G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 423 pages, $29
John Sandford’s 31st book in his “Prey” series brings together two of his most famous protagonists. Minnesota lawmen Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join forces to roundup the drug-smuggling murderers of three Coast Guard sailors off the coast of South Florida.
“Ocean Prey” opens with Davenport and fellow marshal Bob Matees heading to Miami in a case where the FBI and local law enforcement have reached a dead end. The Coasties were killed in cold blood by smugglers who, after stowing a drug hoard undersea, burned their expensive boat, destroying all the evidence. The Yankee marshals were brought in to stir things up. And that is what they did.
Find a body. Become a suspect. Take dangerous risks.
Itâs all part of the job for Willie Black in
âJordanâs Branchâ (The Permanent Press, $29.95, 232 pages), the 10th novel in Howard Owenâs Richmond-set series featuring the police reporter for the cityâs daily newspaper.
When college acquaintance Randolph Giles âStickâ Davis returns to Richmond after several years in the British West Indies, he hires Willie to write his life story for $50,000. But Stickâs murderâWillie discovers the corpseâleaves Willie with only the $5,000 down payment and Police Chief L.D. Jonesâ scrutiny.
The middle-class Westwood neighborhood where Stick lived was once a haven for former slaves and home to a portion of a creek, Jordanâs Branch. And itâs near the streamânow mostly buriedâthat Willie unearths a threat of coming destruction in Virginia.