Letty Davenport, the brilliant and tenacious adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport, takes the investigative reins in the newest thriller from #1 bestselling author John Sandford. “Sandford fans rejoice! Davenport next generation has arrived and Letty is exactly the kind of cool-eyed, smart-mouthed, lethally dangerous heroine we’ve been waiting for.” --Lisa Gardner, author of One Step Too Far By age twenty-four, Letty Davenport has seen more action and uncovered more secrets than many law enforcement professionals. Now a recent Stanford grad with a master’s in economics, she’s restless and bored in a desk job for U.S. Senator Colles. Letty’s ready to quit, but her skills have impressed Colles, and he offers her a carrot: feet-on-the-ground investigative work, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security. Several oil companies in Texas have reported thefts of crude, Colles tells her. He isn’t so much concerned with the oil as he is with the money: who is selling the oil, and what are they doing with the profits? Rumor has it that a fairly ugly militia group might be involved. Colles wants to know if the money is going to them, and if so, what they’re planning. Letty is partnered with a DHS investigator, John Kaiser, and they head to Texas. When the case quicky turns deadly, they know they’re on the track of something bigger. The militia group has set in motion an explosive plan . . . and the clock is ticking down. “ The Investigator is a procedural action thriller in which the technical sleuthing only heightens the tension. Letty is such a capable character, and Mr. Sandford such a fine tactician, it would seem incomprehensible and even cruel to deny readers a swift follow-up.”-- Wall Street Journal  “John Sandford created a winning formula with his furiously paced Prey novels, which star Lucas Davenport, a Minnesota detective turned U.S. marshal with a penchant for sharp dressing, high romancing and expert marksmanship. In T he Investigator he moves the chess pieces to a different board.”-- New York Times “Sandford’s first Letty Davenport novel is a violent, topical, fast-paced story that’s sure to please action fans.”-- Library Journal (starred review) "Readers are treated to Sandford's well-crafted prose, conversational but never chatty and charged with boisterous humor. A top-line thriller from one of thegenre's heavy hitters." -- Booklist "A domestic-terrorist plot gives the adopted daughter of storied U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport her moment to shine. Generations may succeed generations, but Sandford’s patented investigation/action formula hasn’t aged a whit. Bring it on."-- Kirkus Reviews "Letty Davenport takes center stage in this welcome series spin-off. One of Sandford's best books in years."-- Publishers Weekly "If John Sandford’s The Investigator isn’t the most-anticipated spring book, it’s darn close…Sandford writes fully realized characters and no doubt he will deepen our understanding of Letty as the series matures.”-- Pioneer Press “Fans of the Lucas Davenport series will find much to like in the adventures of his adopted daughter.”-- Criminal Element John Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of twenty-nine Prey novels; four Kidd novels; twelve Virgil Flowers novels; three YA novels coauthored with his wife, Michele Cook; and three other books. One Backside of an old brick-and-stucco building on the edge of downtown Tallahassee, Florida, ten o'clock on a muggy evening in early September, a couple weeks before the autumn equinox. The cleaning crew had left, rattling their equipment carts and trash bins across the blacktop to their vans. A few people remained in the building; two cars sat in the parking lot, and there were lighted offices on the second and third floors. A young woman with crystalline blue eyes and a short brown ponytail sat behind a ragged boxwood hedge, her back against the building's concrete foundation, a rucksack between her knees. Dressed in black jeans, a black long-sleeved blouse, with a reversible red-black jacket, black side out, she was no more than an undifferentiated dark lump behind the hedge. She could turn the jacket to the red side, if needed, so she wouldn't appear so obviously camouflaged for the night. A noisome mosquito buzzed her face, looking for an opening; to her left, a vent pooped vaguely fecal odors out of the building. Piece by piece, one distraction at a time, the young woman cleared her mind; no more odors, no more bugs. She'd hunted for food as a child and she'd learned that a predator created a vibration that other animals could sense. She'd been in every sense a predator, but if she'd put her back against a tree and cleared her mind, the vibration would fade, she'd become part of the landscape, and the prey animals would go back to whatever they were doing before she arrived. She'd had rabbits hop within six feet of her, unalarmed before they