Naked Prey

What do you get when you combine two hanged murder victims, drug dealers, nuns, a Toyota chop-shop, kidnapped girls, corrupt law enforcement, a .22 packing muskrat trapping pre-teen with a smart mouth, and Lucas Davenport? A really, really good read.

Lucas Davenport has a new job, is now married and has a new baby. Big changes for our hero. He's happy and contented for the first time in along while. He's just waiting for the other shoe to drop; and it does in the form of two people found hanging in a tree. The book is captivating and fun to read. If you like mysteries that keep you reading, this is it. Also some interesting tribal casino history.

Well we have Lucas fairly happy and settled in this one with a new wife and baby. However, Lucas is feeling restless since he doesn't have anything big to work on. Apparently thinking it up causes something ugly this way to come and Lucas is quickly sent off to figure out if a black man and white woman being hung together is a lynching or something else. I think Sandford did well in this one with giving you a clue to who is linked to the two people who were murdered, without giving away until Lucas realizes it, what they were all up to. And then you get to see who all was involved. I think the wrap up to things could have been done better and I have to say that I don't buy the one antagonist being cowed by his mother since we saw what show more happened with him and his mother when he was 11. It just felt off to me and I think Sandford wanted to try to explain away this character's guilt in order for the explosive ending.

This book is just Lucas and Del being sent by Rose Marie and the governor to figure out if a interracial couple was lynched. Even though readers know that something is going on, you don't get the whole picture until around the 50 percent mark of the book and even then you don't get everything until after that. I really have to say that is much better than when Sandford would tell you the bad guy who Lucas is just tying to track down the whole book. It gets old after a while.

Lucas is more mellow in this one. I like Lucas when he's not acting like he's not seen a woman before. He and Del working together are great and have great moments of hilarity. We are introduced to a new character in this one, pre-teen Letty who is going to become important to the series. We also get an African American reporter that Lucas decides to befriend in order to get bigger favors down the road. I hope he shows up again.

I do have to say that the first part of the book drags a bit here and there, but everything smooths out after a while. You are then just holding your breath hoping Lucas and Del make it out alive.

The ending was really good, but as I said above, I think Sandford just messed with the pathology of the one bad guy because it made zero sense about what went on when it was revealed by Sandford. I think he just did it to make the ending more bad ass (I get it) but then he needed to rewrite the beginning with the bad guy. show less

Surprisingly better than expected. Characters are well defined especially Weather, Letty, Margery and Ruth, and Sheriff Anderson. A strong plot, pacing, setting, and slightly better than average dialogue. I thought there were far too many characters possibly put in just to confuse.

Fast, good read. Will definitely look for more of Sandford's Prey Series.

I've read a couple of these Lucas Davenport series books by Sandford (out of order) and they've all been very good stories, even from a stand alone perspective for people like me who read them out of order as they find them. This one was no exception, it starts off with a murder with the perpetrator hanging the two victims naked in a tree, and from there the story develops into a bit of a twisted web.

It's quite enthralling and has the kind of pace to keep you glued to the pages up late at night continuing to read even when you really should be sleeping. I liked how everything wrapped up although I found the circumstances of the weapon used in the closing scenes didn't make logical sense, given the prior scene. But that's just a small show more niggle, it didn't really effect my enjoyment of the closing scene and the satisfaction it gave.

Would recommend for fans of police procedurals. show less

I would give it 4.5 stars if I could. I have not read a Davenport, Prey book for awhile and I am glad I picked this one up.
Lucas Davenport is married to Weather and has a newborn. He works at the Criminal Apprehension Bureau and is sent all over the state. This installment of the "Prey Series" finds Lucas heading to a troubled city in Northern Minnesota. There have been kidnappings, assassinations, a supposed lynching and great tension filled plots all bundled together. We meet a young teenager, Letty, who helps Lucas solve the crimes at great risk to herself. This story has everything in it. One of the great features on the Lucas books is with each one they age, the kids grow, he moves on in the Minnesota law enforcement scene, Weather show more advances as a doctor, and all changes. A great story. show less

John Sandford is reliably excellent. I read most of his books as they come out. I love Lucas Davenport, the ease of the conversations, the consistent and interesting characterizations. This was also a good mystery, with lots of threads coming together. It's the book that introduces us to Letty, the 12 year old who sets traps and shoots and is the first to find the dead bodies dangling from the tree (but it's not a lynching, as all the politicians insist!) This is a keeper and a reread for me, and rereading mysteries, once you know the plot - that's always a sign of a really good book!