John Sandford Books

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John Sandford is the best selling author of many novels, ranging in genre from thriller, mystery, young adult, science fiction, and non-fiction. After being a reporter in the Army, he became a reporter for two papers for almost twenty years.

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Order of Prey/Lucas Davenport Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Rules of Prey 1989 Description / Buy
2 Shadow Prey 1990 Description / Buy
3 Eyes of Prey 1991 Description / Buy
4 Silent Prey 1992 Description / Buy
5 Winter Prey 1993 Description / Buy
6 Night Prey 1994 Description / Buy
7 Mind Prey 1995 Description / Buy
8 Sudden Prey 1996 Description / Buy
9 Secret Prey 1998 Description / Buy
10 Certain Prey 1999 Description / Buy
11 Easy Prey 2000 Description / Buy
12 Chosen Prey 2001 Description / Buy
13 Mortal Prey 2002 Description / Buy
14 Naked Prey 2003 Description / Buy
15 Hidden Prey 2004 Description / Buy
16 Broken Prey 2005 Description / Buy
17 Invisible Prey 2007 Description / Buy
18 Phantom Prey 2008 Description / Buy
19 Wicked Prey 2009 Description / Buy
20 Storm Prey 2010 Description / Buy
21 Buried Prey 2011 Description / Buy
22 Stolen Prey 2012 Description / Buy
23 Silken Prey 2013 Description / Buy
24 Field of Prey 2014 Description / Buy
25 Gathering Prey 2015 Description / Buy
26 Extreme Prey 2016 Description / Buy
27 Golden Prey 2017 Description / Buy
28 Twisted Prey 2018 Description / Buy
29 Neon Prey 2019 Description / Buy
30 Masked Prey 2020 Description / Buy
31 Ocean Prey 2021 Description / Buy
32 Righteous Prey 2022 Description / Buy
33 Judgment Prey 2023 Description / Buy
34 Toxic Prey 2024 Description / Buy
35 Lethal Prey 2025 Description / Buy

Order of Lucas Davenport vs. Lincoln Rhyme Short Stories/Novellas

# Read Title Published Details
1 Rhymes With Prey: Lincoln Rhyme vs. Lucas Davenport (Short Story) ( With: Jeffery Deaver) 2014 Description / Buy

Order of Letty Davenport Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Investigator 2022 Description / Buy
2 Dark Angel 2023 Description / Buy
3 Toxic Prey 2024 Description / Buy

Order of Kidd & LuEllen Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Fool's Run 1989 Description / Buy
2 The Empress File 1991 Description / Buy
3 The Devil's Code 2000 Description / Buy
4 The Hanged Man's Song 2003 Description / Buy

Order of Virgil Flowers Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Dark of the Moon 2004 Description / Buy
2 Heat Lightning 2008 Description / Buy
3 Rough Country 2009 Description / Buy
4 Bad Blood 2010 Description / Buy
5 Shock Wave 2011 Description / Buy
6 Mad River 2012 Description / Buy
7 Storm Front 2013 Description / Buy
8 Deadline 2014 Description / Buy
9 Escape Clause 2016 Description / Buy
10 Deep Freeze 2017 Description / Buy
11 Holy Ghost 2018 Description / Buy
12 Bloody Genius 2019 Description / Buy
13 Ocean Prey 2021 Description / Buy
14 Righteous Prey 2022 Description / Buy
15 Judgment Prey 2023 Description / Buy

Order of Singular Menace Series with Michele Cook

# Read Title Published Details
1 Uncaged 2014 Description / Buy
2 Outrage 2015 Description / Buy
3 Rampage 2016 Description / Buy

Order of John Sandford Standalone Novels

# Read Title Published Details
1 The Night Crew 1997 Description / Buy
2 Dead Watch 2006 Description / Buy
3 Saturn Run 2015 Description / Buy

Order of The MatchUp Collection Series

# Read Title Published Details
1 Honor & ... ( By: C.J. Box, Sandra Brown) 2017 Description / Buy
2 Deserves to Be Dead (Short Story) ( With: Lisa Jackson) 2017 Description / Buy
3 Getaway (Short Story) ( By: Lisa Scottoline, Nelson DeMille) 2017 Description / Buy
4 Midnight Flame (Short Story) ( By: Christopher Rice, Lara Adrian) 2018 Description / Buy
5 Short Story (Short Story) ( By: Karin Slaughter, Michael Koryta) 2019 Description / Buy
6 Past Prologue (Short Story) ( By: Diana Gabaldon, Steve Berry) 2019 Description / Buy
7 Faking a Murderer ( By: Lee Child, Kathy Reichs) 2019 Description / Buy
8 Dig Here (Short Story) ( By: Charlaine Harris, Andrew Gross) 2019 Description / Buy
9 Taking the Veil (Short Story) ( By: J.A. Jance, Eric Van Lustbader) 2019 Description / Buy
10 Rambo on Their Minds (Short Story) ( By: Gayle Lynds, David Morrell) 2019 Description / Buy
11 Footloose (Short Story) ( By: Val McDermid, Peter James) 2019 Description / Buy
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Order of Corinne Demas Picture Books

# Read Title Published Details
1 Nina's Waltz (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas, Deborah Lanino) 2000 Description / Buy
2 Hurricane! (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas, Lenice Strohmeier) 2000 Description / Buy
3 The Boy Who Was Generous With Salt (Short Story) ( By: Michael Hays, Corinne Demas) 2002 Description / Buy
4 Saying Goodbye to LuLu (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas) 2004 Description / Buy
5 Two Christmas Mice (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas) 2005 Description / Buy
6 Yuck! Stuck In The Muck (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas) 2006 Description / Buy
7 Valentine Surprise (Short Story) ( By: R.W. Alley, Corinne Demas) 2007 Description / Buy
8 Pirates Go to School (Short Story) ( By: John Manders, Corinne Demas) 2011 Description / Buy
9 Halloween Surprise (Short Story) ( By: R.W. Alley, Corinne Demas) 2011 Description / Buy
10 Does A Fiddler Crab Fiddle? (Short Story) ( With: Corinne Demas, Artemis Roehrig) 2016 Description / Buy
11 Are Pirates Polite? (Short Story) ( By: David Catrow, Corinne Demas, Artemis Roehrig) 2016 Description / Buy
12 Do Jellyfish Like Peanut Butter? (Short Story) ( By: Ellen Shi, Corinne Demas, Artemis Roehrig) 2020 Description / Buy
13 The Grumpy Pirate (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas, Artemis Roehrig, Ashlyn Anstee) 2020 Description / Buy
14 The Perfect Tree (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas, Penelope Dullaghan) 2022 Description / Buy
15 Once There Was (Short Story) ( By: Corinne Demas, Gemma Capdevila) 2023 Description / Buy
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John Sandford Anthologies

# Read Title Published Details
1 FaceOff 2014 Description / Buy
2 MatchUp 2017 Description / Buy
3 The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 2017 Description / Buy
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Print: Print PDF

He said that after working as a reporter in St. Paul for a short time, he found that there was very little that could happen to report on and got burnt out on it. So he started writing fictional stories to try and start another career. He has not entirely quit journalism, he still writes a few articles for certain things. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and graduated from the University of Iowa. He was born on February 23, 1944. He was married to his wife, Susan Lee Jones from 1966 until her death in May of 2007; she died of breast cancer. Together, they had two kids (Roswell and Emily), who have three kids of their own. He would remarry in 2013 to Michele Cook, who is a screenwriter and journalist. They live together in New Mexico and Wisconsin.

Sandford has spent most of his career writing the “Prey” series. And he has also written the “Kidd & LuEllen” series, the “Virgil Flowers” series, and the “Singular Menace” trilogy (with wife Michele Cook). The “Prey” series, “Kidd” series, and “Virgil Flowers” series all take place in one universe, because the three lead characters detective Lucas Davenport (“Prey” series), computer expert/ artist Kidd (“Kidd” series), and Virgil Flowers (“Virgil Flowers” series) have all appeared in the ‘Prey” series. Virgil Flowers started out as a character in the “Prey” series, and when he became popular, Sandford started writing novels with him as the main character. He has also written some stand alone novels (including one with Ctein) and some non fiction books.

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF JOHN SANDFORD’S BOOKS:

The chronological order of all John Sandford novels in each series are the same as the publication order of them.

JOHN SANDFORD AWARDS:

John Sandford is a Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist (he was nominated for another in 1980). He won the prize in 1986 for articles that he wrote about a farming family over the course of a year. Ten years later, he wrote a follow up story on the farming family to talk about what they had been up to since he stopped documenting their life.

He also won the the Distinguished Writing Award of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1985.

JOHN SANDFORD’S BOOKS INTO MOVIES/TELEVISION:

There have been two made for TV movies made from his works. The first one was in 1999 called Mind Prey. it featured Eriq La Salle as Lucas Davenport. The other made for TV movie was Certain Prey, which came out in 2011. This one starred Mark Harmon as Davenport.

BEST JOHN SANDFORD BOOKS:

John Sandford has written some great novels in his time, but some have stood out more for fans. Two of the books that Sandford is most known for are “Certain Prey” and “Eyes of Prey”. Two of his most known villains are found in these two books; and would later get their own sequels to conclude their arcs.

Certain Prey: introduces readers to villain Carmel Rinker. She would later appear in “Mortal Prey”. Readers feel sympathetic (and even like her, in some cases) towards her because she was raped and later took care of the man who raped her. She is a villain because she is a killer. Over the course of the events in “Certain Prey”, she becomes friends with a lawyer. Of the reviews on Amazon, 63% of them were five star reviews.

Eyes of Prey: This one features villain Dr. Bekker (who would return in “Silent Prey”). Unlike Rinker, Dr. Bekker is not someone fans like. He has been compared to Hannibal Lecter for the way that he kills his victims. Davenport, after working some nasty cases, is not quite a hundred percent to solve the case, that starts out with a woman being murdered. The only clue that Lucas can work with at the beginning is that a troll looking man with a scarred face was seen near the crime scene. Of the reviews on Amazon, 66% were five star reviews.

Bad Blood: In addition to the Prey series, John Sandford has also written the Virgil Flowers series which has gotten excellent reviews from fans and reviewers alike. It is a spin-off from the main Lucas Davenport/Prety series and stars Virgil Flowers as a thrice-divorced, affable member of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Many fans think Bad Blood is the book where Virgil Flowers really starts to match Lucas Davenport in terms of story quality and intrigue. The story begins with a young man just out of high school murdering a local farmer, trying to make it look like an accident. When he is arrested for the crime, he’s found dead in his jail cell under very fishy circumstances and no one knows why he did the original crime. It’s on Virgil to figure out why and solve the case in this book filled with twists and exciting action scene.

Deep Freeze: The most recent Virgil Flowers book is also one of the best in the series. This one takes the theme of High School being murder and taking it to it’s extreme. A 25-year high school reunion is coming up in a small Minnesota town and a woman has been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. In order to figure out who did it, Virgil must ingratiate himself with the class and dig in to years of drama, bad blood and feuds. This is beloved by most fans and has some of the funnier elements of any Virgil Flowers book.

When Does The Next John Sandford book come out?

The next book by John Sandford is Lethal Prey and will be released on March, 25th 2025. It is the newest book in the Prey/Lucas Davenport Series.

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4 thoughts on “John Sandford”

  1. I understand that the Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers series chronology is the same as the publication order but do the series overlap and or intersect chronologically? Where you would read Virgil Flowers books at the same time as the Prey series?

  2. Just finished Deadline. You sure can write a story! I am a big fan from way back. Read many Prey books but in the hub bub of raising three children, working and then just living in general, I missed a lot of them. I read Ocean Prey and now I have to back track. I have to find out what happened to Del Casplock! Keep writing. You do it so well.

    Thank you.

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