Twisted Prey — Lucas Davenport #28

A Senator’s Crime

Twisted Prey, the twenty-eighth Lucas Davenport novel, brings back one of the series’ most chilling antagonists: Taryn Grant, the wealthy sociopath Davenport tangled with in Silken Prey. Grant is now a United States senator — having achieved the power she ruthlessly pursued — and just as dangerous as ever. When she tries to murder a colleague who got in her way, Davenport, now a U.S. Marshal, sets out to stop her, but he faces a formidable obstacle: Grant has the money, the power, and the private muscle to fight back hard, to make even a marshal disappear. The rematch with the sociopathic senator gives Twisted Prey a tense, personal, high-stakes intensity.

The return of Taryn Grant is the book’s great draw. A worthy villain deserves a rematch, and Grant — sociopathic, ruthless, and now armed with the power of the Senate — is exactly the antagonist worth bringing back. A sociopath in office is uniquely dangerous, and Grant’s combination of amorality and political power makes her a frightening adversary, her position protecting her crimes and her wealth funding her defense. The rematch between Davenport and the senator he despises gives the novel a personal charge, the history between them from Silken Prey deepening the confrontation. The return of Grant gives Twisted Prey a formidable, memorable antagonist.

A Protected Antagonist

What makes Twisted Prey tense is the difficulty of touching a protected antagonist. Power protects the ruthless, and Grant’s position as a senator — her political immunity, her wealth, her private security — makes her exceptionally hard to pursue, the powerful figure insulated from the law. Davenport must navigate the obstacles that Grant’s power erects, her money and muscle fighting back against his investigation, and the difficulty of bringing a protected, powerful sociopath to justice gives the novel its tension. Some adversaries fight back hard, and Grant’s resources — her private security, her political connections, her willingness to eliminate threats — make her a dangerous, formidable target.

This dynamic of a marshal pursuing a protected senator gives Twisted Prey a high-stakes Washington intrigue. Davenport, with his U.S. Marshal authority but limited against a senator’s power, must find a way to bring Grant to justice despite her protection, and the asymmetry — the lawman against the powerful, insulated sociopath — gives the novel a tense, David-and-Goliath quality. Grant’s willingness to fight back with money and muscle, even to threaten Davenport, raises the personal stakes, and the difficulty of touching the protected senator drives the book. The protected antagonist distinguishes Twisted Prey.

A Personal Rematch

Twisted Prey is a personal rematch, the history between Davenport and Grant from Silken Prey giving the confrontation a personal charge. The novel reads richer with knowledge of Silken Prey, where Grant was introduced and her sociopathy established, and the rematch builds on that history, the mutual antagonism between Davenport and the senator deepening the confrontation. Davenport’s pursuit of Grant is personal, his determination to stop the sociopath he tangled with before giving the novel emotional stakes, and Grant’s willingness to fight back makes the rematch dangerous. The personal history gives Twisted Prey a charge beyond a standard pursuit.

The grim, ruthless tone — Grant’s sociopathy, her willingness to kill, the dangerous Washington intrigue — gives the novel a dark edge, and the late-2010s setting dates the book. But the return of Grant, the protected-antagonist tension, and the personal rematch give the novel high-stakes intensity. Sandford’s sharp prose and propulsive plotting carry the political thriller, and the rematch with a memorable antagonist gives it significance. The combination of Grant’s return, her protected power, and the personal rematch makes Twisted Prey a tense, personal entry.

A Tense, Personal Entry

Twisted Prey is a strong, tense Lucas Davenport novel, and its strengths are the return of Taryn Grant, the protected-antagonist tension, and the personal rematch. The sociopathic senator’s return gives the novel a formidable antagonist, her protected power gives it tension, and the personal history gives it stakes. The dependence on Silken Prey and the grim tone are considerations, but the return of Grant and the personal rematch distinguish it.

Sandford’s sharp prose and propulsive plotting carry the political thriller, and Grant gives it a formidable antagonist. Twisted Prey is the series in a tense, personal mode, anchored by the return of the sociopathic Taryn Grant and a high-stakes rematch, one of the more personal recent entries in the Prey series.

Where It Sits in the Series

Twisted Prey is the twenty-eighth Lucas Davenport / Prey novel, following Golden Prey and preceding Neon Prey. It brings back Taryn Grant from Silken Prey, reading richer with knowledge of that book. For readers tracking the Prey series, it is a tense, personal entry.

Among the Prey novels, Twisted Prey stands out for the return of the sociopathic Senator Taryn Grant and its personal rematch, a tense recent entry. It is a political thriller anchored by a powerful, protected antagonist, demonstrating Sandford’s gift for memorable villains and giving Davenport a high-stakes, personal confrontation with a sociopath in office.

What makes Twisted Prey satisfying is the way it raises the stakes of the Taryn Grant story by elevating her power. In Silken Prey, Grant was a wealthy candidate; here she is a sitting senator, insulated by office and surrounded by private muscle, and that escalation makes the confrontation genuinely asymmetric. Davenport, for all his marshal’s authority, is the underdog against an opponent with the resources to surveil him, obstruct him, and even threaten his life, and the novel draws real tension from the difficulty of bringing a protected, powerful sociopath to account. The personal history between them sharpens every exchange, and Sandford lets the reader feel Davenport’s frustration at confronting an enemy the system is designed to shield. It is a pointed entry, animated by a recognizable anxiety about whether the powerful are ever truly subject to the law, and Grant remains one of the few series villains formidable enough to make Davenport’s victory feel genuinely uncertain.

Our rating: 4.0/5 — A tense, personal Lucas Davenport thriller that brings back sociopathic Senator Taryn Grant for a rematch, as U.S. Marshal Davenport pursues a powerful antagonist who fights back with money and muscle.