Rules of Prey
  • # of Books:
    33
  • First Book:
    July 1989
  • Latest Book:
    October 2023
  • Genres:
    Police Procedural, Thriller
  • Setting:
    Minnesota
  • Characters:
    Lucas Davenport, lead investigator
  • Series Rating:
  • Description:
    John Sandford's popular character, Lucas Davenport, is the lead investigator of Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Davenport first appeared in 1989's Rules of Prey. Since then, Sandford has written more than 20 Lucas Davenport novels.

    Davenport is the kind of detective who prefers to work outside the established rules of the police force. He drives a Porsche and is something of a womanizer. Several of the books in the series cross over with Sandford's other series that focuses on Virgil Flowers.
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The Lucas Davenport / Prey Series in Order (33 Books)

Order Book Date Rating
1 4
2 4
3 5
4 4
5 5
6 5
7 5
8 5
9 5


10 5
11 5
12 5
13 5
14 5
15 4
16 5
17 5
18 4
19 5
20 5
21 5
22 4
23 5
24 5
25 5
26 5
27 5
28 5
29 5


30 4
31 5
32 5
33 0

Book Descriptions for series: Lucas Davenport / Prey


  • Book - 1

    The killer was mad, but brilliant. He left notes with every woman he killed. Rules of murder. Never have a motive. Never follow a discernible pattern. Never carry a weapon after it has been used... So many rules to his sick, violent games of death...



  • Book - 2

    A slumlord butchered in Minneapolis. A politician executed in Manhattan. A judge slain in Oklahoma City. All killed by a relentless assassin - a ritualistic, far from ordinary, serial killer....



  • Book - 3

    Lieutenant Davenport's sanity was nearly shattered by two murder investigations. Now he faces something worse... Two killers. One hideously scarred. The other strikingly handsome, a master manipulator fascinated with all aspects of death. The dark...



  • Book - 4

    Once, Bekker indulged his brilliant obsession with death; now he is in prison. Once, he was hunted by a man who understood the genius of murder; now he wants revenge. . . . Lieutenant Davenport should have killed Bekker when he had the chance. . . ....



  • Book - 5

    The Iceman crept up to the house on the edge of the lake. He killed the father first. Then the mother and child. And when his work was done, he set the house on fire... Lucas Davenport had tracked killers in cities across America. But the woods of...



  • Book - 6

    Porsche-driving Lucas Davenport, who has just returned to duty after recovering from a serious gunshot wound, is charged with saving the political life of Rose Marie Roux, the ambitious police chief who has her eye on a Senate seat. He's given the as...



  • Book - 7

    He knows Lucas Davenport's mind. His every move. His every weakness... John Sandford's acclaimed Prey novels have plunged readers into the darkest recesses of the criminal mind. Now his brilliant detective, Lucas Davenport, knows he has met his ma...



  • Book - 8

    It begins with a death and ends with one. For months, Lucas Davenport's men have been tracking a vicious woman bank robber named Candy, and when they finally catch up with her, she does not go quietly. In the ensuing shoot-out, she dies -- and Davenp...



  • Book - 9

    IT BEGINS WITH A SINGLE GUNSHOT. A wealthy banker is dead, shot once in the chest during a hunting trip. There are many reasons for him to be killed, and many people who would do the deed. But who did? Lucas Davenport has an idea. But this "routin...






  • Book - 10

    Clara Rinker is a southerner, trim, pleasant, attractive -- and the best hit woman in the business. She isn't showy, not like one of those movie killers; she just goes quietly about her business, collects her money, and goes home. It's when she's hi...



  • Book - 11

    In life she was a high-profile model. In death she is the focus of a media firestorm that's demanding action from Lucas Davenport. One of his own men is a suspect in her murder. But when a series of bizarre, seemingly unrelated slayings rock the city...



  • Book - 12

    Lucas Davenport returns in the most harrowing and unexpected Prey novel yet -- the story of a congenial man, and his most uncongenial obsession... Art history professor James Qatar's hobby was taking secret photographs of women. At night when he ...



  • Book - 13

    This time, Lucas Davenport is the prey Years ago, Lucas Davenport almost died at the hands of Clara Rinker, a pleasant, soft-spoken, low-key Southerner, and the best hitwoman in the business. Now retired and living in Mexico, she nearly dies h...



  • Book - 14

    Lucas Davenport's old boss, Rose Marie Roux, has moved up to the state level and taken Lucas with her, creating a special troubleshooter job for him for the cases that are too complicated or politically touchy for others to handle. In addition, Lucas...



  • Book - 15

    Six months ago, Lucas Davenport tackled his first case as a statewide troubleshooter, and he thought that one was plenty strange enough. But that was before the Russian got killed. On the shore of Lake Superior, a man named Vladimir Orslov is found s...



  • Book - 16

    The first body is of a young woman, found on a Minneapolis riverbank, her throat cut, her body scourged and put on display. Whoever did this, Lucas Davenport knows, is pushed by brain chemistry. There is something wrong with him. This isn't a bad lov...



  • Book - 17

    Sometimes you don't see it coming, until it's too late. In a wealthy Minneapolis neighborhood, two elderly women are bludgeoned to death. They are apparently the victims of a random robbery, though nothing of value appears to have been taken. But ...



  • Book - 18

    A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood everywhere, no body--and her collegeaged daughter missing. She's always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them "Goths"? Freaks is more li...



  • Book - 19

    Danger stalks Lucas Davenport at work and all too close to home, in the superlative new thriller by the #1 New York Times-bestselling author. For twenty years, John Sandford's novels have been beloved for their "ingenious plots, vivid characters, ...






  • Book - 20

    This time, there's a storm brewing...Very early, 4:45, on a bitterly cold Minnesota morning, three big men burst through the door of a hospital pharmacy, duct-tape the hands, feet, mouth, and eyes of two pharmacy workers, and clean the place out. But...



  • Book - 21

    A block on the edge of the Minneapolis loop is being razed when a macabre discovery is made: two girls buried under a rotted old house. Lucas Davenport knows how long they've been there. In 1985, he was part of the manhunt to track down two kidnapped...



  • Book - 22

    Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the small Minnesota town of Deephaven, an entire family has been killed -- husband, wife, two daughters, dogs. There's something about the scene that pokes at Lucas...



  • Book - 23

    Murder, scandal, political espionage, and an extremely dangerous woman. Lucas Davenport’s going to be lucky to get out of this one alive. Very early one morning, a Minnesota political fixer answers his doorbell. The next thing he knows, he’s w...



  • Book - 24

    The extraordinary new Lucas Davenport thriller from #1 "New York Times"-bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner John Sandford. The night after the fourth of July, Layton Carlson Jr., of Red Wing, Minnesota, finally got lucky. And unlucky. ...



  • Book - 25

    They call them Travelers. They move from city to city, panhandling, committing no crimes -- they just like to stay on the move. And now somebody is killing them. Lucas Davenport’s adopted daughter, Letty, is home from college when she gets a pho...



  • Book - 26

    After the events in Gathering Prey, Lucas Davenport finds himself in a very unusual situation -- no longer employed by the Minnesota BCA. His friend the governor is just cranking up a presidential campaign, though, and he invites Lucas to come along ...



  • Book - 27

    Lucas Davenport’s first case as a U.S. Marshal sends him into uncharted territory in the thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series. The man was smart and he didn’t mind killing people. Welcome to the big leagues, Davenpor...



  • Book - 28

    Lucas Davenport confronts an old nemesis, now a powerful U.S. senator, in this thrilling #1 New York Times-bestselling new novel in the Prey series. Lucas Davenport had crossed paths with her before. A rich psychopath, Taryn Grant had run succe...



  • Book - 29

    Lucas Davenport pursues a prolific serial killer who has gone undetected for years in the newest nail-biter by #1 NewYork Times bestselling author John Sandford. It was a relatively minor criminal matter, all things considered, but enough that the...






  • Book - 30

    Lucas Davenport investigates a vitriolic blog that seems to be targeting the children of U.S. politicians in the latest thriller by #1 New York Times-bestselling author John Sandford. The daughter of a U.S. Senator is monitoring her social media p...



  • Book - 31

    Fan-favorite heroes Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces on a deadly maritime case in the remarkable new novel from #1 New York Times-bestselling author John Sandford. An off-duty Coast Guardsman is fishing with his family when he calls ...



  • Book - 32

    Beloved heroes Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are up against a powerful vigilante group with an eye on vengeance in a stunning new novel from #1 New York Times-bestselling author John Sandford. “We’re going to murder people who need to ...



  • Book - 33

    Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers take on another challenging case in this thrilling new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author....


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

There are 33 books in the Lucas Davenport / Prey series.

The next book in the Lucas Davenport / Prey series, Judgment Prey (Book 33), will be published in October 2023.

The first book in the Lucas Davenport / Prey series, Rules of Prey, was published in July 1989.

The Lucas Davenport / Prey series primarily falls into the Police Procedural and Thriller genres.
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