Penzler Pick, June 2000: Easy Prey is the 11th mystery to feature Lucas Davenport, who began his career back in Rules of Prey as a maverick homicide detective reminiscent of "Dirty Harry" Callahan. He did things his way and was often at odds with his superiors in the Minneapolis Police Department. Since those early days, Davenport has mellowed a little, and his background as a computer game-designing, Porsche-driving womanizer has been somewhat reduced. Possibly age has become a factor, or it may be the fact that Davenport has been deputy chief since the sixth book in the series, Night Prey. The character may have changed, but the writing has remained consistently taut: the bad guys creepy, the mysteries suspenseful.

In this newest episode, Davenport is called to a house after an A-list party has taken place there. Alie'e Maison, a top model, has been found strangled, and evidence shows that she ingested drugs and recently made love--most probably to a woman. Before Lucas leaves the house, things get even more complicated: a second body is found stuffed in a closet with a deep dent in the skull. In addition, one of Lucas's own men had been at the party and is now a suspect.

As always, Lucas's own life is not exempt from complications. An ex-lover comes back into his world--a woman he has never been able to forget--and she has secrets of her own. Also making an appearance this time out is a childhood friend to whom he turns for advice about women and life. Sister Mary Joseph, born Elle Kruger, is a professor of psychology and one of the computer brains who helps Lucas design his software. He calls her Nun the Wiser, and he often turns to her for spiritual as well as more concrete advice. Lucas is going to need all the help he can get to unravel his case as secrets pile upon secrets and the ground constantly shifts under his feet.

Easy Prey is another powerful link in this chain of muscular, exciting thrillers by one of the most distinguished practitioners in the field. --Otto Penzler


From Publishers Weekly
The throaty voice of veteran audiobook reader Conger lends Sanford's latest Lucas Davenport thriller a sense of immediacy. Minneapolis detective Davenport is called to a wealthy socialite's house, where the bodies of a supermodel and another woman have been found in a bedroom after a party. Shortly afterwards, relatives and associates of the model, who came from a humble Minnesota town, begin experiencing grisly deaths. With suspects that range from the model's ultrareligious brother to a suspected drug runner, the story takes several unsuspected twists before its resolution. Conger handles the text perfectly, sounding as if he has a coffee cup in one hand and a cigarette in the other while rendering the staccato and often obscene language of Sanford's rough-hewn characters. The recording also inserts background sound effects in interesting, albeit seemingly random, situations to enhance its presentation. A subplot involving Davenport's romantic interludes is tiresome and extraneous, but Conger's excellent rendition of the investigation's many turns will keep listeners engaged to the end. Based on the Putnam hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 20). (May) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This 11th novel in the Lucas Davenport series is one of the best, presenting a seemingly simplistic plot that explodes into a complex cat-and-mouse game with an invisible killer. Two murder victims are discovered after a party attended by a group of people with too much money (and they are all spending it on drugs). Famous model Alie'e Maison is one of the victims; the other is the drug supplier. To complicate matters, an undercover cop who works on Davenport's team is identified as having been at the party. Davenport, deputy chief of police in Minneapolis, heads the investigation. As the killings continue, he must determine the motive behind the first murders and then find out why someone is killing almost everyone involved with Alie'e. The book takes off like a roller coaster ride, and the tension never stops. Sandford not only creates a suspenseful tale revolving around the art world, the high-fashion scene, and the realm of a large metropolitan police department attempting to protect its citizens, but he has spun a truly engrossing mystery that leaves the reader guessing to the end. For all fiction collections.-Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., OH Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Eric Conger enlivens sparkling characters and taut suspense as he portrays Sandford's favorite character, Detective Lucas Davenport. Conger's straightforward, brusque delivery contrasts sharply with the ominous, premeditated actions of the cold-blooded murderer. Conger's unique voice readily switches accents and genders with just-right timing. Despite the complex plot, he keeps listeners from getting lost and draws them in for a compelling listen. Note: Strong profanity and explicit sexual scenes. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Minnesota-born supermodel Alie'e Maison is back in Minneapolis for a photo shoot. At the raucous wrap party, she turns up dead. Lucas Davenport, the millionaire homicide specialist who often corrals serial killers, is called to the scene. What initially appears to be a straightforward crime of passion--Alie'e was strangled after having sex (with a woman)--becomes much more complex when a second body, hotel concierge Sandy Lansing is found stuffed in a closet. Maison's international stature ignites a media circus, muddying Davenport's investigation. There are a dozen potential killers ranging from jilted lovers to dope dealers to Alie'e's born-again brother. The latest entry in the wildly successful Prey series contains all the elements fans have come to expect: solid plot, gallows humor, tasteful sex, and the likable, self-assured Davenport. If there's a bone to pick here, it's that the identity of the killer seems to come out of left field. Or maybe the plot was clever enough to completely fool at least one reader. Overall, this is an involving and very enjoyable thriller. Wes Lukowsky


From Kirkus Reviews
This well-regarded series of police procedurals (Certain Prey, 1999, etc.) continues as Lucas Davenport, deputy chief of the Minneapolis PD, hunts a double murderer whose brutal crime sparks a series of deaths that may or may not be revenge killings. Sandfords 11th, however, owes more to Jerry Springer than Ed McBain. Two families vie for honors as most dysfunctional. There are the Olsons, small-towners who push their beauty-queen daughter Sharon (rechristened by the media as Aliee Maison) into the high-fashion world of sex, drugs, and rock n roll, while brother Toms itinerant-preacher shtick (complete with stigmata) packs em in across the Bible Belt. Then there are the Plain/Corbeaus, leftover hippies from the 60s whose fashion-photographer son and model-turned-potter daughter amuse themselves by sleeping together. Amnon Plains latest shoot features Aliee in a provocative pose that raises eyebrows, as well as other body parts, across the nation, especially since it hits the tabloids the day after her body is found, along with that of hotel manager Sandy Lansing, in the tres chic home of socialite Sallance Hanson. Now Davenport has to contend with a media storm as well as a murder. Not to mention his other big problem, the blizzard of women swirling around him: Catrin, his college sweetheart whos ditched her middle-aged marriage and is looking for solace; Marcy Sherrill, a lover from the force now injured in the line of duty; and the redoubtable Weather Karkinnen, his former fiance, whose good graces hed like to get back into as soon as hes had the chance to sleep with ex- model Jael Corbeau a few dozen more times. Beneath the slime, theres a decent whodunit, but it takes real digging to unearth it. I dont know, muses Davenport during the Grand Guignol of a climax, we might be missing the Russians or the Chinese, but thats about it. Amen. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
The past presents a harrowing case and an unsettling personal dilemma for Lucas Davenport when the death of a model leads him to suspect one of his own men.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
May 2000

Killing Season Is Here!

John Sandford's Easy Prey marks the 11th appearance of charismatic Minneapolis police chief Lucas Davenport. Set just months after the events recorded in Certain Prey -- which pitted Davenport and his fellow officers against a most unusual contract killer -- Easy Prey is vintage Sandford: an authoritative, furiously paced, sometimes very funny novel that reinforces Davenport's position as one of the more durable, hard-edged heroes in contemporary crime fiction.

As the new novel opens, it is late fall, and the first hints of arctic weather are settling in on the Twin Cities. Against this backdrop, world-famous supermodel Alie'e Maison -- formerly Sharon Olson of Burnt River, Minnesota -- returns to her home state for a fashion shoot conducted by Amnon Plain, an innovative photographer with a complex personal history. Trouble begins when Alie'e attends a party given by a wealthy Minnesota socialite. The party -- which is attended by literally dozens of the city's beautiful people and is characterized by the presence of an "ocean of drugs" -- ends prematurely when Alie'e is discovered in an unused bedroom, naked from the waist down and strangled to death.

By the time Davenport arrives on the scene, a bad situation has quickly gotten worse. A second body -- that of Sandy Lansing, hostess at an upscale local hotel -- has been found in a closet. Cause of death: a fractured skull. Eyewitness testimony points to the presence of a suspicious stranger,an apparent "street person" who turns out to be an undercover narcotics officer for the Minneapolis Police Department. When a postmortem examination indicates that, shortly before her death, Alie'e had had sexual contact with one or more women, Davenport realizes that this latest investigation has all the earmarks of a public-relations nightmare and a media circus. And that is just what it turns out to be.

During the course of the investigation, which lasts for a week and captures the attention of the entire nation, Davenport finds himself caught up in a rising tide of violence, as a second wave of murders sweeps across both Minneapolis and St. Paul. At least one of these murders appears to be the work of the original killer, who is desperately attempting to cover his tracks. The rest seem to have been committed -- by a friend, relative, or demented fan -- as an extended form of revenge against the people responsible for the moral decline and ultimate destruction of Alie'e Maison. The hunt for these two independent killers leads Davenport through a series of overlapping encounters involving religious mania, multiple personality disorder, drugs, orgies, incest, and celebrity sex. The result is a novel that works both as a viscerally exciting crime story and a shrewdly judged portrait of our tabloid, media-saturated culture.

Complementing all of this is Sandford's ongoing portrait of the complex personality -- and the equally complex personal life -- of Lucas Davenport. The Davenport who comes gradually into focus in these novels is a man of action who is equally at home in the upper echelons of City Hall politics and the lower depths of the Minneapolis streets. He is a problem solver, but not a thinker; is at ease with violence but loves poetry, particularly the work of Emily Dickinson. He performs his duties with ruthless efficiency, but is never quite sure whether he is driven by the desire to serve justice or the need to win, whatever the cost. Most centrally, he is a man who is defined by his endless -- and helpless -- attraction to beautiful women, an attraction which, more often than not, is mutual.

In Easy Prey, three women circulate in alternating rhythms through Davenport's life. One is Dr. Weather Karkinnen, whom he once almost married, and who may be on the verge of reentering his life. Another is an old college sweetheart currently undergoing a classic midlife crisis. The third is a beautiful, bisexual former model with an uncomplicated affinity for therapeutic sex. As Davenport vacillates from woman to woman, wanting them all and unable to choose, Easy Prey develops an unexpectedly comic dimension, underscored by Davenport's ironic reflection on the words of St. Augustine: "Lord, let me be pure. But not yet."

Easy Prey is another certified Sandford crowd-pleaser: crisply written, cleverly constructed, difficult to set aside. Once again, Sandford has avoided the insidious traps of laziness, repetition, and over-familiarity, and has created a fresh, exciting entry in a consistently exciting series that seems poised to continue for a good many years to come.

--Bill Sheehan

Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, will be published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com) in the spring of 2000.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The past presents a harrowing case and an unsettling personal dilemma for Lucas Davenport when the death of a model leads him to suspect one of his own men.

SYNOPSIS

In life she was a high-profile model. In death she is the focus of a media firestorm that's demanding action from Lucas Davenport. One of his own men is a suspect in her murder. But when a series of bizarre, seemingly unrelated slayings rock the city, Davenport suspects a connection that runs deeper than anyone had imagined￯﾿ﾽone that leads to an ingenious killer more ruthless than anyone had feared....

FROM THE CRITICS

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

In this twelfth novel in the "Prey" series, Sanford presents an unsettling personal dilemma for Lucas Davenport, investigating the murder of a fashion model. Reviewers commented that this "lengthy detective story has too many characters and is unevenly paced." And it was ultimately "predictable."

Publishers Weekly

The throaty voice of veteran audiobook reader Conger lends Sanford's latest Lucas Davenport thriller a sense of immediacy. Minneapolis detective Davenport is called to a wealthy socialite's house, where the bodies of a supermodel and another woman have been found in a bedroom after a party. Shortly afterwards, relatives and associates of the model, who came from a humble Minnesota town, begin experiencing grisly deaths. With suspects that range from the model's ultrareligious brother to a suspected drug runner, the story takes several unsuspected twists before its resolution. Conger handles the text perfectly, sounding as if he has a coffee cup in one hand and a cigarette in the other while rendering the staccato and often obscene language of Sanford's rough-hewn characters. The recording also inserts background sound effects in interesting, albeit seemingly random, situations to enhance its presentation. A subplot involving Davenport's romantic interludes is tiresome and extraneous, but Conger's excellent rendition of the investigation's many turns will keep listeners engaged to the end. Based on the Putnam hardcover (Forecasts, Mar. 20). (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

The 11th appearance of Minneapolis Police Chief Lucas Davenport is set in late fall. Supermodel Alie'e Mason returns to Minnesota for a photo shoot; later she is found dead, strangled during a party attended by socialites and awash in illegal drugs. Davenport arrives on the scene as a second body surfaces, that of a hotel hostess with a fractured skull. When a second wave of murders occurs, there is the indication that the original killer and a copycat are at work. The investigation leads the chief through a maze of religious fervor, drugs, and sex. In addition, his private life is complicated by three women--a former fianc e, an old college sweetheart, and a beautiful ex-model. The seemingly simple plot evolves into a complex and engrossing mystery. Eric Conger's clear reading adds depth to this riveting tale. Recommended.--Denise A. Garofalo, Mid-Hudson Lib. Syst., Poughkeepsie, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile - AudioFile Review

Eric Conger enlivens sparkling characters and taut suspense as he portrays Sandford's favorite character, Detective Lucas Davenport. Conger's straightforward, brusque delivery contrasts sharply with the ominous, premeditated actions of the cold-blooded murderer. Conger's unique voice readily switches accents and genders with just-right timing. Despite the complex plot, he keeps listeners from getting lost and draws them in for a compelling listen. Note: Strong profanity and explicit sexual scenes. G.D.W. ￯﾿ﾽ AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine