John Sandford amazes me. After 21 books in a series, most
authors’ books would be predictable and formulaic. But not Sandford’s “Prey”
books, starring Minnesota
cop Lucas Davenport. This latest is as fast-paced, engaging, and unpredictable
as any of its predecessors. Perhaps even more so.
Half the book takes place many years ago, when Davenport was a patrol
officer trying to move to detective. He worked a case involving two young
girls, sisters actually, who went missing. While the more experienced cops on
the case focused on one suspect, Davenport
believed someone else might have been responsible. The investigation was closed
when the cops felt they had their man. Too young to have the confidence to rock
the boat, Davenport
didn’t put up much of a protest. The volume of other cases quickly distracted Davenport from the
disappearance, and soon he, too, moved on.
The second half of the book takes place now, decades later, when the bodies of the girls have shown
up in a building being torn down. Davenport,
now the top cop in the state, feels he owes it to the girls and their parents
to solve the case this time. He reviews his old notes and starts retracing his
steps. Soon he sees connections that he hadn’t noticed back in the day. In the
meantime, he learns that there were other victims, and has to live with the
knowledge that his reticence may have contributed to their deaths.
As always with Sandford’s mysteries, the book is skillfully
plotted, with realistic dialogue and great characters. Sandford is one of my
favorite authors, and I am rarely disappointed. This latest is a doozy.
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