BROKEN PREY by John Sandford
John Sandford is still plying his "prey" books and continuing the saga of Lucas Davenport, a police official in Minneapolis. In BROKEN PREY, Sandford's latest novel, Davenport confronts his most diabolical enemy yet. He goes up against a killer who not only murders, he also tortures and maims. This book is not for the weak of heart, but for all others it is Grade A mystery writing.
As this book opens Davenport is batching it at home. His wife, Weather, is in London with all of his family as she has a fellowship to study at a hospital there for six weeks. Davenport is taking this time to try and lose some weight so he has started on the South Beach diet. H eis having a hard time sticking to the plan.
All of this is interrupted by the report of a brutal killing. A woman has been tortured and killed. Davenport and his fellow lawman Sloan take the case. What they find is a crime sight bereft of clues and a victim who has no known enemies who would do something of this nature.
Before they get too heavily into this case another murder takes place involving the same kind of torture and killing. This one however involves a male and he has been raped as well as tortured and his small son has also been killed.
Davenport becomes desperate to track down this killer as he believes he will strike again soon. But every lead leads to a dead end and every suspicion falls by the wayside. And then another murder occurs.
This is Sandford at his best and when he is at his best there is no one who can compare to him. He has been writing about Davenport for so long that he knows him inside and out. One of the unique aspects of this book is that Davenport is compiling a list of one hundred songs to go inside his ipod. At the end of the book you get the full list of Davenport's selections. They are listed as "The Best Songs of the Rock Era."
It sounds trite to say about a novel of suspense but this is one you can barely put down. I was reading into the wee small hours of the morning in order to get to the end and find out who the killer was and how Davenport caught him/her.
If you are just now discovering Sandford, you should be aware this is his sixteenth or seventeenth "Prey" book. This novel does stand alone but you will enjoy it more if you have read all that came before it.
BROKEN PREY is published by G P Putnam's Sons. It contains 390 pages and sells for $26.95.