It could have been solved if there was a good Edit function, but that’s clearly too much to ask for.

Typing on a phone in a coffee shop in Mexico somehow resulted in five million typos. The more things went sideways, the more mistakes I made, so I just scrubbed the whole thing until I was sitting on a couch somewhere quiet.

So yeah, don’t look too closely, or things start to fall apart.

So the characters all age on comic book time. Tony Stark was injured in Vietnam… or Iraq… or Afghanistan, depending on the audience at the time, and the needs of the story.

Worse, one of Lucas’s friends – Kidd – was a first Lieutenant in Vietnam. With the most generous interpretation of the times involved, Kidd has to be in his mid-70s at the absolute youngest. And Lucas is canonically a year older than Kidd.

If you’re a stickler for continuity, that’s a problem. Lucas can’t be a two-year rookie in 1985 (Buried Prey) and a 15-year veteran in 1991 (Eyes of Prey).

But if you make a timeline of the books, you find that either the ages are impossible, or the dates are impossible, or both. Lucas was seven years younger than the author when the series started. Now he’s a few years younger than the author’s son.

(Once more, without typos.)

When the author wrote the first book, he was 44 and Lucas was 37. That’s old enough that Lucas isn’t a wet-behind-the-ears rookie, but not so old that he’s in danger of retirement.

So really Kidd was in Vietnam the same way Tony Stark was: until it becomes sort of weird for the times. So maybe Kidd served in Kuwait, or Afghanistan, or… Like that.

“Revenge Prey” is now available in stores across the US. Spotted in the wild here at Barnes & Noble in Escondido, California.

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore – Your Bookstore Wherever You Are Shop The Poisoned Pen Bookstore for new releases, signed books, author interviews, and exceptional customer service. Your favorite bookstore, wherever you live.

The event will be livestreamed on the Poisoned Pen's YouTube and Facebook pages. Check the Poisoned Pen's website for more information:

www.poisonedpen.com

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore – Your Bookstore Wherever You Are Shop The Poisoned Pen Bookstore for new releases, signed books, author interviews, and exceptional customer service. Your favorite bookstore, wherever you live.

Signed (and even personalized) copies WILL be for sale at the event, and they will take orders for those who can't make it. And yes, they ship internationally.

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore – Your Bookstore Wherever You Are Shop The Poisoned Pen Bookstore for new releases, signed books, author interviews, and exceptional customer service. Your favorite bookstore, wherever you live.

In just a few hours – 7pm local time – John Sandford will be doing a Q&A at the Poisoned Pen mystery bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is the only event for "Revenge Prey", which will be officially released tomorrow.

Today is John Sandford’s 82nd birthday. His 60th novel comes out next month, the 36th in the Prey series. Those numbers total to 178, which in this case likely has no significance.

The preview chapters for "Revenge Prey" (coming out April 7th) are now online:

johnsandford.org/prey36pr.html

The Poisoned Pen Bookstore The Poisoned Pen is an independent bookstore in Scottsdale AZ specializing in fiction, with a particular emphasis on mystery and crime fiction. The store maintains an active schedule of author events...

In about an hour – 7pm local time – John Sandford will be interviewing Gregg Hurwitz, author of the Orphan X series, at the Poisoned Pen mystery bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCTb...

Some weirdo spills his fantasies on X about what he believes a liberal-leaning author would consider a good plot.

I'm not even counting the truly deranged people commenting. I mean, what the actual F is going on here? I really hope it's "just" a bot, or a troll, but I fear there really are people who think the left is like this:

Weather, however, would absolutely be on the front lines of the protests. Lucas might want her to wear body armor, but of course she wouldn't.

If Lucas were real, he'd never be assigned to this case. The books are about investigation and apprehension of truly awful people. Not about breaking up protests, crushing dissent, violating rights. Lucas may be law enforcement, but he's also deeply moral in a way we don't see in ICE.

But you might be surprised how many people think Lucas would support ICE. I've received email suggesting that Lucas or Virgil go to Minneapolis, engage (violently) with some of the protestors, and eventually end up arresting (or, again, shooting) Walz. Clearly that's unhinged.

That said, we both hate what's going on, and it's from a very liberal perspective: ICE is acting with abandon, like untrained thugs, and the people are suffering because of it, and it's all driven by hatred of a nebulous brown-skinned "they" who we are told is ruining America.

He's not exactly on social media. I'm his son, and I handle all that stuff for him, because he really Really REALLY doesn't like it. But because I'm his son, I can't speak for him. I won't risk someone taking my opinions for his.

Just so you know, in the earlier books the main character is MUCH more unlikable than you might be okay with. He’s been toned down a lot since then, but by modern standards the first few books may be problematic for some.

(But that’s true of all long-series books, isn’t it?)

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John Sandford close and personal with protestors and tear gas in Paris, France: facebook.com/JohnSandford...

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