Books: Broken Prey
by John Sandford – Highly Recommended
Just finished reading this last night.
If you have not read Sandford and you like detective fiction / police procedurals and don’t mind a little explicit violence, you’re missing out.
The “Prey” series revolves around Lucas Davenport, a detective with the Minneapolis police department. Davenport has a software company on the side which turned out to be rather lucrative for him. He has suffered through bouts of depression, bad relationships, and dealing with the media, all the while putting together the pieces of the puzzle on one mystery after another. The character, well-developed from the start, continues to be revealed and grow with each additional volume. After sixteen books, it's like a reunion with an old friend.
Aside from Sandford's exceptional writing, one of the things that set this series apart from other detective novels is the setting. Rather than setting his novels in one of the largest cities in the world like New York, L.A. , or even London - John Sandford chose Minneapolis. It's a refreshing change and the author's familiarity with the locale and attention to detail make it a great choice.
Broken Prey is one of the best in the bunch. Here is the synopsis from the dust jacket:
"... there is nothing easy about what Lucas Davenport faces now. The first body is of a young woman, found on a Minneapolis riverbank, her throat cut, her body scourged and put on display. Whoever did this, Lucas knows, is pushed by brain chemistry, there is something wrong with him. This isn't a bad love affair.
The second body is found three weeks later, in a farmhouse six miles south. Same condition, same display -- except this time it is a man. Nothing to link the two victims, nothing to indicate that the killings end here.
A suspect emerges early: a man recently released from a prison hospital who now seems to have cut himself free from his court-imposed ankle bracelet and disappeared. But the more Lucas investigates, the more he wonders: Is this really the man? Could he really have done this all by himself? And where has he gone? ...."
I quoted the jacket so I wouldn't inadvertantly give away any of the surprising twists and turns of the plot.
I have read - no, devoured all 16 books in this series and I have never been disappointed. If you are new to the Davenport saga and wish to start from the beginning, you should start with Rules of Prey. You can jump in anywhere, but to get a real feel for Davenport's development, go back to the beginning.
Just finished reading this last night.
If you have not read Sandford and you like detective fiction / police procedurals and don’t mind a little explicit violence, you’re missing out.
The “Prey” series revolves around Lucas Davenport, a detective with the Minneapolis police department. Davenport has a software company on the side which turned out to be rather lucrative for him. He has suffered through bouts of depression, bad relationships, and dealing with the media, all the while putting together the pieces of the puzzle on one mystery after another. The character, well-developed from the start, continues to be revealed and grow with each additional volume. After sixteen books, it's like a reunion with an old friend.
Aside from Sandford's exceptional writing, one of the things that set this series apart from other detective novels is the setting. Rather than setting his novels in one of the largest cities in the world like New York, L.A. , or even London - John Sandford chose Minneapolis. It's a refreshing change and the author's familiarity with the locale and attention to detail make it a great choice.
Broken Prey is one of the best in the bunch. Here is the synopsis from the dust jacket:
"... there is nothing easy about what Lucas Davenport faces now. The first body is of a young woman, found on a Minneapolis riverbank, her throat cut, her body scourged and put on display. Whoever did this, Lucas knows, is pushed by brain chemistry, there is something wrong with him. This isn't a bad love affair.
The second body is found three weeks later, in a farmhouse six miles south. Same condition, same display -- except this time it is a man. Nothing to link the two victims, nothing to indicate that the killings end here.
A suspect emerges early: a man recently released from a prison hospital who now seems to have cut himself free from his court-imposed ankle bracelet and disappeared. But the more Lucas investigates, the more he wonders: Is this really the man? Could he really have done this all by himself? And where has he gone? ...."
I quoted the jacket so I wouldn't inadvertantly give away any of the surprising twists and turns of the plot.
I have read - no, devoured all 16 books in this series and I have never been disappointed. If you are new to the Davenport saga and wish to start from the beginning, you should start with Rules of Prey. You can jump in anywhere, but to get a real feel for Davenport's development, go back to the beginning.
posted by GaryO @ 11:41 PM
1 Comments:
I've been reading Sanford's novels since Rules of Prey, and I've got to agree. It's a very good series.
The Davenport stories are always some kind of police procedural mystery, but the plots develop in surprising ways. Sanford plots his novels very carefully, without bogging you down with plot structure. There's always a sense of being swept away by unfolding events.
Sanford has also managed to avoid one of the most depressing pitfalls of series authors: Falling blindly in love with his characters. He never just trots them on stage so he can write about them—"look how interesting and unusual I've made them!"—like certain other authors who shall remain nameless. The characters are there because the story needs them to be there.
Anyway, welcome to the blogosphere and thanks for the link.
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