Abandoned by Booklikes

Not too much to say about this one besides it was action packed from beginning to end. When Lucas finally catches on to what is happening the book really ratchets up the tension. That said, it's getting old with Lucas's family in peril. At this point he just needs to hire an off duty security guy because the bad guys always stupidly decide to try to take him out. I thought it was great to increase more of Del, Jenkins, and the guys. Thought it was hilarious (in a bad way) that no one mentions Marcy considering she was the ridiculous plot point the whole last book revolved around. 

"Stolen Prey" begins with Lucas getting robbed by two people. Yeah, that happened. I shouldn't have laughed, but couldn't help it. Of course Letty turns it into you must track these people down and end them because yep she's still a psychopath. More on that later. With Lucas in a cast and feeling out of sorts, he gets called into a brutal family murder. It appears based on what is left on the wall in the victim's blood, someone is out to take people out. It's a long winding road to figure out what is going on and who is involved though. This case focuses on a Mexican cartel who are up against the Federales, DEA, as well as Lucas's team. 

Lucas seems more mellow in this one. I maybe laughed anytime he was dealing with Flowers. And even Lucas realized that trying to get revenge was a lost cause in his case of tracking down the thieves. I thought we got glimpses of old Lucas (i.e. he is smarter and more dangerous than he looks). 

Lucas's family is fine. I am glad though it finally got brought up that something is off with Letty. And it's getting old that Sandford keeps bringing up her upbringing. We get it, she still needs a shrink. Why no one has suggested that she talks to Lucas's old childhood friend baffles me. I assume that Lucas will just continue to ignore things until she loses it on the wrong person.

Del is hilarious and I loved him and Lucas interviewing people together. They are a really good team and play off each other very well.

We have new characters in this one, but I honestly never think of them again unless they are brought up in future books.

The writing was much tighter on this one. For once we didn't jump around plots with Lucas being involved in too many things. The thieves are being followed up by Flowers, so we hear about it until Lucas finally gets called in and I laughed at that whole thing. Most of the focus on this one is on the murdered family and who else the killers may be after. The pacing was really good too and I thought going back and forth between Lucas, Del, the killers, and other people worked. When we get into Letty's head towards the end I just went ehh though.

The ending leaves things up in the air a bit with Letty and I think Lucas keeping his head buried is going to leave things unresolved for a while.