"Phantom Prey"

"Phantom Prey" is John Sandford's 18th novel in the Lucas Davenport series and this one is one of his best yet in my opinion. 

When Alyssa Austin comes home to find a smear of blood in her house but no sign that there has been a break in because the alarm hasn't been tripped, she assumes her daughter, Frances, had stopped in.  When Frances is nowhere to be found, the police begin investigating as if it it s murder.

Lucas is in the midst of helping with security details for an upcoming Republican convention in his area plus he is also involved in a watch on the wife of a drug lord who has skipped town.  He and other officers spend time watching her apartment from a surveillance point across the street because they're sure he'll slip back into town to see her and they want to catch him when he does.

Enter Weather (Lucas' wife) who is a friend of Alyssa Austin and Alyssa asks her to convince Lucas to look into her daughter's case.  The Austins are a prominent family so it doesn't take much for Lucas to convince the Governor that he ought to be involved in the case.  When several of Frances' friends are murdered and Lucas himself is shot, the investigation begins to heat up in earnest and Lucas works with the other investigating officers as well as Alyssa to figure out what is going on.

I'm not sure where Sandford gets his story ideas but this one is fascinating and like nothing I've ever read before.  If you like a good mystery, it's a must read  -- but I think I say that about all of Sandford's books!  pazt