Entertaining enough - but hardly the best in the series

books:

	• Invisible Prey John Sandford Berkley, 2008 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 100 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Art and antiques

An interesting story with a complex plot. Lucas Davenport is called in to assist on a case when an elderly woman and her maid are bludgeoned to death in the woman's home. It is a strange case because an odd assortment of items are missing. It does not fit the MO of any particular type of criminal. Complications arise when other people are killed, and the investigation is broadened.

Davenport is handling another case in parallel. A prominant state senator is charged with statutory rape for an affair with a teenage girl. Action is the novel seems to drift back and forth between the two cases.

The author, perhaps, makes the story a little too complex as the two parallel plots are drawn together, and a vast array of crimes occur ranging from murder and burglary to fraud and money laundering. There is even cruelty to animals.

You will learn a lot along the way about the sale of art and antiques, and the difficulties of tracing provinence of the various items. I liked the added touch at the end. Some items of value have no real ownership identity (finders keepers).

The story includes violence, language (some gratuitous), and some sexual content by reference. There is also some political wheeling and dealing, class and racial attitudes, stereotyping, etc.

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Davenport Goes Antiquing

Minneapolis police detective Lucus Davenport is back in the 17th book in the Prey series. As with many authors, some of John Sandford's best work is in his earliest novels, but I found INVISIBLE PREY to be a very enjoyable read.

Two entwining storylines are featured in INVISIBLE PREY. The primary storyline feature the serial killing of wealthy elderly antique owners by a duo with the moniker "Big and Little". The secondary storyline is about a Republican (of course) state senator accused of having sexual relations with a teenager. The bodies pile up and it's not long before Davenport connects the two cases.

Despite knowing the antagonists from the get-go, the novel is still suspenseful with many twists and turns. The antagonists seem more lucky that intelligent so it's only a matter of time before Davenport is on their trail. The secondary storyline seems a bit superfluous since it is linked to the first storyline in a way that didn't make much sense in moving the story forward except to give the second storyline some relevance. This novel was just about the cases, and less about Davenport and his personal backstory. It stands totally alone so the first time reader will not feel like they missed out on anything.

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Excellent as usual

As with all his Prey books, a excellent fast fun read.

Entertaining enough - but hardly the best in the series

Invisible Prey is a solid entry into the Prey series. Hard core Davenport fans may wish that more time was spent with Lucas in this one, but I like the fact that much of this novel comes from perspective of the killers (this isn't a mystery - we know who-dun-it early in the novel). Very little time is spent on Lucas' personal life (which has become so complacent it isn't all that interesting anyway).

The plot in Invisible Prey involves serial killing antique dealers (really). In fact, the catalyst for all the killing is a scam involving valuable quilts (you heard me - quilts).

Our serial killers are not as menacing as one might expect (after all they are antique dealers - how menacing can they be?), but they are entertaining. I'm a sucker for novels where the killers are as likely to kill one another as they are to kill the novel's hero (although they try that too!). One of the highlights of the novel is a botched kidnapping attempt reminiscent of something out of an Elmore Leonard novel.

Invisible Prey is not ground breaking by any means but it is an entertaining read. Fans of the author should be satisfied with this effort. First time readers should start with one of Sanford's earlier novels - I recommend Eyes of Prey as the best in the series.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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