He's finally done it—John Sandford's 15th Lucas Davenport novel, Naked Prey, becomes the author's first to debut in the #1 spot on PW's fiction list. (Three previous Prey books jumped on at #2, and two had brief runs in the top spot—but not right out of the gate.) Sandford's latest, which has garnered glowing reviews, is a main selection of BOMC, Mystery Guild and Literary Guild; Putnam proudly proclaims 403,000 copies in print. The author's 20-city tour kicked off on pub date (May 12) with a lecture and signing at City University of New York; he's even hitting two Alaska cities (Anchorage and Juneau) before winding up next month in Minneapolis, his current residence. Numerous radio and TV appearances include a CBS-TV Early Show gig. With 1.4 million copies in print, Berkley's paperback edition of last year's Mortal Prey—the hardcover spent six weeks on our charts—is marking week 3 on our mass market list.
With reporting by Dick Donahue
