Naked Prey (Lucas Davenport Series #14) » (Reprint)

John Sandford began his career as a journalist using his real name, John Camp. He won a Pulitzer for feature writing before turning to mystery-suspense novels, simultaneously releasing two first novels under two different names in 1989.

Lucas Davenport investigates the lynching murder of an interracial couple in a small Minnesota town.

The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson

Naked Prey is vintage Sandford, which is to say it is all but impossible to put down. As the story races along, Sandford finds time for various digressions, some more inspired than others. Brash young Letty West becomes Davenport's new best pal; she is handy with a .22, takes no guff from anyone and inevitably finds herself in deadly peril. The author introduces a publicity-hungry civil-rights activist who barges in to denounce the supposed lynching, then just as abruptly returns to Chicago.