Chosen Prey (Paperback)

by John Sandford (Author), John Camp (Author) "JAMES QATAR DROPPED his feet over the edge of the bed and rubbed the back of his neck, a momentary veil of depression falling upon..." (more)
Key Phrases: officious little prick, command tent, rain suit, Rose Marie, James Qatar, Helen Qatar (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When a spring thaw disinters the body of a young woman who's been missing for over a year, Minneapolis detective Lucas Davenport doesn't have much to go on except the victim's rumored connection with an unnamed man, who may be an artist and also, perhaps, a priest. But then the deserted property where her body was discovered turns out to be a killing field full of other young blondes last seen in the company of a man with a nasty habit of superimposing their faces on pornographic drawings. Davenport begins to close in on a serial killer whose perverted hobby provides the clues Davenport needs to stop him in his bloody tracks. James Qatar isn't a priest, and he's not really an artist, but he's definitely a monster, one who's met his match in Davenport.

Davenport is a smart, thoughtful cop whose girlfriend is pressuring him to make a commitment to parenthood and whose boss is about to lose her job in a political turnover. While the search for the killer is handled in author John Sandford's usual, crisp, procedural style, it almost seems to be a pretext for exploring the evolution of Davenport's relationship with Dr. Weather Karkinnen. This 12th adventure in the author's popular Prey series will undoubtedly rocket to the top of the bestseller list, though it's not a standout. The novel displays the solid craftsmanship and narrative drive Sandford's known for, but his hero seems a little dispirited and out of sorts. Perhaps fatherhood will give Davenport a new lease on life. In the meantime, check out Sandford's backlist featuring his other hero, Kidd (The Fool's Run, The Empress File, The Devil's Code), who has a nice little walk-on here in which he begins a romance with Davenport's partner Marcy Sherrill. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
HThe 13th title in the Prey series (Easy Prey, etc.) has wealthy Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport in up to his Porsche-driving fingertips. Lucas is trying to track an elusive serial killer while reuniting with former fianc‚e Weather Karkinnen who after a couple of years' estrangement following her narrow escape from a crazy biker in one of Lucas's former cases has suddenly decided she wants to have his baby. Weather is a formidable distraction, but the killer revealed to readers from the beginning as James Qatar, a suave professor of art history with a yen for strangulation proves to require even more attention. Soon after the body of a young blonde is found in a partially excavated grave on a remote wilderness hillside, a deputy sheriff from backwater Wisconsin shows up with a file containing case histories of several women reported missing in Wisconsin and Minnesota over a nine-year period. Fearing the worst, Lucas orders the hillside surveyed; subsequent excavation uncovers seven more bodies. The art world connections of some of the victims and the discovery of pornographic drawings suggests a link to the art community around the local Catholic university. As the net tightens, the usually coolheaded Qatar, already plotting the fate of a daring fabric artist in cahoots with the police, gradually loses control. With Lucas and his team watching his every move, he eludes surveillance and carries out a final desperate attack. Sandford is in top form here, his wry humor and his development of Lucas's combative, affectionate relationship with Weather lighting up the dark of another grisly investigation. Simultaneous audio. (May)Forecast: Sandford's thrillers are reliably excellent, and his latest, a BOMC main selection backed by a national ad/ promo campaign and an author tour, marks a high point in the Prey series. The book should hit #1 its first week out.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 383 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425182878
• ISBN-13: 978-0425182871
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,183 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 12 in The Prey Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 stars as part of a series 2 stars as a stand alone book, August 30, 2001

By	Andy Edie (Kansas City, Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chosen Prey (Hardcover)

This was a hard book for me to rate. I have read the previous books in Sandford's Prey series, eleven in all. As a reader who is familiar with all long running characters and plot threads, reading this book was like running into an old friend you have not seen in years, and talking like you live next door to each other. It was a pleasure to read simply for the continued evolution of the characters I have grown to know and love.

On the other hand, as a passable, stand alone novel, Sandford falls so far short of his past triumphs that I wonder if this does not signal the end for Lucas Davenport and company. Gone is all the tension, suspense, and thrill-of-the-chase that was so prevalent in many of the early Prey books. It has been replaced with a tired reworking of past Prey villains and a soap opera pace. In fact, the hunt for the bad guy plays a secondary role to Lucas' relationship with his ex-fiancée. It is writing like this that leads me to believe that Sandford is trying to stage a stopping point in this series.

If you have not read the previous Prey books, perhaps your money or time would be better spent reading a different book. If you are a Prey veteran, then carry on.

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SANDFORD LEADS THE SUSPENSE GENRE!, May 11, 2001

By	Brad Stonecipher (FRESNO/CLOVIS CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chosen Prey (Hardcover)

All of us Sandford fans deeply look forward each year for early May to come around because that mostly means the release of a new Prey novel! In "Chosen Prey," Minneapolis Detective, Lucas Davenport, along with Marcy Sherrill, Sloan, Del, and Weather (Lucas fiance), return in one of John Sandford's most interesting and exciting Prey novels that he has written. The plot: James Qatar is a prestegious history professor at St. Patrick University in Minneapolis. He has a very secretive life on the side. He enjoys playing kinky sex games with women he barely knows and ends up killing them for pleasure. He also enjoys taking pictures of women and distorting their figures to look like they are participating in grotesque sexual activities. His method of murder: a rope. James Qatar is a very sick individual that has killed over eight women in three states. None of the cops have been able to link him to the murder. When a murdered women turns up in the barren woods, close to home to Lucas Davenport, he vows to find this killer who killed this beautiful woman. After investigating for a while, and with the assistance of and out of state officer, he discovers that three other women have mysteriously disappeared in Wisconsin. All these murders/ disappearances are connected. Can Davenport and the gang get James Qatar before he claims his next victim? The twelfth novel in this amazing series is a definite success!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than Easy Prey,but......, July 8, 2001

By	Surya B (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chosen Prey (Hardcover)

The 12th installment in the prey series starts off promisingly, slows down in the middle and again picks off in the end.This book is definitely better than the authors last release Easy Prey but it still falls short of expectations.The novel introduces the killer James Qatar, right in the first page and then develops the character of the killer quite convincingly and that's what makes this book interesting and better than Easy Prey because in this novel the author takes pain to develop each and every character,but the main drawback atleast according to me is the lack of interaction between the killer and the Lucas Davenport,if the author had atleast introduced some cat and mouse game between these two characters then the book would have been more fun.So basically this book runs on two parallel plots, one plot runs on Qatars actions and his character devlopment which according to me has been handled quite convincingly and the other plot runs on Lucas trying to find the killer which is not handled properly at all and even the clues by which Lucas traces the killer are far fetched and has got nothing to do with his intelligence and has got more to do by the mistakes made by the killer.Overall this book is better than EasyPrey because the loose ends are very few,the Qatars character is very well developed and the pace of the novel is very fast.If you are a fan of Lucas Davenport then you won't be disappointed.