Mortal Prey (Lucas Davenport, No. 13)

This book is not for the faint of heart or teens. Davenport struggles with his own PTSD type of roller coaster and appears to be able to only avoid his past by diving into the criminal status of the day.

At the end of "Certain Prey" three years ago, Clara Rinker took a shot at Lucas Davenport, missed and called him on the phone to chat about it. You knew then there'd be a sequel, and it's as good as the first - even better."Mortal Prey" begins in Cancun when sniper Izzy Cohen fires at Clara killing her lover Paulo Mejia and their unborn child, wounding her. Determined to settle the score, Clara takes off before Paulo's powerful family finds out she was the real target and the St. Louis mob realizes she's still alive. Her hit list includes four "businessmen" led by Nanny Dichter, pioneer of the St. Louis cocaine business, and John Ross who got Clara started as a contract killer and is still one nasty guy. The first hit comes quickly with a lot of little arrows that will point to Clara when the cops, the Feds and Ross start following them, but she'll always be a step or two ahead.The FBI is holding her younger brother Gene on a trumped up drug charge, so Clara calls Lucas to lay down the ground rules. The lively if unrealistic banter between maverick lawman and outlaw sets the tone for the chase to come. Ten pages later Sandford repeats the conversation as Davenport heard it, capturing the gut level connection between them while their two minds work at warp speed toward opposite ends.There's a steady flow of great action with Lucas and his unofficial partner ex-cop Mickey Andreno working the streets and Agents Mallard, Malone and the rest of the FBI providing high tech back up and firepower. Through page 350 the story follows a somewhat structured outline, moving from one showdown to the next. Then Sandford gives us three quick closing chapters. He provides a sufficient degree of closure to this saga but leaves enough loose ends and surviving old and new characters that I would bet on, hope for, future St. Louis based / Rinker related Prey stories. One thought for Sandford's next effort: Certain Easy Rules of the Mind in the Eyes of a Secret Chosen Mortal turn Silent in the Sudden Shadow of the Winter Night.Translated: The Prey series has been great, but don't let the 90s Lucas wear us down. Keep the stories coming, but trade in the Porsche.

Most of John Sandford's "Prey" series work by identifying the killer early and then following the story on both the lines of Lucas Davenport and of the killer, as they plot and counterplot against one another. Sandford returns to the formula here, and it works well because Lucas's antagonist is Clara Rinker, the professional hitwoman from his earlier books. Sandford is careful not to make her a two-dimensional sociopath -- indeed, she is so well rounded that at times the reader can forget that many of the people she has killed in her career were completely innocent. For most of the book, this is not true as Rinker goes after the crime bosses for whom she has worked in the past. The book begins with Rinker almost getting killed, and her decision that the people she worked for (all mob connected) are behind it sets her off to eliminating them, none of whom is too sympathetic. It is a mistake to root for Rinker because a few innocent people are unfortunate enough to wander in to her way, and the result is not good for them. Rinker is smart, and her killing of well protected hoods who know she is coming for them is for the most part plausible. Only one of the killings, involving a device that has been used in a well known real-life assasination, seems unlikely to have been successful. All in all, she is such a strong character that this book seems to be more hers than Davenport's.Davenport is one of the few people to have seen Rinker and lived, and so the FBI brings him to St. Louis to help catch her. All but a few chapters take place outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, most of the familiar characters in the Davenport series aren't present, but Rinker more than makes up for them. Read closely, some of the deductions that Davenport comes up with are a little contrived -- all he does is show up from out of town, talk to a few local cops, and he is ahead of the FBI. However, the dialog is as well written as ever, and the dry humor still there. And there are a couple of nice twists in the plot at the end. I found the last two books in the "Prey" series to be weak; I thought that Sandford may have run out of ideas of what to do with Davenport, and have read some interviews in which he expressed frustration with the series. Mortal Prey is a return to the stong, earlier novels. There is life in Davenport yet.

M ost satisfying book, yet again, by John Sandford.O ld enemy is reintroduced in the form of Clara Rinker.R inker narrowly escapes an attempt on her lifeT he FBI wants to find her and recruits Lucas Davenport.A ll the while, Rinker's plans for revenge gather pace.L ucas jumps at the chance to lock horns with an old foe.P urposeful and ruthless, Rinker is a formidable enemyR equiring Lucas to be at his most resourceful best.E xtremely enjoyable story that focuses on the thrill of the huntY et offsets it with Lucas' upcoming wedding plans.