Here’s my overall evaluation of John Sandford’s Ocean Prey. Too much technical language involving diving and not enough Virgil Flowers. However, I loved Sandford’s Author’s Note. He talks about a couple mistakes he made about guns in several of his books. He knows gun people are fanatical about that. Then, he mentions some of the technical information he needed about diving for this book. “If you are a diver, and you do find a serious error, I would ask that you write it down on a piece of scrap paper, then wad the paper up, put it in your mouth, and chew thoroughly before you swallow. I don’t want to hear about it. I’m asking nice – don’t make me come over there.” Now, those are the kind of comments I appreciate from the man who created Virgil Flowers.

Barney Hall was a mess in school, but a smart guidance counselor advised him to go into the military, and he thought the Coast Guard was perfect. Five years later, Barney and his wife are on a boat when they see a boat pick up a diver in the middle of the ocean off of Pompano Beach, Florida. He calls it in to the Coast Guard, and he witnesses the shooting of three guardsmen when they attempt to board the boat. He manages to shoot one of the people in the boat, but the following investigation leads nowhere.

Four months later, Lucas Davenport agrees to work with the FBI who suspect the boat was picking up drugs from a drop in the ocean. Davenport and another U.S. Marshal, Bob Matees, head for Florida. Lucas and Bob share a love of banter, but neither seem to take the case or Florida seriously enough, and it blows up in their faces. That’s when Davenport calls on Virgil Flowers for help.

Virgil teams up with a Marshal named Rae to deceive the men who killed the guardsmen, while Davenport is working the drug angle. While the middle third of the book is a set-up for the final action, that action itself is worth the book.

However, if you’re like me, with no interest at all in diving, boats, and the technical aspects of diving, the middle third drags. Virgil is my favorite character, and there wasn’t enough of him in the book. However, it depends why you’re reading Ocean Prey. If you’re reading the next Prey book as a fan of Davenport, you’re in luck. If you’re reading for Virgil’s snarky comments and behavior, you’ll have to wait for the last third of the book, and take what you can get. It’s up to you.

Ocean Prey by John Sandford. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021. ISBN 9780593087022 (hardcover), 432p.

FTC Full Disclosure – The publicist sent me a copy of the book, with no promise of a review.