Seventeenth in the Lucas Davenport series and revolving around a maverick detective determined on justice no matter how or who. It's based in Minneapolis.My TakeLucas Davenport is an interesting character. Definitely a complex one. I recently read that Sandford thought of him as a kind of sociopath but that Lucas has mellowed out since. And there is a line early on in the story that makes me think that Sandford is too right. I also suspect it's part of what makes him such a good cop."…he'd be pleased to chase down whoever had done it.He didn't have a mission; he had an interest."I love that Lucas and the rest of the cops start out thinking that Ronnie is obviously a person of interest until Ronnie shows up. He turns that stereotype right on its head, lol, and Smith wants to turn Ronnie into a cop. Okay, okay, that part of it is funny, but what was done to his aunt and her employer is really nasty.The forensic investigation into this initial murder is fascinating. It was quite clever of the thieves to camouflage it as they did. They just didn't reckon with the very bright Ronnie, the more practical-minded Weather, or the granddaughter who thinks outside the box and gives Lucas a hard time. She also puts the pieces in play.One of the things I love about the Lucas Davenport stories is how real it is. The cops laugh and joke around about the criminals and each other. They rail about the media and the politicians…and their fellow cops. It's too weird reading about the defending lawyers chatting and socializing with Lucas, making plans for dinner or a benefit together, and then the lawyer gets tough to defend his client. It's fascinating how they can keep their jobs from interfering with a friendship. Acquaintanceship??The witnesses and criminals are real as well. Ronnie's mom keeps talking about how they all say to get a lawyer, and I can "hear" someone saying that. Heck, I could hear me saying that! Meanwhile, Smith thinks about how eager he is to get Ronnie alone so "he'd be able to sweat Ronnie without a lawyer…""'Jesus had no problem with a good time,' Ronnie said.'He turned water into wine, not the other way around.'"The Widdlers crack me up and horrify me. Jane is so anxious to appear sophisticated and classy while Leslie runs around in his bow ties.Oh, boy. You'd think politicians would have learned to keep it in their pants by now. Instead, they're always thinking they're the ones who won't get caught. Then there's the other side of the coin. Momma is more anxious to know how much money she can get and thought the cops would help her put the screws to him. I do have to laugh at her. She started it all off, pimping out her daughter, greedy for money, and then all the hurt that rains down on her.Jesus, you read the murderers' thoughts about each other. How willing they are to betray each other. It's so casual, like ticking off an item on a list.Huh, interesting antiquity scam that gets explained here. Sandford did a nice job on it. No info dump!Lol, it's another good Sandford. It amazes me how wide-ranging his scenarios are, from female assassins to Indian activists to quilt art scams to all those serial killers.The StoryIt's blackmail gone wrong in one case while another set of criminals is indulging all their tastes.The CharactersLucas Davenport is a hard cop with a love for fast cars, Italian suits, French ties, and English shoes — he subscribes to serious men's fashion magazines! He's head of BCA's Office of Regional Research, a troubleshooter for the governor. Dr. Weather Karkinnen is his wife and a plastic and microsurgeon. Sam is their baby son. Letty West — she's 15 now — is the ward they took on in Naked Prey, 14. Ellen is their housekeeper.The Office of Regional Research at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is……under the purview of Rose Marie Roux, the former Minneapolis chief of police and the current director for the Department of Public Safety. Lucas works under her. Del Capslock is another cop who transferred over with Lucas. He's got the funniest T-shirts. I wanna know where he gets 'em! Carol is Lucas' Machiavellian secretary. Sandy is an eager intern. Jenkins and Shrake are some of their agents along with Virgil f**king Flowers who has a side career going as a writer.McMahon is a BCA investigator. Jerrold/Jerrod from the Highway Patrol gets borrowed to fly the chopper.Governor Elmer Henderson wants Lucas and crew to keep him looking good. Neil Mitford is the governor's hatchet man. Jack Wentz is the idiot Ramsay County attorney.The Minneapolis PDSloan is Lucas' best friend, a retired cop, and now the proprietor of a bar, Shooters, for cops and schoolteachers.St. Paul PDHarrington is the chief of police. Lieutenant John T. Smith is in charge of investigating the first murder. Ted is one of the medical examiner investigators. Officer Clark Wain and Detective Sy Schuber are part of the initial crime scene investigation. Andy Landis is the SWAT squad commander. Jerry Wilson is investigating the second murder. Jason is involved with Screw's case.Dakota CountyJim Cole is the county's Republican county attorney. Susan Conoway is assigned to the Barths.Chippewa County Sheriff's OfficeCarl Frazier worked the Donaldson murder.Jackson CountyLarry White has his own problems with a dead girl and a possible suspect in Floyd.Ruffe Ignace is a rather nasty journalist for the Star-Tribune ( Broken Prey, 16) who has a relationship with Lucas.Karen Palm owns the café. Dan Westchester runs a halfway house. Kidd is a successful artist Lucas called on in Chosen Prey, 12, and he's got a new baby with Lauren. Archie Carton is a vice president at Sotheby's. Alice Schirmer is the folk art curator at the Walker. Tricia Bundt is the woman who handled the Armstrong quilt donation. James Wilson was the folk art specialist at the time of the donation. Cannon Associates seems to have been one of the donors; Barbra Cannon was part of it. Billie Walker was the Amon Carter Museum's curator. Porfiro Quique Ramírez is an illegal immigrant doing lawn maintenance.Ted Marsalis has sources at Wells Fargo.Senator Burt Kline is a politician with a very nasty hobby. Burt Jr. is his porky heir. Kathy Barth is the greedy momma; Jesse is the now-sixteen-year-old daughter. James is their lawyer. Kelly McGuire and Mike Sochich are Jesse's best friends. Screw is Mike's protective dog.The victimsMrs. Sugar-Rayette Peebles works for Mrs. Constance Bucher in Oak Walk. Ronnie Lash is Mrs. Peebles' nephew, and Aunt Sugar watched him after school until his nurse mom got off work. Weldon Godfrey is a jerk and a neighbor of Ronnie's. Carol Ann Barker is Mrs. Bucher's niece.Marilyn Coombs remembers another acquaintance, Claire Donaldson. Lucy Coombs is Marilyn's daughter, and Gabriella Coombs is Marilyn's granddaughter. Gabriella thought an artist, Ron Stack, was a potential boyfriend.Claire's sister is Margaret Booth and her husband is Landford. Amity Anderson was Claire's secretary, and now she's working for a foundation. Don Harvey was a boyfriend. Jacob Toms was on a lot of boards including that of the art museum. Duane Child is the man serving time for Toms' death.Kathy is Mrs. Bucher's neighbor and Lucas characterizes her as a "vicious political wolverine". Shelley Miller is another neighbor. Leslie and Jane Little Widdler are antique experts with a shop; they're called on by the police to help in the valuations. Carmody and Loan (Melody Loan) are their biggest competition.Big and Little are the murdering thieves. Fleckstein is their go-between for stolen jewels. Nathan Brown is a small-time guy. Joe Wyzinsky is a criminal lawyer recommended by Laymon Haycraft. Annabelle Ramford does a lot of pro bono work for the homeless.The Cover and TitleThe cover is lurid with its night sky and the overarching trees shading the neon red road curving off into the distance.The title, Invisible Prey, could go two ways: unexpected perpetrators who might have escaped or their prey, the seemingly unconnected victims.
John Sanford’s ‘Invisible Prey’ is the 17th installment of his Lucas Davenport series…17th! Wow, I can’t imagine, I’m only on my second book of my 1st series.Wow!Anyway, you can’t write 17 books about the same character without doing something right. Mr. Sanford has again shown that he has the skills to get this accomplished. The synopsis of the story:In the richest neighborhood of Minneapolis, two elderly women lie murdered in their home, killed with a pipe, the rooms tossed, only small items stolen. It is clearly the random work of someone looking for money to buy drugs. But as Davenport looks more closely, he begins to wonder whether the items are actually so small and the victims so random-if there might not be some invisible agenda at work here. Gradually, a pattern begins to emerge, and it leads him to . . . certainly nothing he ever expected. Which is too bad, because the killers-and, yes, there is more than one of them-the killers are expecting him. Brilliantly suspenseful, filled with rich characterization and exciting drama, Invisible Prey is further proof that Sanford is in a class of his ownAs far as I can remember, this is my first reading in the Lucas Davenport series, but it will not be the last. The story of the series of murders that now plague the Twin Cities is well thought out and complete. The characters are believable, with what I think are just the right amount of deviant personality traits within Davenport’s own investigators to make it personable and enjoyable.I of course wish I had started earlier in the series. Even though the main characters were introduced to the reader when they appeared, I would get lost with some of them as I read through, a common problem when one starts in the middle or the end of a series.There are parts of every investigation, both fictional as well as real, that I like to call ‘The Long Boring Parts Between the Action’ when I am writing. These are the parts of an investigation when the investigator is reading through files or making notes while trying to find a hidden clue or a thread between different crimes. In Invisible Prey, these scenes were laid out efficiently and interestingly, and were not the “anchor around the neck” that some readers find them in other books. To me, this is a very good indication to me of successful writing in this genre, and not an easy piece of writing to pull off, believe me.The action of the crimes and the subsequent investigation were well laid out, easily keeping your interest with the deviousness of the criminals and the tenacity of Lucas. Add in the sometimes almost slapstick antics and down-home outlook of the investigators and you end up with a real and thought provoking story.As a new writer in this genre, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone who loves crime/mystery novels.JT Lewis
What do You think about Invisible Prey (2007)?
The Prey series never disappoints. It is edge of your seat action with a gritty detective at its heart. This is the 17th installment and Lucas is as entertaining as ever. You don’t need to read the series in order, but if you are like me you prefer it. John Sandford’s website, www.johnsandford.org, lists all the books in order.A rich widow and her maid are bludgeoned to death in one of the most impressive mansions in Minneapolis and a politician is caught with his pants down with a 16 year old girl. Lucas started as a detective and now he works for the state on special cases such as these. There is an art heist, fraud, murder, a dog named Screw, and a curious threesome thrown in to keep you turning pages long into the night. Lucas is now a family man. His wife Weather, his son Sam, and ward Letty, all make a limited appearance. I also enjoyed seeing old friend Sloan living his retirement dream. Sandford never replaces action with relationships no matter how intriguing they are. It is for this reason that I rarely put a Prey novel down before I’ve finished.
—Stacy
Lucas Davenport, special agent for Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, is trying to deal with the sensitive investigation of a local politician who has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a minor when his boss calls him in on another case that occurred in one of St. Paul’s richest neighborhoods. Two elderly women have been found bludgeoned to death in a home filled with antiques. Although robbery is the suspected motive, not much has been taken, so Lucas asks his intern, Sandy, to cross-match crimes of a like nature. What she discovers takes Lucas back to a cold case and has him researching the antiquities venue as he follows a twisting investigation that leads him away from the killers. Although this is not the best in the Prey series, it is a good read. The two plots at times seemed to compete with one another, which made the read seem somewhat convoluted. Sandford is strong with characterization and the addition of Sandy, the intern, was a bonus, along with Detective Flowers, both of whom this reader hopes to see in future books. Sandford’s tendency to drop designer names grows tiring at times (can’t someone just once wear a simple shirt and pants?). One major disappointment for this reader is Davenport’s laid-back mellowness compared to the earlier books, where he was sharper, with a dangerous edge.
—Christy
With this one, I have now reviewed all 23 of John Sandford’s Prey series. I really feel like I should get a nicely framed certificate or perhaps a medal along with a ceremony commemorating the occasion….Maybe a small gathering with some cake and punch?…. No? Nothing? Fine, ya bunch of ingrates….A rich old lady and her housekeeper have been brutally killed in what appears to be a home invasion burglary of the type that small time crooks might pull. However, when there are indications that a few valuable antiques might have gone missing, too, Minnesota state investigator Lucas Davenport thinks that they’re may be more complex killers hiding their true motives in the mix. As he looks into the murders, Lucas also has to deal with the headache of a politically sensitive case involving a state legislator who may or may not have had sex with an underage girl.This is yet another rock solid thriller from Sandford with all the things fans have come to expect from this series. There’s some offbeat and twisted villains operating with a mixture of greed and blood lust. Davenport has an interesting puzzle to untangle as the bad guys make moves to try and throw him off the scent so it’s another entertaining cat-and-mouse game.Lucas relies on his supporting cast to help him figure out what’s going on, and there’s an interesting new addition in the form of Virgil Flowers. Virgil is introduced here as another state investigator working for Lucas before Sandford spun him off in his own series, and it’s soon apparent why everyone he deals with starts referring to him as ‘that fuckin’ Flowers’.Next: Lucas goes goth in Phantom Prey.
—Kemper
