Helpful Score: 1
Sandford gets back to basics in this stellar 14th installment of his hugely popular Prey series, focusing on the long-standing duo of Davenport and Capslock. As the novel begins, the indomitable Lucas Davenport (now happily married, a contented father and bored out of his mind) is slogging through the northern tundra of Broderick, Minn., to inspect the naked dangling corpses of a white woman and black man ("They were frozen. Like Popsicles.") that have shocked the locals as well as Minnesota's governor with the ugly specter of a lynching. Davenport, now more or less a free agent for the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension ("I kick people's asses"), is unleashed by the governor, giving Davenport and his scruffy sidekick, Del Capslock, a chance to escape their square city lives and catch the villain(s) while staving off the media vultures, Sandford's trademark subplot. As in previous novels, the original crime (rendered in a truly horrific opening sequence) is merely the gateway to a deeper, more insidious criminal enterprise, this one an international labyrinth of stolen cars, drugs, gambling and kidnapping. Some truly vicious familial machinations in the small town contrast well with Davenport's staid and stable home life. Another pleasant surprise is the precocious Letty West, whose awakening teenage sensibilities make an impression on Davenport. Sandford's usual background details (readers will learn how to run a muskrat trapline and how an Indian casino operates) are deftly woven into the fabric. This latest installment in a series now a decade and a half old is vintage Sandford.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of the better Prey books! Lucas and Del are on the hunt for kidnapper/killers in a small town. There is definitely something strange going on in this little town, but they can't put their finger on it. I didn't want to put it down!
Helpful Score: 1
I have read almost every book in the prey series and this is one of my favorites. Lucas and Weather are married and have a baby. Lucas now works for the Governor under his old boss Rose Marie and his old sidekick Dell is working with him. This is a good story involving kidnapping, murder, money and drugs, and Lucas winds up being good friends with a 12 year old Tomboy. Try it you'll like it.
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. I think you will also. Enjoy!!
enjoyed it
When twelve-year-old muskrat trapper Letty West stumbles on the naked bodies of Jane Warr and Deon Cash, deep in the snowy woods of northern Minnesota, it's more than another bizarre episode in her already unusual life, as Lucas Davenport discovers in this new outing in Sandford's popular series featuring the midwestern lawman who moonlights as a computer game designer. Lucas has a new wife, a new baby, and a new job as a political troubleshooter for his old boss Rose Marie Roux, but the blunt-spoken Davenport's instructions to hush the racially charged implications of what looks suspiciously like a lynching won't deter him from whomever left Warr and Cash twisting in the wind. The well-peopled plot, involving a hot car ring, an ex-nun who smuggles cancer drugs over the Canadian border, and the usual internecine wranglings between the FBI, the local cops, and Davenport, races to a satisfying denouement, but this time it's a little girl with a difficult past and an uncertain future who lingers in the reader's mind. Fortunately, Sandford comes up with an ending that makes it all but certain that his fans will meet her again
This was a very interesting book. I found it difficult to put down.
Two people are found hanging naked from a tree in the woods of northern Minnesota.What makes the situation particularly sensitive is the bodies are of a black man and a white woman.
I completely loved this book and I reccomend it to anyone.
fascinating, well paced, remarkable....
ShaiLynne J. (LoveBeingMOM) -
Once you pick this book up, you will not want to put it down.
With another entry in his fine "Prey" series, a group of books centered on Lucas Davenport, "the richest cop in Minnesota" (rich because he also designs video games).
Sandford set the stage for change at the conclusion of his last book, letting the reader percolate on what would be the differences in Lucas when he becomes an active father, and when he leaves the police department for a quasi-bureaucratic governmental position in a new state department headed by his old boss, Rose Marie Roux. Wisely, although Sandford went forward with these changes, the impact was streamlined by having 90% of the book's action happen in rural northern Minnesota, in the fictional small town of Broderick. Family man Lucas still has his best sidekick, Del, gainfully employed with him -- and married or not, he still can spot and appreciate a great looking woman. Some things never change!
The first two murders may be motivated by racial hatred - one victim is black, and his significant other is white...they are found brutally slain and hanging from a barren tree in the frosty Minnesota winter. There's so much odd and unusual "stuff" going on in Broderick, it's difficult for Lucas & Del to pin down the any information about the murders, and the killings continue.
Sandford manages to deftly interweave his social viewpoints -- his lack of respect for the media, his vague unsettlement with the way that federal, state and local authorities sometimes impede each other to solve a case that has generated media attention, and most importantly, his support of a little known grass roots campaign that is quietly smuggling prescription drugs from Canada to US patients who need and can't afford them.
Unlike many other writers of this genre, Sandford can keep both his tale of the crime and his social commentary moving in the same direction -- one does not eclipse or slow down the other.
The book is also notable in that it provides a lot of insight into tribal casinos...a staple of the Minnesota scenery in the last decade. Tribal casinos have changed rural Minnesota in many ways, and Sandford captures this contrast of big city activity with the rural tundra.
The prize of the novel, as many readers have commented, is new character Letty West, who will doubtless appear in future instalments. A precocious 12-year old, Letty's like many rural kids that come from dysfunctional single parent families....in the cities, kids from these homes tend to run with gangs...in the country, they tend to be loners, with old souls. Letty is such a character, and she's the best addition to the series in a long time.
This may not be the finest of Sandford's series, but its darn close!
Sandford set the stage for change at the conclusion of his last book, letting the reader percolate on what would be the differences in Lucas when he becomes an active father, and when he leaves the police department for a quasi-bureaucratic governmental position in a new state department headed by his old boss, Rose Marie Roux. Wisely, although Sandford went forward with these changes, the impact was streamlined by having 90% of the book's action happen in rural northern Minnesota, in the fictional small town of Broderick. Family man Lucas still has his best sidekick, Del, gainfully employed with him -- and married or not, he still can spot and appreciate a great looking woman. Some things never change!
The first two murders may be motivated by racial hatred - one victim is black, and his significant other is white...they are found brutally slain and hanging from a barren tree in the frosty Minnesota winter. There's so much odd and unusual "stuff" going on in Broderick, it's difficult for Lucas & Del to pin down the any information about the murders, and the killings continue.
Sandford manages to deftly interweave his social viewpoints -- his lack of respect for the media, his vague unsettlement with the way that federal, state and local authorities sometimes impede each other to solve a case that has generated media attention, and most importantly, his support of a little known grass roots campaign that is quietly smuggling prescription drugs from Canada to US patients who need and can't afford them.
Unlike many other writers of this genre, Sandford can keep both his tale of the crime and his social commentary moving in the same direction -- one does not eclipse or slow down the other.
The book is also notable in that it provides a lot of insight into tribal casinos...a staple of the Minnesota scenery in the last decade. Tribal casinos have changed rural Minnesota in many ways, and Sandford captures this contrast of big city activity with the rural tundra.
The prize of the novel, as many readers have commented, is new character Letty West, who will doubtless appear in future instalments. A precocious 12-year old, Letty's like many rural kids that come from dysfunctional single parent families....in the cities, kids from these homes tend to run with gangs...in the country, they tend to be loners, with old souls. Letty is such a character, and she's the best addition to the series in a long time.
This may not be the finest of Sandford's series, but its darn close!
John Sandford's books are so readable. He inserts humor into his storytelling, while keeping you charging foreward wanting more. The book is set in Minnesota, as are all his "Prey" series books. Lucas Davenport is faced with solving the mystery of two people found hanging, dead, from a tree in the woods of Northern Minnesota. The story becomes more complicated as it goes on, an the ending is a total surprise. I loved it, and I can't get enough of John Sandford's books.
The story has a good plot but the book kinda drags along.
Lucas Davenport - great, as usual.
14th in the Prey series. Very good, better then some of the other books in this series. Book has been read only once, in excellent condition.
Lucas Davenport is involved with the lynching of a black man and white woman. This is a very suspenseful book and full of surprises.
Another Lucas Davenport thriller.
What can I say. I have enjoyed this entire series and this one is no excpetion. I'm only disappointed that I'm nearly at the end. If you're enjoying the Prey series don't skip this one.
Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this one. There were a lot of characters and I found it difficult to keep track of all the threads.
John Sandford is one of my favorite authors. This is one in the Lucas Davenport series.
Should not read during take-off or landing on airplanes because of the "crackling, page-turning tension."
I guess this is just not my "type" of book...Took me a very long time to get into the book! By the time I "got" into it, I was done!
From Amazon:
The well-peopled plot, involving a hot car ring, an ex-nun who smuggles cancer drugs over the Canadian border, and the usual internecine wranglings between the FBI, the local cops, and Davenport, races to a satisfying denouement, but this time it's a little girl with a difficult past and an uncertain future who lingers in the reader's mind. Fortunately, Sandford comes up with an ending that makes it all but certain that his fans will meet her again.
The well-peopled plot, involving a hot car ring, an ex-nun who smuggles cancer drugs over the Canadian border, and the usual internecine wranglings between the FBI, the local cops, and Davenport, races to a satisfying denouement, but this time it's a little girl with a difficult past and an uncertain future who lingers in the reader's mind. Fortunately, Sandford comes up with an ending that makes it all but certain that his fans will meet her again.
Sallie M. (oldrockandroll) -
Lucas Davenport is now married with a new baby. His job has changed and he is an investigator for the state with Rose Marie still as his boss in a new capacity. Lucas and Dell go to a small town to check out a couple of murders. The murders are not as they seem and neither is the town and townspeople they get involved with. Great read!
Heather M. (celticscrapper27) reviewed Naked Prey (Lucas Davenport, Bk 14) on + 54 more book reviews
Another winner in the series introducing a strong, if young, character who I hope we see again.
entertaining
Kristina B. (familiagarduno) reviewed Naked Prey (Lucas Davenport, Bk 14) on + 164 more book reviews
OMG! This book was so great! It all takes place in a few days about a kidnapping unraveling. I can't get over how the writing was done in a way that made you feel almost like you were watching a movie....If you've ever seen Babel, 21 Grams or similar movies, it was very similar to that style. The plot kept you coming for more and even once you knew whodunit, you still want to keep going to see if they catch him - and I'm not going to tell you if they do or not - you'll have to read it yourself to find out! I may be a sucker for mysteries, but this book was beyond exceptional - 5 stars without a question!!!
Great book. First one of John Sandford's I've had time to read. Will definitely add him to my favorite authors list.
A great Lucas Davenport book, as always!
It's ok ... nothing great.
Once again a great Lucas Davenport story by this author.
ANother great "Prey" novel!
Another fantastic book in Sandford's Davenport series.
Good reading. I enjoyed enough to go seek more of the series. Interesting characters and story line. Just complex enough to keep me guessing but not so complex as to get lost and give up. I greatly enjoyed my time with it.
This was one of his best........really enjoyed the fast movement of an edge-of-your-seat thriller!
This is another in a great series.
Two people are found hanging naked from a atree in the woods of northern Minnesota. What makes the situation particularly sensitive is that the bodies are of a black man and a white woman. Lynching is the word everyone
s trying not to say, but as Lucas Davenport begins to doscomver, the murders are not at all what they appear to be. And there is worse to come----much much worse.
s trying not to say, but as Lucas Davenport begins to doscomver, the murders are not at all what they appear to be. And there is worse to come----much much worse.
great reading, entertaining
great book
very good. really enjoyed reading it, as of now my friend is reading it also. and one more friend waiting for it.
Two people are found hanging naked from a tree in the woods of northern Minnesota. What makes the situation particularly sensitive is that the bodies are of a black man and a white woman. Lynching is the word everone's trying not to say, but as Lucas Davenport begins to discover, the murders are not at all what they appear to be. and there is worse to come --- much, much worse
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