Book Review: MASKED PREY by John Sandford

MASKED PREY by John Sandford (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, April 14, 2020) Lucas Davenport series #30. Hardcover, 406 pages.  ISBN # 0525539522 / 9780525539520  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . .

Lucas Davenport returns to the cutthroat quagmire of Washington, D.C., in the stunning new novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Prey series.

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . .

     You can always count on John Sandford for an engaging thriller.

MASKED PREY was especially better than average for Sanford, with a complex plot with very topical themes: alt-right groups, gun activists, the dark web, conspiracy theorists, Nazi-like web sites, and tech-savvy manipulative teens. Mix that all together and get a book that's hard to put down. 

     Sandford presents varying points of view from these fringe groups in a way that helps with understanding how their theories were developed, in an objective fashion that does not champion them. The story reads as a straight police procedural from point A to point Z. What puts it over the top is Sandford’s ability to develop and depict authentic seeming characters and some very engaging and moving dialogue. 

     On a very strange internet blog there are pictures of the sons and daughters of influential Washington politicians along with reprinted articles that reflect Nazi and radical right themes. 

    Is this a coded message to unstable extremists to rub out some of these priviliged children in order to influence a particular vote, or is it just the rantings of some crazed conspiracy theorists?  Lucas Davenport has to figure that out, and stop it if it turns out to be true. 

     Some nice twists and turns here and a few subtle messages about Washington politics and fringe groups. One of the better Davenport novels I have read.