Night Prey

Wow. Night Prey grabs and doesn't let you go. Lucas is now back working as Deputy Chief in Minnesota and is asked to wade in when it appears that a serial killer is murdering women in a brutal way. What I liked was that we get a female protagonist (Meagan Connell) in this one who doesn't have time for Lucas's BS and who wants to capture the serial killer before she dies from cancer. Lucas is still with Weather and they are just on the cusp of deciding what the next step in their relationship is going to be. The only thing that bugs me is that we know Lucas has a daughter, she is just randomly discussed, but it doesn't appear he has much of a relationship with her. The way Weather is written, it just seems odd that she wouldn't have said show more anything about it.

"Night Prey" has Lucas still being himself. He notices beautiful women, but he is heads over heels in love with his current live in girlfriend Weather and he just likes her. It makes me think a bit of Ben and Leslie on Parks and Recreation. They not only love each other, but like each other. Weather also has her own things going on (she's a surgeon) so she isn't just sitting around and waiting for Lucas to come home.

We get introduced to characters we are going to be following for a long time in this series, like Del. I loved everyone we get to meet. They are wisecracking and often rude, but they love each other and want to do what they can to keep criminals off the street. Lucas is a bit slower in this one. Since he's been gone from the police force he doesn't know where people are and or what happened to them. And he was actually decent in this one when he goes to look up a former criminal who they think may be connected to the case, but see that he is broken down and needs to be taken care of. I also liked that Lucas is trying to mentor a younger detective and is dealing with a locked room mystery. With the serial killings and this, you have a lot going on.

The serial killer in this one, Koop, is probably one of the scariest that Davenport has gone up against. Also I was curious about Koop due to him being a cat burglar who decides he has fallen in "love" with one of his victims.

The book returns to Minnesota and here Davenport and Sandford feel like they are on more solid ground.

The ending was explosive and sad, but I liked how everything played out. show less

The sixth Lucas Davenport novel and the first that wasn’t a complete success. The core story was of the quality I have come to expect but there was an offshoot to the investigation that was pure filler. I can forgive it because of Sandford’s other strengths. Davenport is forced to partner with a female investigator who is terminally ill. How she deals with her problem and how Davenport relates to her throughout the process--while conducting an extremely public investigation--is the essence of the story. It reduces the extraneous stuff to a minor distraction.

Heaven help me, I gave Sandford another high rating, despite the fact this story is jam-packed with nasty language. But the story is probably related in a particularly realistic fashion showing the way cops/robbers actually talk. So I cut Sandford a lot of slack. A few odd twists with regard to Davenport's team (Connell) that added a special flavor. This was actually quite a scary story so you want the bad guys to get their just desserts anyway.

A serial killer breaks pattern after ransacking an apartment and "falling in love" with the apartment owner. He becomes obsessed and murders outside of his "norm". Davenport, newly restored to the police, is set on the case by his new chief, and is asked to work with Meagan Collins, a dying BCA agent who herself is obsessed with catching this predator. Moves quickly, further defines Davenport as a character and is a good entry in the Davenport series.

"Night Prey" has intense contrast: the coming together family-life of Davenport and Winter vs the coming apart life of Meagan Connell, who has terminal cancer and wants the killer before she dies. The tension in "Night Prey" is driven like the Davenport's jaguar.

A vicious killer is targeting shy, unsure women who frequent bookstores and art museums. Lucas Davenport is back, but getting all his connections reestablished is taking longer than he thought it would. And his boss has a problem that's about to be passed along: Minneapolis is starting to swim in murders, and the populace doesn't like feeling unsafe. She wants Lucas to make her problem go away. Good thing he likes a challenge.

Sandford blends suspense and humor and creates memorable characters. Another winner.

Night Prey is the 6th in John Sanford's Prey series. Lucas Davenport is on the trail of a serial killer whose body count continues to rise. He's teamed with feminist Megan Connell of the State Bureau of Criminal Apprenhension. Connell is obsessed with catching the killer before she dies of cancer. Another page turner in a thrilling series that ends the only way it could.