Phantom Prey (Lucas Davenport Series #18) by John Sandford

From the Publisher

Lucas Davenport has had disturbing cases before— but never one quite like this, in the shocking new Prey novel from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.

John Sandford's most recent Davenport novel, Invisible Prey, was hailed as "one of his best books in recent memory" (The Washington Post); "as fresh and entertaining as ever" (Chicago Sun-Times); and "rivetingly readable" (Richmond Times-Dispatch). But this time, he's got something quite special in store.

A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood everywhere, no body—and her collegeaged daughter missing. She's always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them—Goths? Freaks is more like it, running around with all that makeup and black clothing, listening to that awful music, so attracted to death. And now this.

But the police can't find the girl, alive or dead, and when a second Goth is found slashed to death in Minneapolis, the widow truly panics. There's someone she knows, a surgeon named Weather Davenport, whose husband is a big deal with the police, and she implores Weather to get him directly involved. Lucas begins to investigate only reluctantly—but then when a third Goth is slashed in what is now looking like a Jackthe- Ripper series of killings, he starts working it hard. The clues don't seem to add up, though. And then there's the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she come from and, more important, where does she vanish to? And why does Lucas keep getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here . . . somethingvery, very bad indeed?

Filled with his brilliant trademark suspense and some of the most interesting characters in thriller fiction, Phantom Prey is further proof that "Sandford is in a class of his own" (The Orlando Sentinel).

Chicago Tribune

You know life is good when you have a new Lucas Davenport thriller to escape into.

Publishers Weekly

In bestseller Sandford's solid 18th Prey novel (after Invisible Prey), Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent Lucas Davenport, who's received numerous promotions in the course of the series, ought to be taking the desk aspects of his job more seriously. But the man remains more comfortable working a stakeout, interviewing suspects and taking down bad guys than he is filling out personnel evaluation forms on his staff-which explains why he's still getting shot at, peeping at a cocaine dealer's wife hoping for a glimpse of her husband and, at his wife's behest, looking into the unsolved kidnapping and presumed murder of a wealthy young woman into the goth scene. It becomes clear that a serial killer is targeting goths as well as anyone, including Lucas, who gets in the way. While some pretty murky psychology encumbers the plot, Sandford delivers the kind of riveting action that keeps thriller fans turning the pages. (May)

Denise Garofalo - Library Journal

In New York Times best-selling author Sandford's (Invisible Prey) 18th Davenport novel, about a wealthy widow who comes home to find her college-age daughter missing, listeners learn more about Davenport's personal life with his wife and two children. Actor/narrator Richard Ferrone's (The Betrayed) crisp reading helps create a no-nonsense-type atmosphere that supports the questioning and searching typical to all suspense thrillers. Recommended. [Audio clip available through us.penguingroup.com.-Ed.]

Kirkus Reviews

Lucas Davenport goes after a clever, ruthless killer hiding in plain sight. Widowed heiress Alyssa Austin, a former athlete who owns a string of athletic clubs, comes home one night to find her daughter Frances missing, with bloody signs of foul play. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension soon learns that Frances, a Goth girl who inherited $2 million from her father, withdrew $50,000 from her bank account recently. Where did Frances and the money go? While Lucas and his teammates try to track the cash or any goods or services Frances might have purchased, more bodies pile up: a bartender friend of Frances, a buddy of his who works at a liquor store, a Goth realtor. Lucas doesn't know that these aren't victims of Frances's killer but of an unlikely pair bent on avenging Frances: a spectral Goth who calls herself Fairy and Loren, her lover and confederate-their partnership is perhaps a bit too indebted to the felonious duo of Invisible Prey (2007). Sandford enlivens the crosscutting between cops and killers by giving Lucas another job: staking out pregnant Heather Toms while she waits for her husband, dangerous drug dealer Siggy Toms, to come back from Florida for her. This second gig would be a lot more tedious if Heather didn't keep changing her clothes without bothering to lower the blinds. Of the many obstacles that keep Frances's murder open, the most interesting is the news that her avenger is a figure close to the investigation who can disperse disinformation and still pass unsuspected among the authorities. The use of multiple-personality disorder to explain away murderous motives is both gratuitous and unconvincing, and it's no surprise when the most exciting sequence isprovided by the Heather Toms subplot. As usual, there are lots of moves by both good guys and bad, but this time the moves seem old and forced.

Product Details

• ISBN: 0399155007
  
• ISBN-13: 9780399155000
• Format: Hardcover, 384pp
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
• Pub. Date: May 2008
• Sales Rank: 13,438
• Series: Lucas Davenport Series, #18