This was a very well-written, entertaining book. It was very interesting, fast-paced and kept me reading. I enjoyed this book and this author is a must-read for me.

Letty Davenport has really developed into her own series. Despite her father, Lucas, being part of this book, there’s no doubt this is Letty’s story. She needs to pull in all the resources, including her US Marshall father to track down a mad scientist who believes the only way to save the Earth is to drastically reduce the current population. And by drastic, he’s hoping for about 80%. And the most logical way to do that is by the spread of a highly contagious and deadly infection.
As a Federal agent, Letty is able to call in resources from all corners of the US as well as an assist from an English M15 agent. While this one has a lot of characters and agencies to keep straight it all seem to add to the fluidity and the mad rush of the investigation. This is definitely a race against time novel with deadly chases and moral dilemmas.
In the midst of one of the most horrific investigations of their lives, Sandford still can appropriately inject his characteristic humor as Lucas realizes there may be more than a professional relationship between his daughter and her English counterpart.
Sandford did not disappoint with this one! Coming on the heels of the pandemic, it had a strange and eerie believability aspect. And if you haven’t read Sandford yet, I highly recommend you start at the very beginning and enjoy the thirty-four books surrounding this team.

Loved the characters! I’ve read multiple Lucas Davenport stories before but for some reason this one was not the best. I fell in love with Letty and loved her throughout the entire story!

The plot of the book was not the best. I couldn’t get into it and found it hard at time to keep reading but the characters really saved this one for me.

Successful series writers always face the challenge of keeping the audience interested in a hero who dispatches villains in book after book. To solve this problem, they often resort to “upping the ante.” If the hero bests one villain in the first book, they must overcome two nastier villains in the sequel. This literary “arms race” often becomes silly. The “Fast and Furious” franchise began as the story of a group of street racers who pulled off spectacular yet plausible heists to augment their income. As the franchise became more successful, they became heroes who even went into outer space to fight evildoers.

Throughout 34 novels in 35 years, John Sandford’s hero, Lucas Davenport, has stopped dozens of serial killers and similar dangerous psychopaths and criminals. But in the author’s latest Davenport work, “Toxic Prey,” Sandford finally ups the ante brilliantly. The villains are much the same as in previous books, but the stakes are much higher: a potential world-ending pandemic. The result may be catastrophic for life as we know it, but it is an excellent read for Sandford fans.

Although “Toxic Prey” is the latest in the “Prey” series, Lucas Davenport plays second fiddle to his daughter, Letty. She’s a federal agent assigned to track down a missing scientist. Letty’s search takes her to the scientist’s native England, where she meets an MI5 agent who becomes her partner on the trail and in bed. When Letty returns to the United States, she deduces the scientist may have developed a doomsday virus with a high mortality rate and a higher communicability rate. If he perfects and releases the virus, the result could be a pandemic many times the magnitude of COVID, causing billions to die.

When Letty reports her findings, the government soon assembles a team that includes Lucas and various other law enforcement personnel and disease specialists. They must find the scientist and his largely unknown accomplices and stop them. If anyone eludes the manhunt and infects even a single outside person, that victim could become “patient zero.” The investigators also must avoid letting the public learn about the danger, which would cause a panic-driven stampede of possibly infected people. Fortunately, the scientist, his accomplices, and the virus samples are in a fairly remote, mountainous region north of Albuquerque, NM. It’s not the Unabomber’s cabin in the woods, but the few roads in and out of Santa Fe and Taos give the authorities a chance to contain the virus.

Most of “Toxic Prey” comprises what readers expect from Sandford’s Lucas Davenport novels. This time, it’s not just Lucas (and Letty) but a team that comes up with leads (having access to government databases is a big help). As in many “Prey” novels, the author devotes a few chapters to the villains. Readers learn the doctor isn’t the prototypical mad scientist but a believer in the “Gaia theory.” That theory states the Earth and all living creatures are parts of one symbiotic organism. The scientist believes the organism is threatened by the virus of overcrowding. His solution is to reduce overcrowding quickly and permanently. He has also used the dark web to recruit a handful of equally dedicated followers.

Many scholarly books have been written on the Gaia theory and overcrowding, but John Sandford isn’t interested in a philosophical discussion of those issues. Instead, the scientist’s obsession is the hook that drives the plot. The scientist’s motivation humanizes him somewhat (he’s uncomfortable about the individual murders his group commits) but doesn’t impede a top-notch thriller.

“Toxic Prey” has its share of stakeouts, chases, and shootouts. (The villains carry assault rifles as well as virus vials.) But the nature of the threat adds a surreal element to the investigation. The investigators can’t just collect forensic evidence as they would at other crime scenes. Every sample and potential piece of evidence may be infected. So, readers watch the precautions the authorities take as the investigators don cumbersome hazmat suits with limited amounts of oxygen. (Wearing a hazmat suit in the New Mexico desert for an hour becomes exceedingly uncomfortable.) Houses, vehicles, and bodies must be incinerated to avoid the risk of viral spread. And when the investigators encounter a suspect, they must ensure the suspect doesn’t get close enough to anyone to infect them. While the Davenports always realized that allowing killers to escape could cause innocent deaths, here, those deaths could range in the billions rather than a handful.

Although the threat of a worldwide cataclysm is always present in “Toxic Prey,” it doesn’t read like a typical doomsday novel. The author focuses on the investigation and narrowing down the search. The villains are also resourceful and change plans as escape and infection routes are cut off. Like the best Davenport novels, “Toxic Prey” becomes a chess game between wily adversaries. The author sometimes effectively switches points of view from the investigators to the villains, showing how both sides arrived at the same place at the same time.

The excitement of the chase and the various deadly encounters keep the suspense high and help avoid an overbearing atmosphere of gloom-and-doom. And the author livens the book up with discussions among the investigators of the extent to which they will observe constitutional safeguards and whether to declare martial law. The investigators also must figure out which local police to trust and to what degree. Not surprisingly, some small-town cops are sharp and observant, others far less so.

Most of all, “Toxic Prey” is character-focused. Letty is the actual protagonist and finds time in the middle of the pursuit to get very, very friendly with her MI5 counterpart. And Lucas finds himself in the role of a concerned father, wondering about his daughter’s choice of men. Above all, the book has its share of lighter moments. The investigators keep every McDonalds in New Mexico busy with the copious numbers of Big Macs they order. And there’s a lot of banter and good humor among the investigators, who don’t allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the gravity of their assignment.

“Toxic Prey” is one of the best Davenport novels I’ve read. The author has overlaid his usual formula with the highest possible stakes. The result is an intense ratcheting of suspense and a fascinating assortment of aspects of the investigation unseen in earlier “Prey” books. However, the book never becomes fatally ridiculous or implausible, and the character-driven aspects of this series are as evident here as in Sandford’s earlier books. “Toxic Prey” will be intoxicatingly exciting for Sandford and thriller fans.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Toxic Prey
By: John Sandford
Publisher: Penguin Group Putnam G.P. Putnam and Sons
Pub Date: 4/9/2025

This is Lucas Davenport #34. This time Lucas teams up with his daughter Letty to find a group of dangerous people who are trying to spread disease to control the population.
Lionel Scott is missing, he’s spent his life studying infectious diseases and how they transmit from person to person. With his knowledge alone everyone is in danger. As the bodies begin to pile up, Lucas and Rae are brought in to hunt down the criminals while Letty is investigating Scott’s background and trying to figure out where they have him. The infectious disease adds an extra element of danger to the plot. While trying to investigate they have to keep themselves safe.
This book moves very quickly and is action packed. I was excited for Lucas and Letty to team up like this. They work well together and I hope there are more crossovers like this in the feature.
Thanks to NetGalley, John Sandford and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC.

John Sandford's Toxic Prey is the 34th installment in the authors Lucas Davenport Prey series. This could also be considered as Letty Davenport's 3rd installment. Lucas Davenport is a true maverick; whether he's working for the law or skirting procedure, he utilizes his exceptional ability to get inside the mind of a killer, along with his select contacts in the government, the media, and the criminal underworld to get the job done. He's worn many hats during his career in Minnesota—police officer, detective, BCA investigator, state troubleshooter, but his newest job takes him into the biggest arena of all.

Letty Davenport is the adopted daughter of Lucas. She has seen her fair share of danger and has done things that would make a normal person squeamish. Letty works as an investigator for Senator Colles of Florida as well as being part of Homeland Security tracking down domestic and foreign terrorists. In this episode, Letty is sent to the UK to track down a missing scientist by the name of Lionel Scott who used to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico – a primary research facility into diseases that might be weaponized by an enemy. She, along with her newest partner, Alec Hawkings of MI5, learn that Scott is an expert in tropical and infectious diseases.

Scott has witnessed the devastating impact of illness and turmoil at critical scale. He believes that humanity is destroying the planet, so why not create a disease so deadly that it will likely kill three quarters of the planet? Letty, Alec, Lucas, who is now a US Deputy Marshal, and his partner Rae Givens, learn about 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.

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. Add in a bit of humanity to the story, ala Letty moving on from her former partner, and finding a bit of excitement with Alex much to the chagrin of her father. Also, one should expect the unexpected from both Lucas and Letty in this installment.

*Thoughts* For me, it’s important that thrillers stay on this side of the believability line and not wander too far into science fiction. This story is terrifying to read because the accuracy of what the writer portrays in this book is not all that far fetched. This story mixes both Marburg and Measles. Marburg is a haemorrhagic fever, often fatal illness in humans, and Measles, which was eradicated from the US in 2000, has seen a comeback in the US due to undocumented and unvetted migrants.

Have you listened to or read any recent stories about the evidence that COVID was not only created in a lab, but by gain of function research? It has become obvious that certain powerful people don't want the truth to come out about how the US government helped the Chinese create the virus. It is also apparent that the FIRM has no intention of sending anyone to prison for helping create COVID. Ask yourself why, and then ask yourself why the US has bio labs in Ukraine. Then sit back and realize what happens in this book is not so far fetched after all.

Toxic Prey rocked!! I love the Davenport series and all the characters who returned in this story (Lucas, Rae, Letty) and several new characters (Alec)! John Sanford outdid himself this time with a race to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam books for the ability to read this story!

I love reading about all of John Sandford's characters but Letty Davenport is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The daughter of his longest running character, Lucas Davenport, Letty is with Homeland Security and along with her father and whole cast of intriguing characters they are combating a unique villain who wants to destroy have the world's population to save the planet. Great characters and a fast moving plot kept me turning the pages until I had read it straight through. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for an advanced reader copy.

Letty finds herself tasked with an assignment that seems kind of out there. There appears to be a man who is trying to stop the destruction of Gaia (the earth) and is plotting a way to rid the world of quite a bit of its population. She is in constant communication with Greet who tries to get her everything she needs. When it becomes apparent that there is going to be hunting down of individuals, she has her dad, Lucas, and Rae called in from the U.S. Marshalls. She is also teamed with up with MI5's Hawkins, who is tasked professionally with trying to stop his fellow Brit from destroying the world while also personally being enamored with Letty. There is the usual banter found in Sandford's novels. The topic was quite heavy but was dealt with in a way that made it seem not so bad. I liked how Sandford took a topic that is relevant right now and put a spin on it that really made me think. There were some light moments and some darker moments in this book that added to the entertainment factor. I don't want to give away what happens because I feel this book is best served by going in blind. I am a fan of this series and this book was right up there with some of my other favorites in this series. I will say, if you like the Prey series, you will like this book.

One of the better Prey books. Love the Letty/Lucas combo. The dialogue, story, and action were all on point. Next one need to add that That F#$king Flowers to the duo and I'll be really happy!!

I love the characters in this book, as usual. But I'm not a fan of the medical contamination trope so I didn't enjoy this book as much as I usually do. I do like John Sandford, he's an auto read author for me.

One missing scientist. One really big problem.

Letty Davenport gets a call from her putative boss, a Senator with a lot of pull with DHS for which she technically works, with an urgent request. Lionel Scott, a British doctor with a background in infectious diseases and some really high security clearances, is missing. Given that he was most recently spending time at Camp Detrick in Maryland (home of USAMRIID) and at Los Alamos, NM, looking into infectious diseases with an eye towards gain-of-function enhancements…..well, his disappearance has people in high places more than a little concerned. Letty heads to England and Oxford University, where Scott has extensive ties, trying to get a bead on where he might have gone and why. She is escorted by MI5 agent Alec Hawkins, and what the two start piecing together indicates that there is trouble brewing. Scott is brilliant, has accrued a tremendous amount of knowledge, and has gone off the rails. He is convinced that Earth is in a death spiral, and the only way to save the planet is to eliminate a large chunk of the human population. COVID was bad, but what Scott wants to do is far worse. Letty heads back to the US, where a small group of people (including Letty’s father, US Marshall Lucas Davenport) are assembled to find out where Scott is, who he has working with him, and how far along they are in their plot to let a highly contagious and lethal bio weapon on the the world.
This it the 34th outing for Lucas Davenport, and is another solid and enjoyable adventure. Letty, like her father, is lethal and a maverick, and sometimes a maverick (or in this case, a team of mavericks) is just what you need to solve a problem. Like me, readers have just seen the effects of an unknown pathogen on the world…and in Toxic Prey, the world is confronting something exponentially worse. What should a government do when it is faced with such potential devastation? Is martial law needed? Do those hunting the terrorists-to-be shoot to wound or kill? And what sacrifices need to be made for the greater good? Fast-paced and topical, Toxic Prey is a great read for both established fans of the series as well as those who enjoy authors like David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, and Michael Crichton. Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam/G.P. Putnam’s & Sons for allowing me access to an early copy.

This book was an interesting topic and I enjoyed the plot line but there were too many characters that I had trouble keeping straight who was who. I also feel the story was a pretty slow burn for 60% of it which made it hard to get through. Not my favorite of this author’s books, unfortunately.

After Covid, Toxic Prey speaks to our deepest fears about biological warfare and people willing to compromise their morality for what they deem the fulfillment of a greater purpose. In Toxic Prey, that purpose is the elimination of 80% of the world’s population to save the planet from the burdens of overpopulation. It involves an edge of the seat pursuit of a virologist and his radicalized cohort to prevent the release of a biological weapon. With the lessons of Covid so recent, one feels the desperation of the hunters keenly. It strips the normal bounds of humanity and the protections of the law away from the military and law enforcement remaking the pursuers into a rabid lynching party sacrificing individual lives for the National and international good. A compelling and riveting novel.

Wow, what a thrill ride! I think this is one of John Sanford’s best books. And he should only write Letty Davenport novels from now on. Dad can make an appearance, and maybe Virgil Flowers, but the STAR of the Sandford character pantheon is definitely Letty.

Letty and a new partner travel from England to the American Southwest to stop a group that wants to eliminate half of the Earth’s population to save the planet. Their method, a mixture of the measles and an Ebola variation. Letty, her dad and a cast of familiar and new characters race to save the world. The ending hinted at Letty’s partner and love interest appearing in another book.

My thanks to Putnam Group, John Sandford and Netgalley.
I love the characters. I've finally developed a soft spot for Letty, and if course Lucas is my main man!
But, I hated the whole entire plot. Everything about it just was very bland. I know it was supposed to be scary, but?
Also, I've always been very firmly in the camp of the idjits who were behind this whole plot! I have no issue with killing off humanity.

As a die-hard John Sandford fan, diving into "Toxic Prey" was an absolute thrill ride from start to finish. Sandford's trademark blend of suspense, action, and razor-sharp wit shines brightly in this gripping tale. From the very first page, I was hooked by the intricate plot and complex characters. Sandford's masterful storytelling kept me on the edge of my seat, eagerly turning pages to uncover each twist and turn. "Toxic Prey" is yet another testament to Sandford's unparalleled talent as a storyteller, and I couldn't recommend it more to fellow fans craving a dose of adrenaline-fueled excitement.

As I said back in 2022 when Letty Davenport, the adopted daughter of U.S. Marshals Service officer Lucas Davenport and his physician wife, Weather, got a starring role for the first time in "The Investigator," I enjoyed the book but kind of hoped it was a one-off. That's because I never really connected with Letty - maybe because I loved her dad (and mom and their friend Virgil Flowers) so much that I saw and resented her as some kind of intruder. Well, after reading the second book, both Letty and I grew up (well, she got older and wiser; as an octogenerian, I was already there physically, at least) and now we're cool.

Anyhow, this story hits a timely - and frightening - topic of biological warfare. Early on, we see Dr. Lionel Scott, a fervent believer in "Gaia" - the theory that all living things on the planet interact with each other to create and maintain a synergetic system. Now, he is certain, the human side of that equation has gone out of control, thus threatening its delicate balance. To that end, he's come up with a deadly solution.

But oops, he's nowhere to be found. Fortunately, Letty is reachable; she's called in to find him even before anyone realizes the consequences of his disappearance and the potential fallout thereof, so to speak. Since Scott is British, Letty is first sent to London, where she meets hunky (well of course!) M-15 agent Alec Hawkins, who will accompany her to Scott's alma mater, Oxford, to learn more about the guy - plus a few hangers-on who have drunk Scott's version of Kool-GaiAid. And what they learn is terrifying; immediately, Letty calls in the big guns including her father, Lucas. From that high-level meeting of the minds comes a plan to contain a deadly virus before it kills millions of unsuspecting and innocent people - even if it means killing more than a few unsuspecting and innocent people in the process.

The rest of the book, really, is Lettie and all the "good" guys and gals trying to figure out how to outwit the "bad" guys and gals before they set loose a viral killer that could wipe out half of the world's population. Pretty heady stuff that sure grabbed my attention. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

"Society as it exists is untenable."

In Toxic Prey, Lucas Davenport partners with his daughter, Letty, to locate a scientist who plans to launch a globally devastating terrorist attack.  Dr. Lionel Scott and his followers believe that thanks to humanity, Earth is dying and the only way to save it is to release a virus that will kill half of Earth's population. It MUST be done if our planet Earth is to be saved.
 
It was an interesting premise but the pacing seemed so slow, drawn out, and repetitious, to me.  This just wasn't one of my favorite John Sandford books.

Many thanks to both #GPPutnamsSons and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of #ToxicPrey.  This book is #34  in the #LucasDavenport series, with an expected publication date of April 16, 2024.

#LettyDavenport

John Sandford has done it again: written a fiendishly clever book whose plot is both plausible and frightening. How does he sleep at night? Continuing to combine characters from his other series with the main character of the "Prey" books, Sandford has created another super crime-fighting duo in Lucas and his daughter, Homeland Security agent Letty Davenport. Together, they set out to save the world—literally.

Dr. Lionel Scott, an expert in infectious diseases, views the world as being on the precipice of death due to overpopulation. With no solution in sight, Scott takes it upon himself to solve the problem by developing a highly contagious virus that, once released, promises to kill off eighty percent of the world's population. Surrounded by a small group of like-minded followers, he disappears into the wilds of northern New Mexico to perfect his virus and plot its release. His disappearance from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, with its research into highly classified projects, does not go unnoticed, however, and soon Homeland Security agent Letty Davenport is charged with finding Scott. The more Letty learns about Scott, the more concerned she becomes. Enlisting the help of her father, U. S. Marshall Lucas Davenport, and an MI5 agent from Scott's home country of Great Britain, the hunt is on.

This is a powerful, fast-paced novel that raises some ethical and moral questions. It is not "preachy," but it does highlight an issue that should be cause for concern. Sandford does such an excellent job of character development that there were times I was sympathetic to Scott and his followers—a horrible thought, I know.

Thank you, NetGalley and G. P. Putnam's Sons, for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The publication date is April 9, 2024.