Phantom Prey (Lucas Davenport Mysteries) | 
 enlarge | Author: John Sandford
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy Used: $2.45
You Save: $24.50 (91%)
New (89) Used (136) Collectible (7) from $2.45
Rating:  102 reviews
Sales Rank: 2097
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0399155007
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780399155000
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: EX-LIBRARY; used item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned for refund. Buy with confidence - your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics!
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Lucas Davenport has had disturbing cases before but never one quite like this, in the shocking new Prey novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author.
John Sandford s most recent Davenport novel, Invisible Prey, was hailed as one of his best books in recent memory (The Washington Post); as fresh and entertaining as ever (Chicago Sun-Times); and rivetingly readable (Richmond Times-Dispatch). But this time, he s got something quite special in store.
A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood everywhere, no body and her collegeaged daughter missing. She s always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them Goths? Freaks is more like it, running around with all that makeup and black clothing, listening to that awful music, so attracted to death. And now this.
But the police can t find the girl, alive or dead, and when a second Goth is found slashed to death in Minneapolis, the widow truly panics. There s someone she knows, a surgeon named Weather Davenport, whose husband is a big deal with the police, and she implores Weather to get him directly involved. Lucas begins to investigate only reluctantly but then when a third Goth is slashed in what is now looking like a Jackthe- Ripper series of killings, he starts working it hard. The clues don t seem to add up, though. And then there s the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she come from and, more important, where does she vanish to? And why does Lucas keep getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here . . . something very, very bad indeed?
Filled with his brilliant trademark suspense and some of the most interesting characters in thriller fiction, Phantom Prey is further proof that Sandford is in a class of his own (The Orlando Sentinel).
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 97 more reviews...
 Another excellent Lucas Davenport police procedural May 11, 2008
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
31 out of 35 found this review helpful
Back for his eighteenth appearance, Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is not only on the job, but in top form.
The main story concerns Alyssa Austin, recently widowed when the airplane carrying her millionaire pilot husband Hunter crashed in Canada, comes home to discover the alarm system of her tony suburban home turned off, but no one in the house. Knowing the housekeeper Helen is gone for the day, Alyssa calls out for her daughter Frances who might be visiting. Alyssa searches the house and finds what turns out to be a small blood stain on the wallpape. The blood belongs to Frances and the police find that more blood has been wiped from the floors.
But there is no corpse.
A sub-plot concerns Lucas Davenport and colleague Del staking out the apartment of the wife of dope dealer, who apparently is immodest of often peels off her top with the shades up. The cops are trying to nab her currently absent drug kingpin husband.
Lucas Davenport is independently wealthy because he developed and sold a software company. He doesn't have to work, but he likes being a cop and solving the really tough cases, which just happens to be what the BCA does. In earlier stories, Sandford spent a lot of time developing Lucas Davenport. This time around, Davenport, married to surgeon Weather, with a young son and adopted teenage daughter is less introspective and more action oriented.
And there is plenty of action. As it turns out, the distraught mother, Alyssa Austin, owns several exclusive fitness centers, knows Weather and asks her to get her husband involved in the case. Reluctantly, Lucas gets involved - just in time for a series of gruesome murders of young Twin Cities "Goths". Frances, the missing daughter, was into the Goth scene.
Sandford is one of the best police procedural writers around today. He doesn't miss a beat in this one. Davenport is a cerebral cop who is constantly dogging a case, wondering how the leads and clues fit together. Almost as an aside, he tracks a money trail through the Goth community as one after another is murdered. Davenport himself comes in for a close call.
It's a taut thriller, with Davenport displaying more than the occasional flash of brilliant inspiration that brings him one step closer to solving the crimes.
The only unfortunate part of the plot is that Davenport relies upon a device he used to great effect in an earlier "Prey" novel, but it doesn't work so well here. Nope, I'm not going to spoil it for you. You'll know when you see it, even if you haven't read the prior Davenport novels.
It's a small thing that doesn't take any pleasure from the reading because John Sanford is simply one of the finest authors of police procedurals in the business. The nice thing about the "Prey" series is that if you start with one, you might be drawn to reading the others. Start with the first and work your way through all of them. They really are excellent reading.
Jerry
Book lover June 13, 2008
S. Chastain (Colmar, France)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
My wife is a big John Sandford fan. She loves his "Lucas Davenport" character. She actually collect's the Sandford novels. She really enjoyed this book in particular and said she would recommend it to her friends and family.
Classic Sanford May 20, 2008
J. W. Cush (New Jersey)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lucas Davenport is at it again. A page turner in the John Sanford tradition. The only disappointment was Sanford's uncharacteristic use of sexual situations to fill space. He should leave that for those with lesser creativity and weak writing talent.
Fast moving and entertaining May 25, 2008
Jeri Nevermind (Idaho)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Did all those other reviewers read the same book I did? Because I found the book classic Sandford--a good read from beginning to end.
The story centers around a young woman, Frances, who is missing. It doesn't appear she walked out on her own, since a spray of her blood is found in her house. What happened to her?
Lucas is called in some time after the disappearance and, very quickly, the single disappearance is tied into some messy murders of former Goth friends of the missing girl.
Plenty of twists, as usual, and, as usual, this is compulsively readable from page one.
Good read!!! May 29, 2008
Bonnie J. Bork (Neenah,WI)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love John Sanford and he never fails to deliver with his books!!
It is always a treat to get one of his books and I have a hard time putting them down once I do get one.
|
|
|
