Eighth in the Lucas Davenport thriller series based in Minneapolis.My TakeGeez, the cops are screwed if they try to follow the rules, and they’re screwed if they try to save lives. They caught the bank robbers, shouldn’t that cut some slack?? Yeah, and then there’s the other side. The cops who’ll frame someone up to get them off the street. I was just reading a post on the domino effect, and oh boy, it’s goin’ on here in Sudden Prey what with Sandra terrified of both her brother-in-law and his people and not trusting the cops to do right by her. It’s complicated by the fact that Sandy has nursing skills that Dick and company force her to use.Why is it that crooks always get upset when their actions lead to their own deaths? It’s a chance they take when they choose to commit a crime. So, duh . . . Then again, I hate to agree with the crooks, but they do have a point about all the laws that limit so much of what we’re “allowed” to do. The StoryIt’ll be an eye for an eye with Dick LaChaise and his crew taking out loved ones right and left. A bad response when it comes to taking out cops’ families. Cops are one thing. Their loved ones are not, and yet Stadic keeps flapping his jaws.The CharactersDeputy Chief Lucas Davenport is a political appointee and a games developer whose net worth is now said to be about $10 mil. Dr. Weather Karkinnen is a surgeon, and they’re engaged! Richard Small, a v-p at TV3’s parent corporation, is married to Jennifer Carey, a TV news reporter and the mother of Lucas’ little girl, Sarah. The copsDel Capslock makes for a good wino as he helps stake out the bank gang, and he’s married to Cheryl, a nurse. Franklin; Sloan is with Intelligence and the best interrogator on the force; Frank Lester is head of investigations; Anderson; Barney Kittelson is the head of patrol; Anita Segundo is the press liaison; Arne Palin is set up; and, Dewey is a shooter. Sherrill has recovered from being shot four months ago in Mind Prey, 7; she’s separated from Mike, a car salesman. Danny Kupicek is an everyman whom any man trusts, and he’s married to Elaine who works in an electronics store. Rose Marie Roux is the politically savvy police chief. Stan is the mayor. Bill Lock is sheriff in Dunn County. The bank robbersGeorgie LaChaise is Dick’s sister. Candy LaChaise is a sport killer who kills to see people die; she kills Farris, a bank visitor. She’s married to Dick LaChaise, who is in prison and out on a funeral visit, escorted by Wayne O. Sand, a jerk of a guard. Dick has also been a big deal in the Seeds, a militia-like motorcycle gang that deals in drugs, weapons, and prostitutes. Amy LaChaise is their nightmare of a mother. Logan is the funeral director. Duane Cale is a ditz the girls carry.Sandy Darling operates a horse ranch and is Candy’s sister who wants nothing to do with Dick or his crew, except the cops scare her more. Elmore is the husband she no longer wants around. Dexter Lamb sets them up. Crazy Ansel Butters is tired and a hunter who uses a lot of drugs. Bill Martin is a hunter with a preference for a bow-and-arrow, who sells guns and seems to have a hard-on for Dick.Daymon Harp is a drug dealer who lives above a laundromat he uses to launder his ill-gotten gains. Jasmine is the girlfriend he’s not too worried about. Andy Stadic is a corrupt cop willing to betray anyone. Sell-More is a junkie who might have seen too much.Earl Stupella is a bartender at the Blue Bull who snitches for Lucas. Sally O’Donald has some information. Reginald “Buster” Brown is a scanner freak and a double amputee who recognizes names.The Cover & TitleThe cover has an amorphous background with a leaning screen door with some fancy corner fretwork and a shadow silhouetted behind the door in a brightly lit room.The title is what loves ones suddenly become, Sudden Prey for crazed men.
Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport of the Minneapolis police has been tracking a couple of female suspects in a series of bank robberies. When Davenport’s team is waiting after their latest heist, the two women decide to go out in a blaze of glory and the cops oblige by killing them on the spot.Davenport takes heat from the media and his boss for the shootings with some accusing him of baiting the robbers into a situation where they could legally be gunned down, but that’s the least of his problems. Dick LaChaise is serving time in prison, and he's a member of the Seeds, a group of bikers/organized crime syndicate/white supremacist anti-government movement. One of the dead women was his wife and the other was his sister. Now he wants revenge on the cops who killed them.With the help of two of his buddies, LaChaise breaks out of custody and heads to Minneapolis where they blackmail a dirty cop into handing over personal information about the officers involved in the shooting. The three men begin targeting the police family members and soon the snow filled streets are turned into an utter war zone as Davenport and the cops try to protect their loved ones and themselves.In the earlier Prey novels various kinds of nutso serial killers were usually the bad guys, and the last two books had stalker type men obsessing over specific women so it was a good time to do a completely different style of plot. This is the most action filled book into the series up until this point, and I particularly liked how Lucas is so busy dealing with one crisis after another that he’s frustrated because he has had no opportunities to do what he’s best at which is to sit down and think about how to trap these guys. There’s also another set of memorable villains for the series. LaChaise and his friends are on a suicide run to do maximum damage before an end that they consider inevitable. A lot of these types of books would have made these guys some kind of ex-military bad asses or something along those lines, but Sandford portrays them as fringe characters to that whole murky world of racist anti-government types who spend most of their free time polishing their guns and dreaming up elaborate compounds in which they will hold off the feds. They're mean and they're dangerous, but it’s not like cops are facing a group of former special forces. LaChaise and his friends are just a heavily armed pack of assholes and that’s more than enough to cause plenty of grief.Maybe the most interesting factor is how Davenport gets called out on some of his tactics for the first time. Usually his bosses are happy to ask no questions as long as things worked out their way, but there’s a note of unease that Lucas got a little too cute in baiting the LaChaise ladies into robbing that bank. Even Davenport’s girlfriend questions the way things played out. Although Lucas protests that the LaChaise women decided their own fate, the people who know him best seem to be getting slightly uncomfortable with his knack for manipulating events and this is before people start trying to kill them because of it. Even if Lucas stops the LaChaise gang, will anyone trust him again?If I was ranking the entire Prey series, this would probably come in at #2 and considering there’s 23 of these things, that gives you a pretty good idea of how much I think of this one.Next: Lucas tries to figure out who murdered a banker in Secret Prey.
What do You think about Sudden Prey (1997)?
Heard this on CD. So far, the same reader has done all the "Prey" books that I've heard - he does an excellent job. This book (#8 in the series), the sixth one that I've read/heard, was excellent. In the beginning, two violent female bank robbers get killed by police in a shoot out and the rest of the book is the husband of one/brother of the other Dick LaChaise (and his small gang) trying to get even by killing the police officers' spouses and then going after the officers themselves - and of course, Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport leading the investigation to find and capture LaChaise and the others. Really good book - interesting, exciting, tense, etc. - and the ending does not disappoint. If you like the Sandford's "Prey" books, I'm pretty sure you'll like this one.
—Cathy
Sudden Prey (Lucas Davenport Book 8) Summary: It begins with a death and ends with one. For months, Lucas Davenport's men have been tracking a vicious woman bank robber named Candy, and when they finally catch up with her, she does not go quietly. In the ensuing shoot-out, she dies – and Davenport's nightmare starts. For her associates are even worse than she was, particularly her husband, a deeply violent man who swears an appropriate revenge: first he will find the names of those responsible;
—Ashley
Wickedly exciting! Wow! Do not start this unless you are prepared to lose a day and a night. Could. Not. Stop. John Sandford, aka Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp, has accomplished writing a 390-page chase thriller which not only never lets up in relentless suspense, it also doesn't ever lose the tempo or break the spell! I'm still breathless.Candy and Georgie LaChaise, and Duane Cale are going to rob another Credit Union. Sport killers, they are not about only the money. Lucas Davenport and a selected team of Minneapolis detectives have been tracking their efforts and are laying in wait to move in once the robbery starts. The LaChaises make their play and shoot a customer to death. That's the last bad decision the trio have to live with. Unfortunately for the detectives, the robbers belong to a family of killers, who decide 'an eye for an eye' is the only possible tribute and response for this outrage against their relatives. The necessity for a funeral with closed coffins makes their ire only sharper. A crooked cop helps them discover where close relatives of the detectives live through an insurance coverage printout. Dick LaChaise, 'Crazy' Ansel Butters and Bill Martin believe they will be shot to death also for their revenge on the detectives.They. Don't. Care.
—aPriL does feral sometimes
