Literary pick for week of April 7: John Sanford’s ‘Toxic Prey’
Letty said, ‘It’s possible that Scott is trying to determine whether it’s feasible to cleanse the earth, Gaia, of what he considers to be a disease that will destroy Gaia, that disease being humanity. It’s possible that he will try to do that — and maybe has done it — by loading the Marburg pathogen into a measles virus. Or something like that. I don’t understand the mechanics of it.” — from “Toxic Prey”
There’ve been plenty of thrillers speculating about terrors of a deadly disease spreading throughout the world, and nobody does it better than John Sandford in “Toxic Prey,” 34th in his series featuring U.S. marshal Lucas Davenport and now Letty, his adopted daughter.
Sandford, pen name for former Minnesotan and Pulitzer Prize-winner John Camp, turned 80 in February and this milestone birthday seems to have energized him because this book is fast-paced and scary.
Brilliant researcher and scientist Lionel Scott belongs to a a group of like-minded people who believe in the Gaia hypothesis, which posits that Earth — Gaia — has always balanced herself but now fossil fuels and other human intrusions have been too much to overcome and the only way to save the dying planet is to kill half the world’s population. Experimenting on humans, Scott figures out a way to bind the lethal Marburg virus found in fruit bats in a cave in Kenya to the measles pathogen that is contracted through the breath of an infected person or physical contact. There has never been anything like this. It is so deadly it can kill in less than a week. If Scott and his companions leave New Mexico and infect surfaces in hub airports in the U.S., the disease will spread around the world.
When Scott disappears, Letty is dispatched to find him before he can carry out his plan. Although she has credentials from the Department of Homeland Security, her boss is an influential U.S. senator. As scientists and others in the medical community learn of Scott’s experiments, they become more frightened and the case goes to the highest levels in Washington and England. Lucas is called in to help and the action never lets up as Letty’s team is joined by state police, military police from local U.S. Army bases and local law enforcement.
A safehouse is found where medical experiments have taken place; three recovering but still sick men are found in a bus; a woman is killed when the Gaia believers need her house. Everything the Letty/Lucas team learns convinces them they must do anything to prevent Scott and his helpers from destroying the world, even if it means shooting them on sight. Eventually, there are so many agencies involved in the search that everybody hardly fits on the pages. It’s all presided over from Washington, D.C., by Letty and Lucas’ handler who informs the president of the danger and is instructed to give them anything they need, from makeshift hospitals to helicopters.
The action bounces between Letty’s and Lucas’ teams and the planning and whereabouts of Scott and several women who are willing to die to carry out their plans. Will Scott try one last method of swiping the liquid virus while Lucas, Letty and sniper Cartwright lie in wait for him?
This is Letty’s third appearance (after “The Investigator” and “Dark Angel”), and she’s coming more into focus. In the first book she was a Superwoman, caring mostly about her guns and generally humorless. She’s more human in “Toxic Prey” (Putnam, $32), enjoying the company (and bed) of a British MI5 agent. This leads to some funny dialogue between her and her dad, who knows she’s an adult but still, the idea of his daughter in bed with a guy…
This is Sandford at his best; real characters, a little humor, action, and a plausible and chilling reminder of what could happen if zealots get their hands on lethal toxins. Sandford’s devoted fans will love this one, and newcomers will be hooked. Happily, they have 33 previous Prey books to discover.
