Righteous Prey

A press release lands soon after a violent predator is found dead in San Francisco, and its message is blunt: the group behind it intends to kill people it believes deserve to die. Calling themselves only "The Five," these vigilantes are thought to be wealthy and restless, with money to spare and a taste for killing. Their targets are rapists, murderers and thieves, and each killing is followed by a gesture of repair. Untraceable Bitcoin sent through the dark net goes to charities and to the victims of the crimes.

The public loves it. On social media The Five become folk heroes, cheered as a real-life caped crusader dealing out the justice the system never delivered. But the group's motives may be less noble than its admirers assume, and its fame is only part of the picture.

When a woman is murdered in the Twin Cities, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in. The killings are intelligent and carefully staged, and the victims have no obvious link to the killers, which leaves almost nothing to trace. Davenport and Flowers must find a way into a group that has planned for exactly this. Righteous Prey is a Prey novel from John Sandford that brings his two best-known investigators together against an enemy with money, patience and a public on its side.