[.ca] Rules of Prey (ISBN 1419363638)

An Excellent, Captivating Read:
John Sandford is another one of my favorite authors. His stories are captivating and keep you up all night. Lucas Davenport is a well thoughtout, interesting and likeable character. As an employee at a major bookstore chain he is definately one of the authors I recommend to customers looking for a good read. This is the first book in his series. I have read all his books and I can't wait for the next to come out. Keep writing and i'll definately keep reading.

Top notch - intense and clever - will not dissappoint.:
This book is one of a kind. Enter Lucas Davenport. He's a clever rogue cop whos network of informants includes all the people he should be arresting. He makes deals to keep cops off of the crack dealers for the time being in exchange for information. He's a womanizer - sleeps with a lot of women. He also manipulates people like it's his job. He's a guy that earned my respect, though in a semi-strange way. You'll understand. The plot line is simple enough - the antagonist serial killer versus the Minneapolis Police Squad. Then it become personal as the two brilliant characters (serial killer and Davenport) get wrapped up in the mind games involved with the chase. It's almost cat and mouse, except Davenport doesn't know who the killer is and blindly makes guesses that seem to have some relevence. This book is intense and fast paced. I couldn't put it down. It picks up at the beginning and doesn't let down until the final showdown. The only problem was the last two or three pages were a big drag because everything had pretty much been resolved in a high impact, hard hitting scene. Oh well though, character development I guess. You will not be dissappointed.

Please, tell me the series gets better than this.:
I find it amazing that John Sanford manages to take a half-dozen interesting character quirks and combines them all to create a hero you couldn't care less about. Maybe it's because I grew up with detectives like Columbo and Nero Wolfe, but I tend to like my heroes to have the occasional flaw. Lucas Davenport is a tough and experienced cop who doesn't play by the rules. He also has rugged good looks and an animal magnatism that allows him to bed almost every woman he meets (except stupid girls and the nun with the skin problem, so I guess that proves he has standards). But he also has a sensitive side, as he enjoys reading poetry on the sly. And he's a genius, a popular game designer, which means he's also wealthy. Wow, this guy is good at everything. How boring. He's the kind of character I would expect a sexually frustrated high-school student to create. Now let's add a serial killer into the mix, but make him a socially inept loser who is inferior to our man Davenport in every way imagineable (oh, he's clever, but not as clever as Lucas), and you have two main characters that you really don't care to read about. Sanford has a habit of making even supporting characters appear shabby, incompetent and unappealing around Davenport (including TWO pairs of Fat Cop and Skinny Cop duos), and has him so on top of everybody else that he has to advise the Chief of Police how to handle the Media and information control (don't the police have people to handle that?). Finally, Sanford proves repeatedly that he knows little about police procedure or the historical crimes he references (newsflash: David Berkowitz was not the lone killer in the Son of Sam case, and he wasn't caught because a cop looked in his apartment window and saw copies of the letters. He lived on the second floor, you see...). I can only assume by the success of the Prey series the books have improved. Actually, I can only hope.

Okay, but unlikeable protagonist:
I liked this book because it held my interest and it wasn't like other serial killer books I'd read. However, Lucas Davenport has to be one of the most cliche, least likeable main characters I've ever read about. First off, Sandford shamelessly makes him into a Hollywood bad-boy. Lucas is rich, because he designs computer games in addition to his police work, so he drives around in a Porsche and wears flashy Miami Vice-style suits. (Clearly Sandford was making the character marketable in case Hollywood decided to do a movie based on the book.) And naturally, he has rugged good looks, a facial scar that doesn't disfigure but merely makes him look tough, he sleeps with every woman he makes eye contact with (and I've never seen a character other than Bond who manages to meet so many beautiful women just by walking down the street), and, I almost forgot--he plays by his own rules. This book had me going until, at every corner, Lucas would break the law to catch the killer. This shows just how little Sandford knows about police investigative procedures, as he has created a character who is far too lazy to catch criminals legitimately and instead resorts to strong-arm tactics. If every cop was like Davenport, this country would be a police state. But what's worst is the way Sandford makes it seem like breaking the law like this is necessary to catch the bad guys, what with all the "legal red tape." Please. Besides the main character, the book flowed smoothly and holds your interest. Fast paced and a good read.

1st in a series - very promising:
RULES OF PREY introduces Minneapolis cop Lucas Davenport, on the trail of a brutal serial killer known as the "maddog". Davenport, like so many fictional detectives, is a driven lone wolf who's work puts strain on his personal relationships. He's also a creator of elaborate role-playing games and a lover of (many, in this book) women. The case proceeds through the usual twists and turns, and the maddog (who gets some POV time in the narrative), is a frighteningly capapable adversary. Sandford never resorts to shock or violence, the narrative logic is impeccable, and this is, literally, a page turner. Sandford's been writing a long time, where have I been? I look forward to reading more. Recommended.