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Title: Naked Prey by John Sandford, Eric Conger ISBN: 0399150676 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group (Audio) Pub. Date: 08 May, 2003 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 5 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14
Rating: 5
Summary: John Sandford continues to ply his trade....
Comment: with another entry in his fine "Prey" series, a group of books centered on Lucas Davenport, "the richest cop in Minnesota" (rich because he also designs video games).
Sandford set the stage for change at the conclusion of his last book, letting the reader percolate on what would be the differences in Lucas when he becomes an active father, and when he leaves the police department for a quasi-bureaucratic governmental position in a new state department headed by his old boss, Rose Marie Roux. Wisely, although Sandford went forward with these changes, the impact was streamlined by having 90% of the book's action happen in rural northern Minnesota, in the fictional small town of Broderick. Family man Lucas still has his best sidekick, Del, gainfully employed with him -- and married or not, he still can spot and appreciate a great looking woman. Some things never change!
The first two murders may be motivated by racial hatred - one victim is black, and his significant other is white...they are found brutally slain and hanging from a barren tree in the frosty Minnesota winter. There's so much odd and unusual "stuff" going on in Broderick, it's difficult for Lucas & Del to pin down the any information about the murders, and the killings continue.
Sandford manages to deftly interweave his social viewpoints -- his lack of respect for the media, his vague unsettlement with the way that federal, state and local authorities sometimes impede each other to solve a case that has generated media attention, and most importantly, his support of a little known grass roots campaign that is quietly smuggling prescription drugs from Canada to US patients who need and can't afford them.
Unlike many other writers of this genre, Sandford can keep both his tale of the crime and his social commentary moving in the same direction -- one does not eclipse or slow down the other.
The book is also notable in that it provides a lot of insight into tribal casinos...a staple of the Minnesota scenery in the last decade. Tribal casinos have changed rural Minnesota in many ways, and Sandford captures this contrast of big city activity with the rural tundra.
The prize of the novel, as many readers have commented, is new character Letty West, who will doubtless appear in future instalments. A precocious 12-year old, Letty's like many rural kids that come from dysfunctional single parent families....in the cities, kids from these homes tend to run with gangs...in the country, they tend to be loners, with old souls. Letty is such a character, and she's the best addition to the series in a long time.
This may not be the finest of Sandford's series, but its darn close! Don't wait for the paperback!
Rating: 5
Summary: A good read
Comment: Lucas Davenport is back in John Sandford's continuing series, and fans of the detective won't be disappointed. Davenport now works for a Minnesota state agency, the BCA, under Rose, his old superior from the Minneapolis police department. A murder scene that resembles a lynching is enough to bring in Davenport and his partner Del to invesigate and clean up before a major political crisis can begin. The murder scene is discovered by a very unusual 12 year old girl, Letty West, who talks and acts many years her senior. Davenport enlists Letty's help in his investigation, which revolves around the hanging murders, multiple kidnappings, a car theft ring, and drug smuggling. The individual crimes are linked through several threads that are not apparent at first to Davenport or the several law enforcement groups he is working with on the case.
Davenport's domestic scenes with his wife Weather are kept to a minimum in this yarn, with almost all of the action focused on the crimes. Letty West takes center stage, and she proves more than a match for Davenport. She traps muskrats, totes a rifle, drives pickups, swears a lot, and helps pick up the pace of the book whenever she appears (which is often). There is strong rapport between Davenport and Letty, and the foundations are set for the making of a good team in future editions of the series.
Rating: 3
Summary: A weak entry in the Davenport series.
Comment: Lucas Davenport is enjoying the change in his life...he is recently married, and the proud father of a new baby, but Lucas knows the peace and solitude comes at a high price.
The bodies were found naked, and hanging from a tree. The victims are Deon Cash and Jane Warr, a black man and a white woman, and they were lynched.
Lucas gets the call to investigate the double murder and bring a killer to justice, but soon he realizes the murders are not exactly what they appear to be, and far worse is about to happen.
'Naked Prey' is not the best entry in the Prey series. While Davenport's character remains strong and interesting, and the creepy back-woods setting sustains an eerie presence, the plot becomes confusing veering off into many different directions, and the large cast of characters becomes too tedious to keep track of.
John Sandford continues his Prey series with original plots, and smooth writing style, but there hasn't been a tension-filled plot since 'Mind Prey'.
Fans of this series will surely rush out to read this, and there's no doubt it will be a bestseller, but it's one of the weaker entries.
Nick Gonnella
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Title: Lost Light by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0316154601 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: A Cold Heart: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman ISBN: 0345452550 Publisher: Ballantine Books (Trd) Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Four Blind Mice by James Patterson ISBN: 0316693006 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 18 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Vanished Man : A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffery Deaver ISBN: 0743222008 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 11 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman ISBN: 0345452534 Publisher: Ballantine Books (Trd) Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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