It
has been a few months since U.S. Marshall Lucas Davenport was shot. September
is half gone and he knows he still doesn’t look right no matter what the others
say. Working out helps, but he isn’t back physically or emotionally, and he
knows it. He also can’t spend much time worrying about where he is at as he has
new case to work. He lives for the hunt. That freedom to hunt bad folks come
with a cost when folks pull strings to get you a job. In this case, that cost
is the occasional political task.
The
latest installment payment has come due and that means that Lucas Davenport has
to go to Washington to quietly meet with Senators Elmer Henderson and Porter
Smalls. In a surprise to Lucas and no one else, Jane Chase of the FBI is also
present for the meeting. They come to Lucas for his ability to hunt as well as
his discretion as the daughter of Senator Roberta Coil of Georgia has a
problem.
Audrey
Coil found some of her pictures as well as pictures of other kids of elected
officials on a hidden website billed as “1919.” The nineteen appears to be
related to the nineteenth letter of the alphabet, the letter S. In other words,
the site name is code for SS. Based on what is on the site, it appears to be a Neo-Nazi
type group issuing a subtle call to action and using the pictures of kids as
suggested targets. Nothing overt that clearly is a threat though one could look
at the site and come to that conclusion. The FBI has been able to determine the
site is hosted out of Sweden which has strict privacy laws making finding out
anything about those involved impossible. Everything is well hidden, including
the website address and the people behind it, which means they cannot be
identified and questioned.
Senator
Smalls and Porter are acting on behalf of a number of the parents of the kids
who have pictures on the site and want something done about it. The simple
solution of removing the site from the internet would create a new problem as
those behind it could put it up again and do a way better job of hiding it.
They got lucky with finding it in the first place because Audrey Coil has an
internet presence, and advertiser base, and her and her boyfriend stumbled
across it. The parents want Lucas to dig and see if he can find a crime so that
the FBI can do something more than what they have done so far. At this point,
there is no real crime that could be prosecuted as taking pictures of others in
public and posting them on the internet is not a crime. They want Lucas to dig
quietly so that the media does not get wind of it and start broadcasting the investigation
news day and night.
Chase
of the FBI gives Lucas everything they have so far and wants Lucas to keep her
updated as she really wants his help. Lucas is also to keep Director Mallard
advised of what he is doing and update Smalls and Porter as necessary as well
as give them deniability should things go bad from a political perspective.
Things
start escalating very fast after Lucas does a few interviews, starting with
Audrey Coil, and reads a lot of files. The situation is complicated and messy
and keeping things quiet soon becomes impossible in Masked Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel by John Sandford.
Then
the shooting and killing really starts.
This
latest in the series is a fast moving thriller style read with lots of moving
parts. Some may object to the fact that politics from both sides of the aisle
is sprinkled throughout the read with the author pointing out various issues
from time to time regarding extremism on the right as well as the left.
Considering the subject matter, it would be impossible to leave the politics
out of it. Despite what you may read in some criticism, the author does a very
good job of balancing both sides of various issues while not overriding the
main story of the hunt. Mr. Sandford still has the touch thirty books later in
this series and Masked Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel is a mighty
good read.
While
I have been on the hold list in print at the library for months now, Scott put me on hold for
the eBook format and made things work so that I could get it now when it came up
through the Dallas Public Library System.
Masked Prey: A Lucas Davenport Novel
John Sandford
G. P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Books)
April 2020
ISBN# B07WQPHD3M
eBook (also available in hardback, large print, and audio
formats)
416 Pages
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2020
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