John Sandford Books In Order – Complete List
New York Times bestselling author John Sandford, full name John Roswell Camp, is well known worldwide for his Lucas Davenport novel series which has been ongoing since 1989.
The John Sandford books in order include his most popular bestselling Lucas Davenport / Prey series, with over 30 crime mystery novels. The series started with Rules of Prey, which was first published in 1989.
While Prey is John Sandford’s main series, he has also written additional books in the Virgil Flowers book series, the Kidd series, The Singular Menace books, and his latest series featuring Letty Davenport, the adopted daughter of Davenport. All series are well worth reading.
Latest John Sandford Books
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Lucas Davenport Books in Publication Order
The publication order of Prey series is the same as the chronological reading order. Some of the Prey novels are also included in the related Virgil Flowers and Letty Davenport series.
- Rules of Prey, 1989
- Shadow Prey, 1990
- Eyes of Prey, 1991
- Silent Prey, 1992
- Winter Prey, 1993
- Night Prey, 1994
- Mind Prey, 1995
- Sudden Prey, 1996
- Secret Prey, 1998
- Certain Prey, 1999
- Easy Prey, 2000
- Chosen Prey, 2001
- Mortal Prey, 2002
- Naked Prey, 2003
- Hidden Prey, 2004
- Broken Prey, 2005
- Invisible Prey, 2007
- Phantom Prey, 2008
- Wicked Prey, 2009
- Storm Prey, 2010
- Buried Prey, 2011
- Stolen Prey, 2012
- Silken Prey, 2013
- Field of Prey, 2014
- Gathering Prey, 2015
- Extreme Prey, 2016
- Golden Prey, 2017
- Twisted Prey, 2018
- Neon Prey, 2019
- Masked Prey, 2020
- Ocean Prey, 2021
- Righteous Prey, 2022
- Judgement Prey, 2023
- Toxic Prey, 2024
- Lethal Prey, 2025
Lucas Davenport Short Stories
A short story where Lucas Davenport teams up with Lincoln Rhyme, Lily Rothenburg, and Amelia Sachs. The story takes place in New York City.
- Rhymes With Prey (Lincoln Rhyme / Lucas Davenport short story with Jeffery Deaver), 2014
Letty Davenport Series in Publication Order
Letty is the adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport.
- The Investigator, 2022
- Dark Angel, 2023
- Toxic Prey, 2024
Virgil Flowers Books In Publication Order
Virgil Flowers was first introduced in the Prey books in Invisible Prey.
- Dark of the Moon, 2007
- Heat Lightning, 2008
- Rough Country, 2009
- Bad Blood, 2010
- Shock Wave, 2011
- Mad River, 2012
- Storm Front, 2013
- Deserves to Be Dead (#7.5), 2018 (with Lisa Jackson)
- Deadline, 2014
- Escape Clause, 2016
- Deep Freeze, 2017
- Holy Ghost, 2018
- Bloody Genius, 2019
- Ocean Prey, 2021
- Righteous Prey, 2022
- Judgement Prey, 2023
- Lethal Prey, 2025
The Singular Menace Books in Publication Order
co-authored with Michele Cook
Anthologies in Publication Order
- FaceOff, 2014 (with David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, and more)
- MatchUp, 2017 (edited by Lee Child)
- Best American Mystery Stories, 2017
Standalone Novels and Short Stories in Publication Order
- The Night Crew, 1997
- Dead Watch, 2006
- Lucy Had a List, 2006 (published as a short story in Murder in the Rough)
- Saturn Run, 2016
Written as John Camp
Kidd Series In Publication Order
- The Fool’s Run, 1989
- The Empress File, 1990
- The Devil’s Code, 2000
- The Hanged Man’s Song, 2003
Non-Fiction Books
- The Eye and the Heart: The Watercolors of John Stuart Ingle, 1988 (a detailed examination of the life and art of John Stuart Ingle)
- Plastic Surgery, 1989 (written with Minnesota plastic surgeon Bruce Cunningham)
John Sandford Biography
New York Times bestselling author John Sandford is the pen name of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Roswell Camp, aka John Camp. He was born in 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa where he received his BA in American History and a master’s degree in journalism.
For several years John Sandford was a journalist, working for The Miami Herald between 1971-1978. After moving to Minneapolis, he started writing as a features reporter for The Saint Paul Pioneer Press for two years, before becoming a full-time daily columnist in 1980.
During his journalism career he was once nominated for the Pulitzer price, and once actually won it for a series he wrote about a farming family in Minnesota, with the title “Life on the Land: an American farm family”.
His debut as a novel writer started with two books he wrote in 1989, the first one titled The Fool’s Run written under his own name, while the second one, Rules Of Prey written under his new pseudonym, John Sandford, an alias which he created at the request of his publisher.. Each of these books was the start of a new – and very popular – series.
My favorite series if, of course, his Prey series. It suspenseful, gory, with an edge of your seat type stories, and I’ve been reading the books as fast as they were published, which thankfully came at a rate of a book a year. While the official name of the series is Lucas Davenport, I’ve always called it ‘Prey’, because, well, each book title contains the word ‘Prey’ in it, and honestly, once you read the John Sandford novels for this series, you realize just how much more fitting Prey is compared to Lucas Davenport. In fact, many websites now and even shopping sites like Amazon are starting to called the series simply Prey.
The entire Prey series by the author John Sandford is fascinating, especially to anyone who loves books with a vicious mad serial killer and their nemesis who loves to hunt them down in often non-orthodox ways. Lucas Davenport is by no means poor. He has made his money from designing war games and he really doesn’t need this job. But he wants it and the freedom of not needing the money means he can catch the bad guys by playing by his own rules.
Do you have to read the John Sandford novels in order? My opinion is yes, and here is why. The events in the John Sandford Prey series take place in chronological order, which means if you start the series from a book in the middle, you might not have some of the backgrounds into the main character or some things that happened before.
As for the Virgil Flowers series, the main character here is known to Lucas Davenport, who takes him into the BCA (the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension), which means Lucas Virgil’s direct boss. The location of the place is in Bluestem, a small town which is hardly on the map.
So the two John Sandford series not only should be read in proper chronological order but with the two main characters being connected, it just makes sense to follow them based on how the events happened. Thus, the John Sandford book list includes quite a lot of books to pick up, but they’re all worth it.
John Sandford Book Adaptations
With John Sandford’s novels consistently topping the New York Times bestseller list, it came to no big surprise that some would be adapted to the big screen. The very first adaptation was in 1998 of Mind Prey, which was made into a TV movie starring Eriq LaSalle, best known for his role on ER, as Lucas Davenport. However, much to the book fans’ disappointment, the film didn’t do that well. It failed to captivate the audience, and many fans hated it.
However, in 2011, Certain Prey became another book-to-movie adaptation featuring NCIS star Mark Harmon in the main role. This time, the film was a success. The premiere attracted over five million happy viewers. It became one of the most watched programs of that day, which was only surpassed by The Walking Day and football. It also became the second-highest-rated cable movie of the year, which only proved that, given the right approach, the Prey books can easily translate to the screen.
Dare we now hope for a full-fledged Lucas Danvenport TV series at some point?
John Sandford Awards and Nominations
- Was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on Native Americans in 1980
- Received the Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors which recognized his excellence in non-deadline feature writing in 1985
- Won the Pulitzer Prize for his five-part series which examined the life of an American farm family faced with the worst U.S. agricultural crisis since the Depression in 1986
- Mortal Prey was nominated for the Audie Award, Best Male Narrator, in 2003
- Bad Blood received the Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Novel in 2011
- FaceOff was nominated for the Anthony Award in the Best Anthology / Collection category, in 2015
- Received the ThrillerMaster Award at ThrillerFext XIV, which recognized his lifetime achievement in the thriller genre in 2019
- Received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, which recognized his significant contributions to the mystery genre in 2025.
i have really enjoyed the John Sandford books. I have read all of them . Can you suggest another Author I might like as well?
Michael Connelly of course.
First let me say I am an avid reader, worked in systems engineering and this author does pay attention to the details… really enjoy them all ( and have em’ in my library) starting over again after 20 ‘ or so years
Samm
Would love another Shay Remby book after The Singular Menace Series.
Are there more Jake Winter books.
In Buried Prey Marcy Sherril is killed as a single woman. A couple of books earlier Marcy is married with a child. What happened?
Does anyone know where both Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers titles are merged in reading order?
Clive Owen = Lucas Davenport
Josh Holloway = Virgil Flowers
Love all Sandford characters including Kidd…but the early versions when they were single and had a titillated sex life 🙂
Added spice to their characters and to the stories. Getting bored with Davenport’s Finnish midget surgeon wife…and Flowers big busted mini girlfriend expecting twins after 5 kids…really? I am no pervert and as old as Mr. Camp…but we can still remember 🙂 Maybe we can give Davenports oldest college age daughter a book of her own…
I’m sorry but I can’t help it John Sandford is one of my favorite authors and 1 book per year is not good enough 🙂 🙂 🙂 yes he is older now and doesn’t have to work but he chose the life and he has many many many fans who crave a fix of Davenport or Flowers and all of his other anti-hero’s come on John …. you can do it 🙂 🙂 🙂
For pity’s sake, politics has been part of the series since the beginning of the BCA in the 1990s.
I like how he brings lesser known characters back from obscurity. Kidd and LuEllen have been enjoyable in the Prey series. It was nice to see Sloan playing poker with the guys in Neon Prey, after disappearing for most of a decade.
The problem as I see it for Sandford movies is who gets to play the main characters? No-one I presently see on the big screen can fit the bill. Using someone like Woody Harrelson (who’s way too old) would change Virgil forever and destroy his uniqueness. Virgil is not a drug addict or drunk. His character needs to be played by someone who understands what it’s like to actually live in rural MN/Iowa. Davenport? He’s cold, calculating, intelligent, obstinate, horny, fatherly, subtle, mean, lovable, easy to hate yet love. There are no arrogant boys in Hollywood who can play him, period. These are men folks, not left wing nuts who opine on things they think they understand. Virgil and Lucas would never live in Hollywood or even fit in. They’re too real! But maybe, just maybe the Coen Brothers could cast it correctly?
When will the next Virgil Flowers novel be published? I love those books, and I can’t wait to read the next one.
JUST LOVE LUCAS. WISH HE WERE BACK IN THE BCA TOO. WISH HE LOVED HIS WIFE MORE. DON’T WANT TO SEE OLDEST DAUGHTER ANYMORE. DONATING ALL MY USED BOOKS (HAVE ONE OF EACH, SOMETIMES TWO) TO TINY LIBRARY. THOSE CUSTOMERS ARE GONNA THINK SANTA CLAUSE IS REAL. SHE IS. BYE ALL, MARY, FROM IDAHO.
Waiting for Hollywood to make movies from John sanford books.
I see woody harrelson playing Virgil flowers.
Thanks for your excellence Mr.camp.
My first exposure to John Sanford’s books was “twisted prey”. Someone left this new paperback book I picked up at a generous food pantry in Wareham, Massachusetts
I have many more I find at a used thrift shop in new Bedford,mass.
Thank you John for keeping me entertained and learning new words too
I just read my first John Sandford book storm pray. Loved it. I know all the places he’s talking about I grew up in West St. Paul Minnesota. Looking forward to reading more of his books.
Yes, the Prey books should be read in sequence, with the Flowers books folded in. The Kidd books should be read somewhere in the middle, but before Golden Prey. All three series mesh.
I have read all of the prey novels and some of Virgil Flowers loved them all. I am also from New Mexico
I love the prey series and Virgil flowers series… I listen on audiobook do to being a Trucker and have listened to every book at least twice… PS bring Lucas back to the BCA
Love all the books of John sandforf
I love all of the prey books especially the Flowers novels. In twisted prey it got political. I have yo ask “why”? Why alienate loyal readers? It made me sad to think John Sandford has gotten so big that he could live without some loyal fans.
the prey books are outstanding, i live in Wisconsin so it makes it even more fun to read since i’ve been to most of the places he talks about.
Absolutely, in sequence ! Love Sanford’s writing !
Love Prey books but not as much since Davenport became a US Marshall.
Would love to see more Jacob Winter books
Would love to see a series of Jacob Winter.
I would like to know why Kidd novels stopped? Very strong character story line. Was it because ending of hang mans song was too painful?