Silent Prey

Usually back cover book descriptions give away too much. Here it didn’t tell me enough. Billed as the revenge story of the previous novel's villain, I had no particular interest; Bekker was a character, I felt, not deserving of a return appearance. (As an aside, the author states that at book signings he is one of the two villains mentioned most; shows what I know.) Silent Prey involves so much more. Bekker’s escape to New York allows an old colleague and love interest the opportunity to enlist Lucas Davenport’s help on two fronts: outwardly to recapture Bekker; and secretly to help uncover a deeper problem. Over the past five years strategically-targeted, low-level bad guys have been professionally murdered, and it’s beginning show more to look like a small band of rogue cops are responsible. Lucas has a very public reason to be put in the suspected cops’ midst without suspicion. The concurrent investigations keep Lucas busy and the reader engrossed. Also, this is early Sandford so not everything is revealed to the reader until the end. I greatly regret having initially skipped it. show less

Doctor Death is back. The serial killer Michael Bekker aka Doctor Death is back. After being arrested and beaten up by Lucas Davenport in a previous novel, Bekker escapes prison and sets himself up in New York. Bodies start turning up, and Davenport's ex-lover New York cop Lily Rothenburg calls to Davenport for help. He is not working with the Minneapolis Police anymore, but uses his time developing computer games. He welcomes the chance to work with Lily, and goes to New York. He soon finds out that Lily and her chief of Police O'Dell has a hidden agenda. Davenport is not called to New York only to solve the Bekker case, there is a "Robin Hood" on the loose in New York, killing "bad guys" and everything points to someone inside the show more police department. Davenport is asked to figure this mystery out, while he officially works solving the Bekker case.

There are many layers in this story, but it never becomes boring, and the characters are likeable or realistic. A good read in the Lucas Davenport series. show less

A friend promised me that the Prey series gets better after the fourth book. Moonlight and I read the first three books two years ago and threw in the towel since Davenport sucked beyond the telling in our reviews. I hate to admit this though, my friend is right. The series gets better after the fourth book. It's like Sandford realized he was writing Davenport like a psychopath and people were not rooting for him. The female characters also are better developed thank goodness. So I just sped through a ton of the books in this series (thanks to the library) and finally at 1 am last night finally went to sleep after a lackluster book #11 that just brought back old Davenport (who I hated).

"Silent Prey" takes Lucas out of Minnesota to New show more York to help catch a serial killer (Michael Bekker) he captured in the previous books. He goes to New York to help out former lover Lily Rothenburg with not only capturing Bekker but also with helping her out with capturing what appears to be a vigilante that killed a friend of hers.

Lucas still sucks in this one. He has left the police force, and though he mentions his daughter, he is pretty much solo and wishing for a woman. Because without sex, who would Lucas be? Sorry for the sarcasm, but honestly I wanted to brain Lucas in this one. And Lily. She had an affair with Lucas and even though she's seeing someone still feels a magnetic pull to Lucas. It got old as hell. And Lucas having pangs made me roll my eyes too. There is mention of Lucas's money and his gaming company which still makes me laugh.

There is not much there there in this book. The two plots don't work very well and we go from Lucas hunting Bekker and investigating a possible cop who is behind the vigilante killings to Bekker's third person point of view. I just found myself bored throughout this book and was so happy when it was over.

The setting moves from Minnesota to New York, but you don't get any sense of New York besides people talking about how hot it is.

The ending was a joke and a half. I just read it and shook my head. show less

Davenport heads to NYC to recapture Bekker after a novel only escape which is where the story begins. Was a slow beginning catching up with Davenport. The two story lines do pick up speed and merge well toward the end of the book. NYC in the late 1980's is when Davenport deals with dirty cops and Bekker, all at the same time. And of course screwing any woman he wants. The ending is done well and brought what was a constant 3.5 up to a 4.

This book takes place pretty quickly after Book 3 Eyes of Prey. I admit I was dreading this book because it was two of my least favorite characters back. Lily and the villain Bekker. I never bought Lily as a serious love interest for Davenport and Bekker was not a great villain. He was evil and gruesome but just didn’t seem worthy of two books. I found the sections from Bekker’s point of view to be completely uninteresting and just wasn’t into those parts of the story. Bekker just seemed to be a quick reactive thinker and not an actual criminal mastermind worthy of Lucas’ talent. These were the times I was just hoping the book would hurry up and get through. I feel like the author knew this as well and threw in the “Robin show more Hood” to drive up the intensity.

The “Robin Hood” storyline seemed to be a last minute add like the author didn’t make his page count and needed something to add some more time/pages to the story. The author introduced this storyline fairly quickly but then it was only discussed a few more times until the climatic ending. I guess after reading the other books I was expecting more.

I still love the Davenport character though and wasn’t disappointed in the switch to New York as other reviewers were. This switch up allowed John Sanford to showcase Lucas as a true detective not just some hick from a small town. Lucas’ instincts are on point and you could see him work through things in his mind. show less

Book 4 of the Lucas Davenport series and a continuation of the storyline involving Bekker the baddie from Eyes of Prey. This book takes Davenport to NY to assist one of his old flames on the Bekker case in addition to investigating the "Robin Hood" killers. This book was pretty good. The mystery aspect kept me guessing. I enjoy reading about Davenport but his many women conquests drive me nuts.

Silent Prey is basically a continuation of the previous book in the series, Eyes of Prey. Serial killer Mike Bekker escapes from jail and decides that the best place for him to hide and continue his "research" is New York City. New York policewoman Lily Rothenburg, first seen in Shadow Prey, asks Lucas for his help, but not for what everyone would expect. Under the guise of helping the NYC police force find Bekker, Lucas is really there to sniff out the city’s Robin Hood, a duo (or more) of cops who are taking justice into their own hands.

I almost gave up early on this book. I started listening to it, and the narrator was sort of awful. His voice and cadence was VERY DRAMATIC. Which was fine for Bekker’s point of view, but made it show more hard to distinguish just who was the POV character if I wasn’t paying close enough attention. But despite that, it was a decent book (thankfully I also had a hard copy). In one way it’s interesting to get Davenport out of his usual element, but I missed some of his supporting cast.

This is a good go-to series when you’re looking for a police procedural/thriller. show less