Lethal Prey

by John Sandford

Part of Virgil Flowers, book 16

First published 2025

Twenty years ago, someone stabbed Doris Grandfelt to death and dumped her body in trees near an urban park outside St. Paul. The killer vanished without a trace. Now Doris's twin sister Lara faces breast cancer and her own mortality. She posts the entire cold case file online and offers five million dollars for information leading to an arrest. True crime bloggers swarm the case, hunting for evidence and clicks. Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers must sift through their findings for genuine leads. When bloggers discover the murder weapon, the detectives start piecing together the killer's identity. But the murderer watches from plain sight, using the bloggers' public posts to stay ahead of the investigation. As the online crowd pushes Lucas and Virgil closer to the truth, they realize that exposing Doris's buried past puts their own lives at risk.

Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller

Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful

Tropes: cat-and-mouse, unreliable-narrator

Setting: St. Paul

Period: Twenty Years Ago

400 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam's Sons

Content warnings: murder, violence

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