Naked Prey

"Naked Prey" by John Sandford

Another excellent Lucas Davenport mystery. Lucas works for the State now and is called on when a white woman and black man are found hanged, the Governor does not want the crime to be seen as a racist lynching, and of course there is much more to the story.
Murders, kidnappings, car theft and drug smuggling nuns.
Love the introduction of Letty West.
First quote page 23.

"A fuckin' lynching, and we gotta fix it. For our own sakes, along
with everything else," Del said, when Lucas had finished.
"Not a lynching."
"Walks likes a lynching, quacks like a lynching..." They sat silently for a
moment, watching the snow come down around a red light. Then, "Could be a
good time, you know?"

Page 248

The deputy winced. "Okay. You know, out here on the
prairie...strange things happen when people are alone too much."
"In the city, strange things happen when they're together to much," Del
said.
"Strange things happen," the deputy said.

Next quote page 346. It's a long one, but I couldn't decide what to leave out. Classic Lucas and Del. Have I mentioned I have a crush on Lucas?

"Good time to quit," one of the Californians said, talking through the
snorkel of his snorkel parka. "If you'd kept it up, I would have been
tempted to take out my piece and kick your sorry ass. No offense,
ladies."
"I don't want to seem insulting, or vulgar, but none of you fuckin' FBI
humpty-dumpties can shoot half as well as Del over there, and I personally can
shoot several times better than Del," Lucas said.
"Au contraire," Del said. "You can hold your end up on the nice,
heated, lighted range. But out here, in the real world, you can't hold a
candle to me. Though you're right about the fuckin' FBI
humpty-dumpties."
Ruth looked at Letty and said, "Oh, God. This is why you should
never get married, honey. These people got a rivulet of testosterone
running through them, and anything can set it off. A cheese sandwich can
set it off."

I'm looking forward to the next 'prey' book, but sadly we're about caught up to the most recent Sandford has written and when we are I'm not sure what I'll do without a Lucas fix.