John Sandford has been writing bestselling crime novels since 1989. Three dozen chronicle the amazing career of Lucas Davenport in law enforcement, a tech millionaire who began on the Minneapolis police, continued as a top executive in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and then moved to the US Marshals Service. Along the way, he and his neurosurgeon wife adopted a 12-year-old girl named Letty whose parents had died in a confrontation with Davenport. Now, a dozen years later, Letty Davenport has herself taken a job with the Department of Homeland Security. In The Investigator, Sandford reveals the young woman to be a force to rival her adoptive father as she takes on a powerful Right-Wing conspiracy.
A young investigator and her opposite heading a gang of crazies
Sandford writes in the omniscient third person, seamlessly shifting from Letty’s perspective to that of John Kaiser, her older, ex-Delta Force partner, to Jane Jael Hawkes, the leader of the Right-Wing crazies and criminals in a militia that calls itself the Land Division. The effect is to place two women, Hawkes (who goes by Jael) and Letty at the opposite poles of the story.
It all begins when Letty, employed as an off-the-books investigator by Senator Christopher Colles (R-Florida), returns to him after successfully uncovering those responsible for the theft of $300,000 in his campaign funds. Then the senator inserts her in the Department of Homeland Security to bird-dog an investigation as a “researcher” after she quits her job working directly for him. (It’s boring, she tells him.) That leads her to a partnership with Kaiser and sets up the standoff with Jael.
The Investigator (Letty Davenport #1) by John Sandford (2022) 400 pages ★★★★★
Not-quite polar opposites
Twenty-four-year-old Letty Davenport spent the first half of her young life living in extreme deprivation with an alcoholic mother and a violent father. Jael Hawkes’s experience is not much different. But their circumstances changed radically when Lucas Davenport adopted Letty at age 12. Now, Jael runs a small gang of violent miscreants, several of them ex-cons, in a delusional quest to stop the flood of migrants across the Southern border. But Letty is ignorant of Jael’s elaborate plan, or its nationwide dimensions, until nearly halfway through the story.
She and Kaiser are detailed to Texas to investigate the disappearance of small quantities of oil fresh from the wells. It turns out that, though the individual thefts are tiny, collectively they amount to the loss of millions of dollars a year in revenue for the oil companies. But DHS isn’t concerned about the thefts in themselves. The companies earn billions and can easily afford the loss. Instead, the Department wonders what all that money is being used for. And therein lie the roots of the standoff between Letty and Jael.
What drives Right-Wing militias?
I read a lot of news, so I’m quite well aware of the various justifications that Right-Wing militia members advance for their sociopathic stance. And I know, as you’re likely to be aware, that the belief system driving Jael Hawkes reflects only one aspect of the prevailing militia ideology. There is a much broader set of motives behind the phenomenon. But I would be hard-pressed to sum up those motives in a relatively few words. So I asked Claude-AI Sonnet 4 to do it for me in about 300 words. The result follows, unchanged in any way except that I’ve inserted subheads to make the text more readable. I can find nothing in this analysis to raise questions about its accuracy.
A set of interlocking motives
Right-wing militias in the United States are driven by several interconnected motives that reflect broader ideological and cultural tensions within American society.
Anti-Government Sentiment forms a core motivation, with many militia members viewing the federal government as an overreaching entity that threatens individual liberty and constitutional rights. This distrust often stems from specific incidents like Ruby Ridge (1992) and Waco (1993), which galvanized perceptions of government tyranny. Members frequently cite concerns about gun control measures, federal regulations, and what they perceive as unconstitutional expansions of federal power.
Constitutional Fundamentalism drives many participants, particularly their interpretation of the Second Amendment as guaranteeing not just individual gun rights but a collective right to armed resistance against tyrannical government. They often view themselves as modern-day minutemen, prepared to defend constitutional principles through force if necessary.
On a more personal level
Racial and Cultural Anxieties significantly motivate some militia groups, particularly fears about demographic changes, immigration, and multiculturalism. These concerns often manifest as beliefs in “white genocide” theories or fears that traditional American culture is under threat. Some groups explicitly embrace white nationalist ideologies, while others frame their concerns in terms of preserving “American values.”
Economic Displacement and rural decline contribute to militia appeal, as members often come from economically struggling communities that feel abandoned by mainstream political institutions. The loss of manufacturing jobs, farm consolidation, and urban-rural cultural divides create fertile ground for anti-establishment movements.
Conspiracy theories abound
Apocalyptic Beliefs and conspiracy theories also play important roles, with some militia members subscribing to theories about New World Order plots, deep state conspiracies, or impending societal collapse. These beliefs create urgency around preparedness and armed resistance.
Community and Identity provide powerful draws, as militias offer belonging, purpose, and masculine identity in communities where traditional sources of meaning may have eroded. The combination of ideological conviction, social bonds, and perceived existential threats creates a potent motivational framework that sustains these movements despite legal risks and social stigma.
I would defy anyone to write a more cogent and comprehensive account than this.
About the author
John Sandford, the pen name of John Roswell Camp, is a New York Times best-selling author of crime novels, former journalist, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. He earned both a bachelor’s degree in American history and literature and a master’s in journalism from the University of Iowa. He worked as a journalist for nearly two decades before publishing two novels, each of which inaugurated a popular series. One was his long-running Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport, Letty’s adoptive father. Sandford has written 40 Prey books, a dozen in the spinoff Virgil Flowers series, a dozen other novels, and two works of nonfiction. Sandford, born in 1944, has been married twice. He lives with his second wife in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
For related reading
I’ve reviewed dozens of John Sandford’s bestselling crime novels, including all 12 books in the Virgil Flowers series and many of the 40 Prey novels. (There is slight overlap between the two series and now again with the new Letty Davenport novels.) My most recent post was Masked Prey – Prey #30 (John Sandford’s millionaire investigator takes on the alt-right). For my reviews of all the books about Davenport’s most enterprising agent at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, see John Sandford’s excellent Virgil Flowers novels.
You might also enjoy my posts:
- Top 10 mystery and thriller series
- 20 excellent standalone mysteries and thrillers
- Top 20 suspenseful detective novels
And you can always find the most popular of my 2,300 reviews, and the most recent ones, on the Home Page.
