JUDGMENT PREY

4 stars out of 5

Any book that includes either Lucas Davenport or Virgil Flowers, Minnesota law officers and pretty good buddies, is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit with me. Put the dynamic duo together for an entire book, then, and the ball has a tendency to fly all the way out of the park. 

This time out, Lucas is still struggling both physically and mentally with injuries from a previous case (Virgil was injured, too, but he's mostly back to normal (if it's possible to use the word "normal" in any description of the guy). Lucas gets called out to an horrific crime scene in St. Paul; federal judge Alex Sand and his two sons have been fatally shot in their home. The bodies are found by the judge's wife Margaret Cooper, a local college professor and some-time actress, who is so distraught that she can't think straight (although I strongly suspect she was a few bricks shy of a chimney even before the murders).

After three weeks or so, the case remains unsolved; at that point, Virgil - a regional agent for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation - gets called in to review the case and calls Lucas to tag along. As is almost inevitable with murders, the spouse is a suspect; but while they don't trust her as far as they can throw her, neither Lucas nor Virgil think the wife did it this time around. Also inevitably, they look at past rulings by the judge that might have generated plans for payback; also at issue is the judge's planned donation - a whopper - to a local charity that's now in limbo.

Much of the fun, as usual, centers on the banter between Lucas and Virgil, bolstered by looks into their personal lives and characters readers have come to know and love like Weather (Lucas' wife). And as the investigation moves along, readers also become privvy to clues that will take Virgil and Lucas a little longer to figure out (while we cheer them on). The end was a titch disappointing just because a couple of unsavory characters don't quite get the comeuppance I'd have preferred (nope, not gonna, don't ask).

So back to that aforementioned home run: If I'm honest, this one came darned close but didn't quite make it over the fence. A couple of gaps in the story - like what the details of what the killer really did that triggered (so to speak) his need to go on that shooting spree - and some very unlikable characters made this story simmer instead of sizzle and not be my favorite book in the long series (this is the 33rd of the Davenport books). Still, it's enjoyable and held my attention from beginning to end, and in no way dampened my enthusiasm for future books with either or both of the guys who have become all-time favorite characters in them. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me once again to read and review a pre-release copy.

Judgment Prey by John Sandford (G.P. Putnam's Sons, October 2023); 400 pp.