Night Prey

Lucas Davenport #6

by John Sandford

Porsche-driving Lucas Davenport, who has just returned to duty after recovering from a serious gunshot wound, is charged with saving the political life of Rose Marie Roux, the ambitious police chief who has her eye on a Senate seat. He's given the assignment of tracking to ground the sex-crazed perpetrator of a series of murders of young women. Davenport's unwelcome colleague in this case is feminist Meagan Connell, an abrasive State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator who's obsessed with catching the killer before she dies of cancer.

Also bedeviled by the ill-timed assignment of a new partner, a yuppie who was formerly assigned to the grade schools as "Officer Friendly" and who happens to be the husband of the mayor's niece, Davenport is additionally saddled with the mystifying death of an elderly woman who died rather conveniently, freeing some local hoods to profit from a real-estate scam.

The killer is dropping bodies all over the metropolitan area ... and makes the mistake of becoming a little too obsessed with a potential victim and thus leaves a trail that Davenport and his fellow officers finally discover.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Audiobook

435 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 1994

About the author

John Sandford is the pen name of John Roswell Camp, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author known for his gripping thrillers and popular crime series. After earning degrees in history, literature, and journalism from the University of Iowa, Camp began his writing career as a reporter, first at The Miami Herald and later at The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, where he earned critical acclaim for in-depth series on Native American communities and American farm life. His work won him the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1986.
In 1989, Camp transitioned into fiction, publishing two novels: The Fool's Run under his real name and Rules of Prey under the pseudonym John Sandford. The latter launched the long-running “Prey” series, starring Lucas Davenport, a sharp, fearless investigator navigating politically sensitive crimes across Minnesota and beyond. The series grew to include spin-offs and crossovers, notably featuring characters like Virgil Flowers, a laid-back BCA agent with a sharp wit, and Letty Davenport, Lucas's equally determined daughter, who stars in her own series starting in 2022.
Sandford’s books have consistently appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, with over two dozen debuting at number one. Known for his dynamic storytelling, fast pacing, and keen attention to detail, Sandford combines his journalistic roots with a gift for character-driven narratives. He remains an avid reader and outdoorsman, and continues to write compelling fiction that resonates with readers who enjoy intelligent thrillers grounded in realism and driven by memorable protagonists.

Reviews

[Heidi (can’t retire soon enough) · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Mr. Sandford’s writing grows stronger, so does my infatuation with Davenport. In some ways, he reminds me of another lead police investigator I’ve also grown fond of, Reebus of Ian Rankin’s great series.

Both are slightly broken, despise the politics of the job (although Davenport has jumped in with both feet now), and seem to solve the unsolvable. They also have a penchant for broken relationships despite their best intentions.

This was a great read with an Uber creepy villain— in fact, I couldn’t wait for him to be caught (no spoiler— a good third of the book is from his viewpoint beginning with page 1). Unconnected crimes become connected through the dogged persistence of a new character— a rather besmirched FBI agent.

The pairing of the Minneapolis PD and FBI is definitely not what Davenport wants but he eventually realizes it’s exactly what the case needs. The case progresses, complete with a few good twists, and so does his complicated partnership (can’t really call it a relationship) with his FBI counterpart, who you will grow to adore.

The ending packs a bitter punch, but that just made this a better book. Kudos Mr. Sanford. I’m already looking forward to the next one (and so delighted to have many more to go).

(Reviewed 6/15/24)

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is often the case in this series, Lucas Davenport, the police detective protagonist, is confronted by a particularly clever and chilling antagonist. Here it's a creep named Koop who, over a long period of time, has been kidnapping and savagely killing women in several jurisdictions around the greater Minneapolis area.

Since Koop has operated over a large geographic area, no one has tumbled to the fact that a serial killer is at work. Finally a somewhat abrasive feminist Minnesota State Investigator named Meagan Connell puts it all together and attempts to convince the Powers That Be that her findings are legitimate. Fortunately for Connell, Davenport, whom everyone admits is the most brilliant detective in Minnesota, is assigned to the case of Koop's latest victim. Connell manages to convince Davenport that there is a serial killer at work and Connell and Davenport are assigned to work the case together.

It's not an easy partnership, and it's made even more difficult because Connell is dying and has only a short time to live. She is determined to wrap up the case while she still can, and for once, Lucas is at a loss in trying to deal with a woman. The suspense is ratcheted up when Koop, who supports himself by being a cat burglar, becomes obsessed with a young woman named Sara Jensen and begins carving her initials into his victims.

As always, the tension is lightened by the dark humor and repartee that characterize these books. There is no sexual attraction between Davenport and Connell, but Lucas is distracted by a recently arrived TV anchorwoman who causes him some anxious moments as he is settling in with his new lover, Weather Karkinnen. Lots of action; lots of fun; another fine addition to the series.

James L. Thane, author of A Shot to the Heart

[Kemper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike most of the Prey books, this one starts out with a man in love. Unfortunately, Koop is a cat burglar with severe psycho-sexual problems that cause him to occasionally kidnap a woman and gut her like a fish. So when he sees beautiful Sara Jensen sleeping during one his break-ins, Koop instantly becomes obsessed and begins secretly stalking her while taking out his building frustration on random women.

A Minnesota state investigator named Meagan Connell has picked up on Koop’s pattern. Since Meagan has terminal cancer and nothing to lose, she’s become the anti-Walter White and is doing everything she can to catch the killer before her time runs out. This means that she has put intense political pressure on the new Minneapolis police chief, Rose Marie Roux.

Ah, but Roux has a secret weapon. She recently brought Lucas Davenport back to the police force. Officially, he’s a deputy chief running an intelligence group targeting career criminals. Unofficially Lucas is her trouble-shooter during the major crimes that whip the media and public into a frenzy.

As Lucas works with the driven Connell on the killings, he’s also dealing with some big adjustments. The game has changed in the two years he’s been away. Every petty criminal now carries a gun. The homicide unit is being crushed by a soaring murder rate. The media is growing ever more aggressive and irresponsible and increasing the pressure on the politicians and cops. Maybe the biggest change is that Lucas is now living with his girlfriend. He loves her, but he’s still a man-ho and an attractive TV reporter has caught his eye.

The villains set the tone in the Prey books, and Koop is a worthy and creepy addition to their ranks. He’s a body-builder with a taste for cocaine, and while he’s got a criminal slyness, he’s not one those genius serial killers that populate thrillers. Koop is really little more than an animal who relentlessly prowls the city in his truck. He has no introspection and no guilt. He wants what he wants, and he’ll cave in anyone’s skull to get it. There’s just enough control to barely allow him to behave somewhat normally and cover his tracks, but he can snap at any moment.

It’s telling that Davenport has a hard time getting his head around Koop and doesn’t pull any of his usual tricks to smoke him out until after they’ve identified him through a break in the case. Even the trap that they set for Koop depends on letting his own nature work against him rather than Davenport prodding him into a mistake. Koop's simplistic, wary and anti-social nature makes him a hard target for the kind of subtle manipulation that Lucas usually uses. Instead Lucas almost has to become a hunter who waits quietly in one spot as he tries not to spook his target.

This one also marks a new phase in the life of Lucas. With a new job and a live-in girlfriend, this is where we start seeing a more mature and responsible side of Davenport in future books rather than just the rich-cop-playing-by-his-own-rules we’d had up until now.

Next: Lucas matches wits with a gamer in Mind Prey.

[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the sixth book in the Lucas Davenport series and Lucas is up against a serial killer who has been smart enough to not be recognised as such until State Investigator Meagan Connell puts all the available information together. She joins up with Lucas in the investigation and, although she is not a very likeable character, she has great determination and a deadline - her own death due to cancer.

As usual in this series there is lots of blood and gore, the body count is high, and the investigation is complicated. However Lucas is a particularly appealing character, and there is also plenty of humour to lighten the atmosphere. The killer is interesting too especially when he becomes obsessed by one of his potential victims.

An excellent read and recommended to fans of police procedurals.

[Sheyla ✎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucas Davenport is now officially back as a cop working under new leadership. The new police chief
Rose Marie Roux needs help with a possible serial killer. Megan Connell is a Minnesota State investigator who believes multiple women have been murdered, at least one every year.

The unsub's name is Koop. He picks his female victims carefully. Usually, women who are quiet and unassuming. He's also a cat burglar. When he gets into the apartment of Sara Jensen, he becomes obsessed with her. He even gets her perfume to be able to recall her smell.

It's up to Lucas to figure out who Koop is and how to get the guy.

I liked Night Prey. Koop was a completely crazy animal. Sara Jensen triggers in him such a violent response that he starts making mistakes and other people's lives are taken by him due to his frustration.

I like that Lucas is living with his girlfriend Weather Karkinnen. She brings the best out of him. She's smart and funny. Of course, Lucas still has a wandering eye but at least he refrains from much.

Lucas dealing with Meagan Connell was also different. Meagan is dying from cancer and she wants Koop taken care of before she dies. I felt sad for her.

As always in this series, we get funny moments, sad ones and a lot of action too.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs

MrsLeif's Two Fangs About It | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone is killing women in the Twin Cities and surrounding towns. But he’s not just killing them; he’s eviscerating them, then leaving them in dumpsters. The police have no leads, and they’ve just recently determined that it’s the work of a serial killer, thanks to the intrepid police work of a homicide detective.

Thus begins John Sandford’s novel “Night Prey”, the sixth book in the series featuring detective Lucas Davenport. The suspense is off the charts in this one. So is the misogyny.

To be fair, I don’t think Sandford is a misogynist. Let me make that clear. I do believe, however, that his character, Davenport, is a misogynist, but he’s working on it.

The serial killer—-a muscle-headed goon named Koop—-is most definitely a misogynist, and Sanford does an excellent job getting into his head, whether we like it or not. You won’t. It’s not a pleasant place to be.

Davenport is teamed up with Meagan Connell. She’s the afore-mentioned intrepid detective who has pieced together the profile of the Minnesota serial killer. She’s been fighting to get anyone to believe her. Davenport does, but there’s little they can do without fingerprints, DNA, fibers, anything at all. Unfortunately, there’s not much.

She’s on a tight schedule. She’s dying of stage 4 cancer, and she literally has weeks to live. She wants to get this guy before she shuffles off her mortal coil.

Meanwhile, Davenport’s relationship with his new girlfriend, Weather, is going great, but he’s still feeling the tug of his over-charged libido (in today’s parlance, it would be called sex addiction) and profligacy in regards to cheating.

“Night Prey” is one of those fascinating morally questionable thrillers in which the author attempts to examine the misogyny in his characters while, without question, demonstrating it in his writing.

I have not delved too deeply into this, but I would hazard a guess that this sub-genre has been around for decades. Alfred Hitchcock comes to mind.

It seems to have hit its stride, though, in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I’m not sure why, although I’ll hazard another guess that the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair and the Clarence Thomas debacle, which occurred in this time frame, had something to do with it, opening the door for more discussions of improper male sexual behavior, sexual harassment, and female objectification.

“Night Prey” was published in 1994. Sanford would have been well-aware of the national conversation about sexual morality, and “Night Prey” was the closest thing to his philosophical commentary—-and self-criticism—-on the subject.

Indeed, some of Sandford’s previous books could be looked at as examples of disgusting male chauvinistic perspectives. Some of Davenport’s behavior in early books were downright disgraceful and blatantly misogynistic. Arguably, Sandford's writing didn't help the situation in that it wasn't always clear whether he was condemning or condoning it.

Unlike some other literary detectives, though, Davenport (and Sanford) began to evolve as the mindsets of some men began to evolve, which makes Davenport a truly dynamic character. I give credit to Sandford, too, who recognized his own misogyny in his writing and began to do something about it.

[Alex Cantone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overhead, above the new green of the elms, nighthawks made their skizzizk cries, their wing-flashes like the silver bars of new first-lieutenants. Spring was shading into summer. The daffodils and tulips were gone, while the petunias spread across the beds like Mennonite quilts.

This is the second of the “Prey” series I had read, and the tension is palpable from page 1. Almost 70% of the book follows Koop, cat burglar, peeping tom and serial killer, across Minneapolis and St Paul, east across the Mississippi to Hudson, Wisconsin, north to Lake Superior, his prey – shy, vulnerable women who attend book readings, his chilling killings escalating with an obsession over a woman he can never have.

Minneapolis Homicide are always one step behind, looking for a breakthrough, hindered by a separate jurisdiction with St Paul. Assistant Chief Lucas Davenport (now living with Weather Harkinnen, the surgeon who saved his life) answers to new Chief of Investigations, chain-smoking Rose Marie Roux, who has her eye set on a senate seat. Davenport finds himself working with Meagan Connell, investigator with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), herself with a terminal illness and the driving force behind the investigation, aided by the tech-savvy Harmon Anderson, and newcomer to Homicide, Bob Greave.

A one-time community police officer and the butt of many jokes, Greave's elevation is due to his wife, a relative of the Mayor, who dresses her husband in Miami Vice type suits. While competent, he is side-tracked by the death of a school teacher, found in her apartment, the doors and windows locked, no sign of injury or toxicology to establish the cause of death.

That this unlikely trio (plus Anderson) can work together would seem remarkable, except that the Porsche-driving Davenport is cut from a different cloth, an independently wealthy designer of computer games. He thinks outside the square, and most important, knows how to listen picking up vital clues along the way.

This was an outstanding piece of writing: the author leads the reader inside apartments, stairwells, elevators, roof tops, fast food outlets, along city streets and interstates, from junk yards to state penitentiaries while a drug-fuelled Koop, with only a fragile grip on sanity, pursues the target of his obsession, killing anyone getting in his way.

Verdict: definitely looking out for other books in the series.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent story featuring Sanford's homicide detective Lucas Davenport on the heels of butchering cat burglar. 9 of 10 stars

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

A great entry into the series, not quite reaching the heights of the previous book, Winter Prey, but still gripping with a nut job on the case and some dark humour sprinkled throughout. Pretty similar to some of the other outings you might think but there is enough fresh dealings here to keep your eyes peeled.

Davenport has to work with a terminally ill detective and also babysit an out of his depth detective with a locked room case as well as actually trying to work out how to locate and catch the mental villain. Davenport didn’t come across as much as a dick in this one (I say that in the nicest sense as I do like him) and seemed to have grown where as there wasn’t much growth previous to this from what I remember.

This is a good series and one I should try and read more of quicker as it’s a notch above your average crime mystery. I look forward to see how/if Davenport develops further in the series.

[Marty Fried · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally crazy psycho who somehow manages to avoid capture even though he seems completely out of control most of the time. I guess because he's so crazy he does things that are unexpected, but he also seems pretty cunning, and very strong and fast.

I'm beginning to like this series more and more, although I didn't really think this one was really great. I thought some of the mysteries were not really that hard to figure out, yet they made assumptions based on other assumptions, which were incorrect. I could have told them what they were doing wrong, but of course, I had the advantage of knowing already.

[Jack Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars. What can I say about this great entry from Sandford without declaring a spoiler? Don't later readers have a right to discover the twists and turns for themselves without me divulging the final destination? Teasers - that's what's anticipated. Yet the potential spoiler, crucial for character development but less so for plot resolution, comes up relatively early. Here goes. Lucas Davenport, back on the Minneapolis Police Department as Deputy Chief, is assigned to deal with a pesky and persistent investigator from the state police, Meagan Connell. A ball of no-nonsense fire. Detective Sloan says, "She could use a personality transplant." Connell's theory is that a serial killer is out there attacking women in a most brutal fashion. The most recent occurred in Duluth, 250 kilometres to the north. And a previous one in Thunder Bay, Canada. They all lead back to Minneapolis. But no one's listening to her. The spoiler? She has developed terminal cancer and this is surely her biggest but last case as a police detective. Thus her drive. We follow the killer as he stalks his next victim, and we follow Connell and Davenport as they stalk him. So tense but so sad. (December 2021)

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, fast paced and action packed, entry into the Davenport series. Lucas and his new partner (an excellent character), Meagan Connell are on the trail of a vicios sexual serial killer. This one does not pull any punches and has a memorable ending. Highly recommeded to Davenport fans.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I was praying my ass off that you'd fuckin' croak," Leski said. "After a lot of pain."

"Thanks for thinking of me," Lucas said.

Lucas Davenport's new job is, in a nutshell, to fix high-profile problems quickly and cleanly--the police chief is looking at a Senate run in a few years, and she's brought in Lucas to make sure her record will be impressive enough to support it. His first real bit of action, and the first case that reveals the true nature of his job, comes when an abrasive, intense, terminally ill detective, Meagan Connell, brings in evidence of a wide-ranging serial killer who likes to rip into quiet, unassuming women. The case crosses multiple jurisdictions, so Lucas and Connell find themselves partnered up for the duration, and Sandford gives them a complex, uncomfortable dynamic: they both grow to respect each other, but their styles are a bad match. They'll never be friends, but for this window of time, they're genuinely significant to each other, and that--plus Connell's impending death--gives the novel some quiet pathos.

In the middle of a suspenseful investigation, of course.

Our killer here is Koop, a professional cat burglar and an avid amateur murderer. He's been killing about one woman a year as the book opens, and he's been careful, selecting slightly drab, fading women who aren't often noticed. His risks are calculated ones... until he breaks into Sara Jensen's apartment to steal her jewelry and something about her sleeping body pulls a trigger in his brain. Sara is suddenly Koop's obsession, the object of his terrifying affections, and he's shaping his entire life around stalking her and dealing with the sexual frenzy she arouses in him by killing more and more women more and more recklessly. He's breaking his pattern all over the place, saddling the PD with seemingly unrelated cases and drowning them in media scrutiny, public concern, and a steadily rising murder rate. Hey, if the pressure's mounting on him, it might as well mount on everyone else too, right?

Also, there's a locked room murder mystery in the background. (Sandford does Agatha Christie. I like it.) And Lucas is committed to Weather Karkinnen, who gets a great scene in this book demonstrating her cold-blooded surgeon side, but then again, there's this awfully attractive TV reporter who's around...

It all makes for an exciting, memorable book; another great Prey novel.

[Baz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourites of the series so far.
This was crass, intelligent, sophisticated, fast, gruesome, cunning and incredibly page-turning.
Even though this is part of a series, I definitely think it could still be read as a standalone.
John Sandford has very quickly become a favourite author of mine.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucas Davenport is BACK, our favorite detective! He almost died, last book, in love, and on another case. Time is running out for his partner....Soooo much ACTION, you cannot put this book down.

[kartik narayanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night Prey is another excellent detective /crime thriller from John Sandford.

I am starting to think that the stories are elevated when there is a serial killer involved, rather than some mundane group involved in crimes. The author has this way of making the protagonists vivid and reprehensible at the same time. They are invariably smart but their innate behaviour brings them down eventually. It is like looking at train wreck - you know something gross is going to happen but you can't just help looking at it. This time, the killer is a guy called Koop. Koop is almost as great a villain as Bekker was, except that he if far more physical.

John Sandford doesn't just stop with creating an excellent protagonist. He also ends up adding two characters - Meagon Connell and Greaves.

Meagon is a state investigator who is leading a one woman crusade to bring down Koop. Indeed, she is the one responsible for identifying the presence of a serial killer. She is one of those rare women in the series that Lucas Davenport doesn't try to lay. This is because she is as smart as he is, as tough and is dying of cancer. Her one wish is to nail this killer before she passes. Though her ending is predictable, I found her character to stand out as well as being a great foil to Lucas.

Greaves is a cop who is assigned to work with Lucas. He is a bumbling sort, not great with people, but good in his own right. I hope he continues to be a main stay in the series. I liked how he is self-aware (he knows he got the job because he is related to the mayor), but at the same time, he is trying to give it all despite being assigned the worst cases in homicide.

I think I am going to make a list of things that this series has been good at so far and copy/past it wherever needed. I just realised that I am not covering all the great aspects of the book and am instead focusing only on the differences from the others, which means that the book ends up being reviewed in a relative sense and not in an absolute sense. So here goes
- brilliant detective work as always. There aren't any gotchas but rather the routine grind of police work that saves the day (with one or two believable intuitive leaps)
- Lucas is becoming less of an ass with each book. I am in two minds about it since this dilution of his character makes him less unique.
- the action is fantastic and there are places in the book where it feels like you are in the Fugitive or any other classic thriller.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mystery is how Lucas & company are going to catch the guy. It's well done. I love the false leads & serious amount of time they spend yet how well Sandford conveys it. Really good characters too, save for the bad guy. I'm getting a little tired of nut cases. I hope Lucas can go after someone that isn't so obviously unhinged in future books. Still, there was a secondary mystery that was very well done. I think I liked it more than the main one - a locked room murder. Good stuff.

As usual, I recommend reading the series in order. Sandford does fill in the past quickly, though. On to the next.

(I'm cleaning the shop up & that means some rearranging, so I can either listen to music or a book that doesn't take a lot of thought. Even so, I had to revert to music a few times. I have a very dirty, full shop.)

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio narrated by Richard Ferrone along with digital paperback
A bit slow at the beginning which was the pace for Davenport returning to the police force. Superb writing, very little flat spots in the story telling.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read, but the ending was predictable. Recommended.

[Obsidian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Night Prey grabs and doesn't let you go. Lucas is now back working as Deputy Chief in Minnesota and is asked to wade in when it appears that a serial killer is murdering women in a brutal way. What I liked was that we get a female protagonist (Meagan Connell) in this one who doesn't have time for Lucas's BS and who wants to capture the serial killer before she dies from cancer. Lucas is still with Weather and they are just on the cusp of deciding what the next step in their relationship is going to be. The only thing that bugs me is that we know Lucas has a daughter, she is just randomly discussed, but it doesn't appear he has much of a relationship with her. The way Weather is written, it just seems odd that she wouldn't have said anything about it.

"Night Prey" has Lucas still being himself. He notices beautiful women, but he is heads over heels in love with his current live in girlfriend Weather and he just likes her. It makes me think a bit of Ben and Leslie on Parks and Recreation. They not only love each other, but like each other. Weather also has her own things going on (she's a surgeon) so she isn't just sitting around and waiting for Lucas to come home.

We get introduced to characters we are going to be following for a long time in this series, like Del. I loved everyone we get to meet. They are wisecracking and often rude, but they love each other and want to do what they can to keep criminals off the street. Lucas is a bit slower in this one. Since he's been gone from the police force he doesn't know where people are and or what happened to them. And he was actually decent in this one when he goes to look up a former criminal who they think may be connected to the case, but see that he is broken down and needs to be taken care of. I also liked that Lucas is trying to mentor a younger detective and is dealing with a locked room mystery. With the serial killings and this, you have a lot going on.

The serial killer in this one, Koop, is probably one of the scariest that Davenport has gone up against. Also I was curious about Koop due to him being a cat burglar who decides he has fallen in "love" with one of his victims.

The book returns to Minnesota and here Davenport and Sandford feel like they are on more solid ground.

The ending was explosive and sad, but I liked how everything played out.

[Deana M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Koop was a prison guard. Koop is a muscled machine. Koop is addicted to cocaine. Koop is addicted to Sara Jensen. Koop is a serial killer. Lucas Davenport is called in when a woman is found disemboweled in a dumpster. He teams up with Meagan Connell who is given 6 months maybe to live. She has worked serial cases before and has an awesome closing rate. Her and Davenport do not see eye to eye on the way they should work the case, but somehow they make it work. With Connell dying from cancer, she wants more than anything to get the psychopath who is not only killing these women, but ripping them apart. She makes it her life mission to put him away.

With barely any leads and no evidence left at the murder scenes, Davenport and Connell do not have much to go on. Then, there is a tip that someone saw the license plate of the killer. After searching, they finally track their man down and set a sting to bring him down using Sara Jensen as bait. Koop will not stop until he kills Sara. The ending will have you speechless. It is a true thriller and if you are a Sandford fan, it is a must read.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another very good old Lucas Davenport book! This one has Lucas diving right back into working in Minneapolis on another serial murder case. This guy is a real tough, mean bastard! Lucas works along side a state investigator named Meagan Connell. Though I didn’t care much for her, what I liked about the two working together was that even though they were complete polar opposites, they still managed to be professionals and get the job done. Imagine that! We could use a little more of that in today’s society. On another note, we met a new detective by the name of Bob Greave that I got quite a kick out of. He made me laugh out loud a few times. I’d love to see more of him. All in all, a must read for fans of the series.

[John Culuris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sixth Lucas Davenport novel and the first that wasn’t a complete success. The core story was of the quality I have come to expect but there was an offshoot to the investigation that was pure filler. I can forgive it because of Sandford’s other strengths. Davenport is forced to partner with a female investigator who is terminally ill. How she deals with her problem and how Davenport relates to her throughout the process--while conducting an extremely public investigation--is the essence of the story. It reduces the extraneous stuff to a minor distraction.

[Joanne Farley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Davenport is back doing what he loves most being a cop and chasing the bad guys. There is a darkness in these novels that is palpable and that same darkness resides in Lucas, and that is what makes both Lucas and these novels so addictive. Sandford has done it again.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another trip for me through the Lucas Davenport universe. Lucas is asked by the Chief to look into a detective's claim that a serial killer is operating in the Minneapolis area. The culprit cruises book store readings and looks for a specific female type: lonely and needy.

Davenport uses his web of contacts to gather facts, and coping with the dysfunction of two team members, one struggling with an illness, and one going through the motions of police work. Throw in a beautiful, flirting TV newswoman, and he skirts the line of trouble again.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this one before but could not remember how it ended. With this one, you know exactly who the bad guy is, but you have to wait as Lucas and friends work it out.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

good!

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was pretty good! A return to Sandford's standard style of revealing the killer's identity early in the book, and structuring the novel using parallel POVs of the bad guy and Davenport.

In this one, Lucas Davenport is now a Deputy Director on the Minneapolis PD, and he's all loved up with Dr. Weather Whoever, she of the dumb first name - the same woman with whom he got off to a rocky start in the last novel, Winter Prey. They're already co-habitating and Lucas is pretty serious about her, in a way he wasn't with the mother of his child or any of his other exes. We'll see if it lasts.

The crux of Night Prey is that a state police investigator named Meagan Connell has come to the MPD with a theory that a string of violent attacks on women are being perpetrated by the same man. Most cops doubt it's true, but the more Davenport looks into her evidence, the more he's convinced. What the cops don't realize is that this man has become obsessed with one woman in particular, and he must release his compulsions on others to keep himself from murdering the object of his lust.

I thought there was more substance than usual to the police procedural side of things than we've gotten so far from other books in the series, thanks to all the interplay between Davenport, the other MPD cops and Meagan Connell. The first half of the book focused more on the killer's POVs, and the last half was mostly the cops, a setup that made a lot of sense and was satisfying to read.

On to the next novel, Mind Prey.

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:

I like the character developments for Lucas. That doesn't happen as much as you would think. lol
The case itself? Okay but not as interesting as others.

[Art the Turtle of Amazing Girth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8

Another great bad guy, another ultra cool ending

Connell is a savage!!