Fourth in the Lucas Davenport thriller series based in Minneapolis, and revolving around an ex-cop. This story takes place in New York City, two years after Eyes of Prey, 3, and fulfills the promise in its introduction *shudder*.My TakeThis is horrifying. Sandford sets the mood with the courtroom and the horror the prosecutor feels about Bekker, and it only gets worse with this brilliant mad man. The worst of it is that I keep expecting Bekker to go off the rails and screw up…and he never does! With all the drugs he’s downing, I am really impressed with how easily he manages to evade everyone.There’s a reality to this: dirty, gritty, and messy. Sounds like real life, doesn’t it? It’s also impressive how easily Lucas slides undercover and under the covers.Jesus, people, women, should never relax their guard. No matter who is around, no matter how unassuming or unthreatening they appear. Jesus…What a nutjob Bekker is! And back to my old whine, about parents being licensed. Part of why Bekker is the way he is, is due to his parents. If they’d been denied…if parents who weren’t psychologically suited to having children weren’t allowed to have children, can you imagine how much lower the crime rate would be? I must say reading about Bekker’s drugtaking routines crack me up. He’s like a crazed connoisseur who’s cracked up, a self-indulgent and petulant child who picks and chooses his moods through better chemistry. They set up this elaborate sting, and then leave cops Bekker will recognize hanging around. WTF? Wouldn’t it have been smarter to put the recognizable ones in hidden locations? Or not let them show until after everyone is seated?Hmmm, relationship revelations in this one. Lucas realizes why it would have never worked with Jennifer, why Lily wouldn’t work---she has her own realizations, and how he feels about Barbara. It’s interesting, looking at Lucas’ bedroom antics. Essentially he sees a woman and wants to climb into bed with her; now if a woman were doing the same thing…I can understand the attraction of doing the vigilante bit. Eliminate the problem, fix the city, make it safer. Sure, the choices seem clear cut, but then the power gets to you. You start thinking about how to make things “safer”, “cleaner”. Feel more of a need to protect yourself. The choices start to get out of hand, and people die who shouldn’t. People who were…inconvenient for you. Where do you draw the line? It’s too easy to fall into that trap, and the more people you off, the easier it gets; it’s a better choice to simply not start. The StoryRemembering Lucas’ charisma with the media, Lily Rothenburg talks her boss into pulling Lucas into their investigation in New York City. The NYPD is getting slammed for Bekker’s swath of destruction, and they need all the help they can get. With that and a mysterious string of murders the media hasn’t yet connected.Only no one is telling Lucas about the underlying motives.The CharactersLucas Davenport, ex-cop, has delved into his game designs, making more money than ever, expanding into simulations of police tactical problems. He’s doing so well that he may have to rent an office. Jennifer is the mother of his daughter, Sarah, and probably about to marry a guy from Lucas’ old station. Rick and Stephanie are Lucas’ helpful neighbors.New York City PDThe now-divorced Captain Lily Rothenburg is currently working with a deputy commissioner, John O’Dell. Detective Walter Petty is/was one of Lily’s best friends from her childhood, a guy who would and did do anything to help her out. An ineffectual cop until he found his métier in computers. Lily is seeing someone new, a guy a lot like Lucas, Dick Kennett from Intelligence, and he’s running the Bekker case. He’s also got a great boat, the Lestrade. Lieutenants Kuhn, Huerta, White, Diaz, Blake, and Carter and Detectives Annelli and Case are working it along with him. Barbara Fell is the detective they pair Lucas up with. Aaron Copland is O’Dell’s driver. Lieutenant Bobby Rich has some information as does Detective Darius Pike, a cop in Charleston.Dr. Michael Bekker, a psychopath, was savagely beaten (yeahhhh!!) in Eyes of Prey. Cons he spoke with in prison include Clyde Payton who thought Bekker was a rock star (!), Tommy Krey, and Burrell Thomas who is out of the picture. Manny Johnson and his girlfriend, Rock Hudson, have some info on Burrell and Rayon Thomas, a guy who gave Bekker some useful advice.The vigilantesThick and Thin are how Bekker saw them: the assassins. Fred Waites was a community activist; Arvin Davies was a professional bad guy; Martin Kays; and, Lowell Jackson is an ex-burglar. Cornell Reed is a witness who fled; his dad, Don Reed has a successful gas station. Sergeant Clemson and Jeese show up at Lacey’s.Edith Lacey is a retired widow who worries about losing her money, becoming homeless. Bridge Land is her only friend who can still get around; she despises “Bekker”. Babe Zalacki and Rose Arnold are fences. Jackie Smith is a crime boss Lucas, um, persuades to help out. Mrs. Logan was Walt’s observant neighbor. Terrell Scopes is with the Federal Reserve. Buonocare is with Citibank. Oliveo Diaz is an observant pusher. Bellevue HospitalDr. West, a.k.a., Lew Whitechurch, feeds Bekker the drugs he needs. Mark works for him. Dotty Bedrick is in housekeeping and has a good theory.Some of Bekker’s victims include Cortese, Foen, and Shelley Carson is a graduate nurse. Katherine McCain had been a friend of Bekker’s wifeMinneapolis-St. Paul copsHarmon Anderson, Del, and Sloan are worried about Bekker gunning for Lucas. Melissa Yellow Bear is an operator. Raymond Shaltie is the sheriff’s deputy in charge at the courtroom. Kelly Larsen is a St. Paul cop who found Lucas. Captain Quentin Daniel will be retiring in a couple months.The CoverThe cover is a solid deep, deep gray background with an embossed silver font for the title and the author’s name (it’s a flat silver for the info blurb). The graphic is a scrap of an upside down headline: “Doctor Death Strikes Again!” A scalpel and a stain of blood emphasize the message.I‘m not where the title fits in unless Silent Prey refers to Bekker’s victims. I suppose it could also be the sting that’s set up.
So there are two issues I had with enjoying the book, and they are more my fault than the author's fault. Let me explain. #1 - I listened to this on audiobook for all the first half and a good chunk of the second half. I find that no matter how hard I try, my focus is just not all there when it comes to audiobooks. And unfortunately, there is A LOT to focus on in this 4th book in the Lucas Davenport series. I found it the most complex so far. #2 - When I found out Lilly Rothenberg was in the book early on, I wanted to hate it. She's was a major character in the second book in the series and I deplore her. This book didn't change my dislike of her very much, but luckily she was not a major part (relatively) of the story. This book also marks the return of the bad guy from book #3, so if you have not read "Eyes of Prey", I highly suggest you read that one first. While I knew the villain (Bekker) would likely be back, I figured it would not be until later in the series.I found it a big stretch that the action is moved to New York City, undoubtedly to incorporate Lilly once again. Sad. As if we don't have enough stories set in the Big Apple. Not a fan. And there are are two different investigations going on, of which I believe I missed some important details in the beginning. By the time you get about two-thirds into the book, there are some very key reveals/twists. And then the action comes at a much faster pace. Before that, it was pretty boring in my opinion and just a lot of talk between cops and more of that relationship garbage that polluted book #2. Up to the point of a very key twist, I kept asking myself, "How did Bekker do that? Did I miss something?" Then it all gets put into context later. It kind of felt like the author was cheating because I don't recall him offering any clues into the reveal, but it was still a pretty ingenious twist. I also felt the villain became a little "too bad" in this book. Yes, he killed in "Eyes of Darkness", but didn't quite have all the makings of a flat out serial killer, as he does here. And the thing so far with Sandford's work is you never get a confrontation at the end in which the bad guy is having a conversation with the good guy stating his motivations. It's somewhat anti-climatic, but yet it feels much more authentic. I like that.So if Lilly wasn't a big part of the story, was there another love interest? Of course! Come on, Mr. Sandford. I don't know if it's for your female audience, but give it a rest. Just like your forced move to set the scene in NYC, you really don't have to force Davenport into bed with a new woman every book!All in all, I wish I would have read this from page 1 rather than rely on the Audiobook, but I probably still wouldn't rate it any more than 3.5 stars.
What do You think about Silent Prey (1993)?
A good, solid follow up to Eyes Of Prey. I actually enjoyed being in Bekkers head more in this one. Although as in "Eyes" I needed a stay in the betty ford clinic after to get off the drugs. How can any person function under such excess is beyond me.Lucas was pretty cool and collected in this volume as well. More so than usual. I was getting worries for his female partner because, as in the first three books, they have a tendency to....ummm...not make it. There are some nice twists in this that keep you guessing, but considering, it's mostly a formulaic read. Not bad, not great...a good solid read
—Shawn
A bored Lucas Davenport is a dangerous Lucas Davenport, and now that he’s no longer a cop, Lucas is very bored. While his gaming and police simulation software company is making him oodles of money, Lucas misses the action of his old job and is trying to spice things up by picking bar fights and seeing if he can break the sound barrier in his Porsche. Relief from the tedium comes when a serial killing psycho that Lucas had caught escapes from jail during his trial and heads to New York where he embarks on a splashy murder spree. Davenport’s old flame, NYPD detective Lily Rothenburg, recruits Lucas to consult with them on the manhunt, but that’s only part of the reason that she wants him to come to Manhattan. Lily has been investigating the possibility that a group of NYPD officers have been killing career criminals, and another cop was murdered when he started closing in on identifying some of them. Under the guise of hunting the serial killer, Lily wants to put Lucas with some of the cops suspected of being part of the group to see what he can shake loose. Davenport may have been craving some excitement but hunting a madman and a group of rogue cops may be a little more than he was hoping for.So this one has two parallel stories, and Sandford used a fairly big coincidence to get them to intersect. Davenport trying to sniff out a group of vigilantes hiding in the NYPD is the more interesting of the two. There’s a lot of stuff about using these new fangled computers to identify patterns that should seem dated as hell, but Sandford has always had a knack for incorporating technology of the day without dwelling on it so that it doesn’t drag down the core story. There’s also a point made that killing off some of New York’s worst repeat criminals to make a difference seems terrifyingly practical on some level. When one of the bad guy explains himself late in the book, he notes that by killing off a relative handful of scumbags, they can eliminate thousands of crimes that impact innocent people. Seeing Lucas, who has his own habit of sometimes taking the law into his own hands, dealing with the fall-out of this was particularly interesting.Unfortunately it’s the serial killer stuff that takes up a larger part of the book. This villain is not one of my favorite bad guys in the Prey series, and spending so much time in his head isn’t a lot of fun. Sandford tried to make him completely insane and yet rational enough to evade a full-scale manhunt for him, and the two tones just don’t mix well. Plus, the better Davenport villains usually have some kind of self-interested motive rather than just being crazy town banana pants so I find a guy killing for the sake of killing lacking when compared to some of the other baddies in the series.I’d recommend reading Eyes of Prey before this since it functions as a direct sequel to that one.Next: Lucas has to bundle up in Winter Prey.
—Kemper
Sigh. Okay. This book was boring and I felt emotionally flat-lined through the whole thing. Not once did I feel thrilled, scared, worried, happy, sad or even like I cared. When I got to the end I felt like the two main Plot twists should have been clearly introduced to the reader at the beginning so we would feel some tension as our hero tried to figure out what was going on. Instead, I spent the whole book trying to keep up with everyone and feeling like everyone but me knew what was going on. Honestly, half way through this book my main thought was, "It must not be as hard to get published as everyone says it is." Blah book with no redeeming value.
—Abby Jones
