David Schwinghammer's Blog - Posts Tagged "assassination-attempt"
Extreme Prey
Author John Sandford and the lead character in his PREY novels, Lucas Davenport have made some big moves lately. Sandford has moved to New Mexico, and Lucas has quit his job working for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
But Lucas is back in the saddle when governor Elmer Henderson, who is running for president in the Iowa caucuses, asks for his help. Seems like these two weirdos have been hounding him to move to the center so leading democratic candidate Michaela “Mike” Bowden (think Hillary) doesn't win the democratic nomination.
Sandford likes to show you who we're dealing with and why they are the way they are. So he introduces us to Marlys and Clay Purdy early on. She's an old sixties radical and he's done time in the Middle East with the National Guard and is suffering from some form of PTS.
Henderson has a hunch these two are planning some kind of dangerous scheme. He has a description for Lucas; she has white curly hair and he has gray eyes. Lucas still has connections in the BCA, and he compiles a list of possible radical organizations who might have a gripe against Bowden. Then, as usual in a PREY novel people start dropping like flies.
Sandford also has another motive. Lucas needs a badge. He's having trouble enough getting the head of the Iowa state cops to give him some support. It takes a tongue-lashing by the governor to get the jealous director to give him four state cops to help him track these people down. Bowden isn't helping either; she insists on doing a “walk through” during the Iowa State Fair, the worst possible place to provide security with thousands of people milling about.
This is an instructive book for beginning writers. If your character is tied up in a chair waiting for the axe to drop, you can't have him/her reach into a desk drawer and find a knife. That's too convenient. You need to plant that knife earlier in the story. Lucas does track down the Purdys, but they're gone by the time he finds their farm. There's a workshop in the hayloft and Lucas finds several bolts; he can't quite make the connection, but he does in the nick of time. The dummy should've known what they were for, but he was concentrating on snipers. There's evidence Clay is a crack shot.
Sandford does accomplish his goal because Lucas always gets his man, at least ninety-nine percent of the time. At the end of the story, somebody owes him one (I think you can guess who that might be) and that something turns out to be a job.
But Lucas is back in the saddle when governor Elmer Henderson, who is running for president in the Iowa caucuses, asks for his help. Seems like these two weirdos have been hounding him to move to the center so leading democratic candidate Michaela “Mike” Bowden (think Hillary) doesn't win the democratic nomination.
Sandford likes to show you who we're dealing with and why they are the way they are. So he introduces us to Marlys and Clay Purdy early on. She's an old sixties radical and he's done time in the Middle East with the National Guard and is suffering from some form of PTS.
Henderson has a hunch these two are planning some kind of dangerous scheme. He has a description for Lucas; she has white curly hair and he has gray eyes. Lucas still has connections in the BCA, and he compiles a list of possible radical organizations who might have a gripe against Bowden. Then, as usual in a PREY novel people start dropping like flies.
Sandford also has another motive. Lucas needs a badge. He's having trouble enough getting the head of the Iowa state cops to give him some support. It takes a tongue-lashing by the governor to get the jealous director to give him four state cops to help him track these people down. Bowden isn't helping either; she insists on doing a “walk through” during the Iowa State Fair, the worst possible place to provide security with thousands of people milling about.
This is an instructive book for beginning writers. If your character is tied up in a chair waiting for the axe to drop, you can't have him/her reach into a desk drawer and find a knife. That's too convenient. You need to plant that knife earlier in the story. Lucas does track down the Purdys, but they're gone by the time he finds their farm. There's a workshop in the hayloft and Lucas finds several bolts; he can't quite make the connection, but he does in the nick of time. The dummy should've known what they were for, but he was concentrating on snipers. There's evidence Clay is a crack shot.
Sandford does accomplish his goal because Lucas always gets his man, at least ninety-nine percent of the time. At the end of the story, somebody owes him one (I think you can guess who that might be) and that something turns out to be a job.
