Customer Reviews

Invisible Prey

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is Sanford's 17th novel featuring Lucas Davenport. All of them have been good reading by a master of the police procedural. A few have been slightly better than the others. "Invisible Prey" comes close to being the best of the lot.

As always Lucas Davenport, a Special Agent for Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is called in when a situation is too tough for a local police department or too politically sensitive. "Promoting" Lucas to this job from his former job with a police department was a brilliant move by Sandford, as it lets Davenport roam the landscape without being bothered by jurisdiction. Clever guy, Mr. Sanford.

The story opens with two women, an elderly heiress and her maid, being brutally bludgeoned on a dark and rainy night in a home in St. Paul's most element neighborhood. (Yes, Sanford really does set the scene on a dark and rainy night. Also, inexplicably, the dustjack puts the opening murders in Minneapolis, rather than St. Paul.)

Lucas is dealing at the moment with a very politically sensitive investigation of a local politician who may have had just a bit too much to do with the minor daughter of his current paramour. But the old woman's murder, especially because of it's brutality, carries some poltical weight too, so Lucas looks in on the scene.

The two disparate investigations - a sex scandal and a double murder - ultimately become involved.

Sanford writes some of the best police procedurals to be found. His characters are solid and have depth. Lucas Davenport's wealth, acquired in an accidental second career as a software developer, is helpful in giving the character wider latitude in his social millieu and in setting him apart from his law enforcement officer peers. Sanford is very clever when it comes to character and plot development. A few books back, he introduced Weather, a surgeon, younger than Sandford who is now his wife and the mother of his young son. There is a standard cast of characters arond Lucas and most them are here. There's Marie, Davenport's hard driving, politically savvy boss; Flowers, the oddball investigator; Jenkins and Shrake, the two cops who often provide muscle when needed.

In this novel, Sanford adds a young Afican-American boy who provides a couple of key clues. I suspect he will play a role in subsequent novels. He also adds Sandy, a young woman intern whose quirky character and investigative skills wouldn't be surprising to see in future books.

Sanford identifies the killers early to the reader and then play very adroitly with the reader as Davenport attempts to discover who they are. Along the way, we get a few characters who might be involved and might not be. We also get to meeet a few people who aren't very pleasant.

Sanford plays the mystery and the reader along beautifully. As the last hundred of pages or so rush by, Davenport starts closing in, though it isn't until close to the end that we're sure the killers will be found before Davenport himself becomes a victim.

Overall, a great police procedural with believable characters and solid plotting by a master of the genre. Definitely page turner material. (Too bad they don't still make detective movies like they used to: Lucas Davenport would be the basis for a great series.)

Jerry

I've been a fan of the Prey series by John Sandford over the years. But lately the titles haven't captured my attention as much as they used to. In the latest, Invisible Prey, I once again find myself thinking that it was an enjoyable read, but the excitement and edge isn't there any more.

Lucas Davenport is pulled into a case where an older lady and her maid are brutally murdered. The trashed house makes it look like it could be a burglary gone bad, but something doesn't quite ring true for Davenport. He's able to find a couple other crimes that have somewhat the same characteristics, and the common element has to do with antiques and a particular set of quilts. You find out very quickly who the guilty parties are in the killings, and the story revolves around the desperation of the killers and their need to eliminate Lucas from the case in order to avoid being run down. There's a subplot involving an accusation of improper behavior with a minor and a state senator. Lucas is also involved in this case, and the killers attempt to mess up that case, also to draw Lucas in a different direction.

In many of the earlier Prey stories, there was a strong element of how Lucas would use his intellect and gaming skills to anticipate and solve the crimes. But lately, that characteristic is more secondary, and too much time is spent dwelling on his new political position in the bureau. The story is fine as a typical crime novel, but the things that used to draw me to Davenport aren't there much now. I'll likely keep reading new installments in the series, but I don't know that I consider them a "must read" any more...

John Sandford does it again with Invisible Prey. Lucas Davenport, who is one of the most believable characters in modern crime fiction, continues his career in breaking a case that is deliciously complex, involves wonderfully convoluted and perverse characters and carries you from connection to connection until suddenly it will all make sense. This is a fine novel about interesting people, some of whom are doing violent and destructive things and others whom simply want to lead nice, decent lives and catches both the way in which the innocent can without cause be destroyed by evil, and the way in which good can in the end triumph. As an optimist, I find it always comforting to read John Sandford's novels and in particular I enjoy his Lucas Davenport pursuit of justice.

Minneapolis Police Detective Lucas Davenport leads a very sensitive investigation into the activities of Minnesota State Senator Burt Kline allegedly having sex with a minor. The consummate professional cop, Lucas is extremely careful with his handling of the official inquiry because he knows what a mess a media feeding frenzy would be with a politician-Lolita tryst.

As he prepares to arrest Mr. Kline for sex with a fifteen year old, Lucas also is assigned the murders of wealthy widow Constance Bucher and her maid Sugar Rayette-Peeples in the former's mansion. Both were battered to death and the house ransacked. The first thought is a robbery turned ugly, as the affluent home is filled with valuable antiques. However, Lucas realizes that he has no idea whether anything was stolen so perhaps the murders were personal especially with the skulls smashed. As he continues his inquires, he soon finds a strange connection to the sleazy senator scenario, but identifying the killers still remains difficult and convoluted.

Though number seventeen in this long running police procedural, INVISIBLE PREY is a fantastic tale in which the two cases are appealing because of the strong key players ranging from victims, suspects, witnesses, "vultures" and participants, etc. Readers will appreciate Lucas' investigations as John Sandford provides his hero with not the usual suspects in what will prove to be a one sitting thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Two of the consistently best things about the long-running John Sandford "Prey" series are 1) the hero and 2) some great villains.
As a now aging hero, Lucas Davenport is very human - he knows Xanax and Ambien personally, slugs down the Diet Coke and isn't such a know-it-all that he's not willing to find facts in a book about antiques. He is also tough and smart (in fact, using his brains a little more now that he's aging).
As villains go, those in "Invisible Prey" are creepy enough and certainly ruthless - but a far cry from some of the other Sandford weirdos in earlier books (Dr. Michael Bekker and Maddog" Vullion come to mind immediately).
References in this book to Davenport's home life are minimal as time is spent on the crimes and the solving of them. But Weather did come up with a suggestion that didn't occur to Lucas, so when she was in the book it was worthwhile.
I kept waiting for the Burt Kline part of the book to go away so Davenport could focus on the killings, but when Sandford wove the two together, it was an unexpected touch. Well done - the book is a solid new episode in Davenport's career.

Who can forget Richard Ferrone's compelling narrations of such titles as Broken Prey, Dead Watch, Rules of Prey? He's up to his winning tricks again as he reels in listeners with the opening lines of Invisible Prey. His voice is low, well modulated, and just a bit husky. Strategically placed pauses cause me to lean in, eager for his next words.

Since giving up law for a theatrical career he has narrated more than 200 audiobooks, many in his "tough guy" voice, always assured, ever commanding. He's a topnotch voice performer who renders this novel's viscous killers and protagonist Lucas Davenport larger than life.

It's a hot summer night, muggy with the threat of a storm, when two men known only as Big and Little gain entry to a Minneapolis mansion inhabited by two elderly women. They're savage in their assault, not only killing but further venting psychotic rage by beating a lifeless body. We hear: "In a second, in three long steps, he was on her again, beating the dead woman with the pipe, heavy impacts shaking the floor."

It seems that this is one crime that may stump Lucas Davenport, but wait. Our relentless investigator has another case on his agenda - a high ranking politician with a penchant for pretty very young things has been accused of satisfying his debauched desires with a teenager. Surely one case has nothing to with the other.

It's amazing to this listener how Sandford has continued to maintain his high standard with this his 17th Prey novel, yet he has produced another winner. Don't miss it!

- Gail Cooke

Sanford must be running out of normal ideas. This one is way way too complicated, and also (but maybe it's me) I knew almost everything I needed to guess who was whom with 20 minutes. It is also far-fetched to the point of disbelief, although well and crisply written.

I'll just have to wait for the next "prey" to assuage my appetite.

In a series that has gone on now for seventeen books, it is not surprising if some elements of the Prey novels are getting a little tired. While these are still okay books, they are not nearly as compelling as the early books were. To a large extent, this is due to the evolution of Lucas Davenport from edgy cop happy to womanize and break whatever rules are necessary, to a tamer family man who may bend the rules occasionally but is a little less interesting.

Invisible Prey is a perfect example, in which for a long time, Davenport has little interest in a set of murders outside of that required by his job. After all, at this point, he is independently wealthy (so he doesn't need the work) and his family life is happily stable, so there is little to upset his proverbial apple cart. Eventually, he will be more motivated, but the first part of the book just has him going through the motions.

The plot focuses on a husband-and-wife pair of burglar/killers who commit a seemingly perfect crime. It is, in fact, their attempts to cover up the crime that will threaten to undo them, not the crime itself. In killing a wealthy old lady and her maid for some antiques (they are antique dealers), they are hardly even on Davenport's radar, as he is more interested in an underaged sex scandal involving a state politician. The cover-up, however, draws Davenport in, as he starts to realize that there may be even more murders linked to this home invasion.

As is typically the case in a Prey novel, Sandford is less interested in plot twists (we know who the killers are early on) than in the procedure of hunting down the killers, and in the characters of the killers themselves. And as villains, the husband-and-wife are in the middle tier of Sandford villains, not great, not awful. I'm sure long-time fans of Sandford will be pleased with this book (and despite my griping, this book is good enough to merit a low four stars), but it is not the best introduction to his work.

This is a weak Davenport novel. It's possible that Sandford is simply losing interest. Part of the problem is the plot and the rest of the problem lies in the characters. Let's start with the characters. Nobody except Davenport has any substance here at all, and the only reason he resonates at all is that we know him from all the other books. His life in this book is dull, dull, dull. Everybody is sketchily drawn--including the detectives that surround Davenport. You can hardly tell them apart, and the dialogue for any one of them could be given to another with no impact on the book. The murderous couple are a bit more interesting, but we never really see them in combat with Davenport--the husband is killed off too early for that. In most of Sandford's Davenport novels, much of the suspense comes from the possibility that killer will kill again--or attack a specfic victim. Not so here...the old women (and man) are done in long before the book starts and we see only one murder scene at the beginning--and we don't know the victms. Who cares? Not us! All in all, this is a poor job of painting the characters. It's pretty clear that Sandford's heart is just not in it. The plot wanders around and around with false leads and dead ends. The links between the two plots are highly implausible, and Sanford pretty much drops the second one in favor of the first about half way through. You can buy this if you absolutely, positively have to read the latest Davenport novel, but if you must, I suggest you either wait for the paperback so you don't blow good money or get the abridged audiobook so you don't have to go through the whole thing to get the essence of how Davenport wraps it up. Yawner!

As big a fan I am of John Sandford and his Lucas Davenport series, I have to put this one in the bottom 5. It was way too lackadaisical and it didn't really climax until two thirds or so into the book. And even then you knew who did what and it was just a matter of cleaning up the mess. The only suspenseful part was finding out just how it would go down (who'd end up dead, who'd end up in jail, etc.).

There were some cool things about this one, though. I loved that Kidd and LuEllen (from the Kidd series) had a cameo (and who knows, maybe their last appearance?). I also happened to recognize Annabelle Ramford (sp?) from Hidden Prey (who was AKA "Trey"). I think there were a few other link-ins, but I can't remember what they were now.

I felt this book kind of just dropped off a cliff at the end.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with this one. I look forward to the next nonetheless!