Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Summary and Reviews of The Devil's Code by John Sandford

The Devil's Code by John Sandford

The Devil's Code

A Kidd Novel

by John Sandford
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • Oct 1, 2000, 320 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Oct 2001, 368 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Book Summary

Filled with the atmosphere, characters, and exceptional drama that Sandford is renowned for. A masterpiece of suspense.

Before Lucas Davenport and the brilliant Prey novels, there was Kidd-artist, computer whiz, and professional criminal-and his sometime partner/sometime lover, LuEllen. The Army had left Kidd with a dislike for bureaucratic organization and the skills to do something about it, but it hadn't prepared him for the day a woman appeared at his door and told him that his colleague Jack Morrison had vanished, and that Kidd and his friends were the target of a national manhunt. It wasn't the official agencies that worried Kidd so much as the very dangerous men with the very different agenda that he suspected were acting behind the scenes. And he knew that unless he and LuEllen found what had really happened to Jack, and quickly-the next people to vanish might very well be themselves.

Filled with the atmosphere, characters, and exceptional drama that have made Sandford one of the America's best-loved thriller writers, The Devil's Code is a masterpiece of suspense.

Chapter 1

St. John Corbeil

A beautiful fall night in Glen Burnie, a Thursday, autumn leaves kicking along the streets. A bicycle with a flickering headlamp, a dog running alongside, a sense of quiet. A good night for a cashmere sportcoat or small black pearls at an intimate restaurant down in the District; maybe white Notre Dame-style tapers and a rich controversial senator eating trout with a pretty woman not his wife. Like that.

Terrence Lighter would have none of it.

Not tonight, anyway. Tonight, he was on his own, walking back from a bookstore with a copy of SmartMoney in his hand and a pornographic videotape in his jacket pocket. He whistled as he walked. His wife, April, was back in Michigan visiting her mother, and he had a twelve-pack of beer in the refrigerator and a bag of blue-corn nachos on the kitchen counter. And the tape.

The way he saw it was this: he'd get back to the house, pop a beer, stick the tape in the VCR, spend a little...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

Barnes & Noble
Although The Devil's Code may be less viscerally exciting than the Lucas Davenport books, it still offers a full display of its author's many gifts. These include his clean, no-frills style, his flawless ear for dialogue, and his precise reporter's eye for character and setting.

Booklist
Kidd is a unique protagonist whose toughness is derived not from flashing fists or big guns but from superior intellect and moral certitude. It won't be nine years before the next Kidd novel.

Booklist
Kidd is a unique protagonist whose toughness is derived not from flashing fists or big guns but from superior intellect and moral certitude. It won't be nine years before the next Kidd novel.

Reader Reviews

misty

A thrilling detective novel...
Keeps you guessing =)
Liked it very much!!!
Charlie

a real let down
The plot dragged. I was under the impression the writer was trying to show off his computer age knowledge. I did not find any of the characters to be realistic . I have read numerous books by Sandford and this is the first one I could not finish. ...   Read More

Write your own review!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Devil's Code, try these:

We have 4 read-alikes for The Devil's Code, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by John Sandford
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Books with similar themes


Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..