I loved it. A great book with characters that I enjoyed reading and an exciting plot ending with a heck of a climax/final showdown between Letty and her team against Scott. Things got tight and desperate at the end, for both sides. At that moment, if the bad guys win, it was going to be a global disaster. And for Scott, if he couldn’t win, in his head, it would still be a global disaster as Gaia dies and there would be no future left to live. Both sides had no chances or cards left to play and it was a heart-pounding last few chapters. Going to have to seriously explore the Letty Davenport series now!
