Finished 5-26-09, rating 3.5/5, thriller, pub. 2009

This is book 19 in the Prey series with Lucas Davenport

“Never done anything to us,” Juliet said, doubtfully.

“Davenport did this to me,” Whitcomb said, whacking his inert legs.  “Set it up.  Started it all.”

“The girl didn’t…”

“Davenport set me up,” Whitcomb said.  He watched the girl disappear into the house.  “I’m gonna get him back.  No fun just shootin’ him.  I want to do him good, and I want him to know what I done, and who done it.”

Chapter 1

 Lucas is back and the 2008 Republican Convention has come to St. Paul.  The police are out in full force trying to keep the politicians and the protesters from hurting each other.  There is a gang of thieves that followed the money to the convention and are planning to rip off these men and women for millions of dollars.  There is also an old nemesis of Lucas that is stalking his teen daughter, Lettie.   

Lucas is still working for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and his old friends are all back to help him when he is charged with finding the gang before anyone else dies.  Lettie is front and center in this book and gets into quite a bit of trouble for a 14 year old.  Instead of telling her dad about the stalker she decides to handle it herself, in part by befriending a hooker. 

The many storylines of this book keep it moving at a fast pace.  This fast pace also takes some of the focus from Lucas and I was disappointed in that.  Lucas is one of my favorite characters and I want him front and center!  I think that by giving Lettie more time and showing us what kind of messes she gets herself into, we can look forward to more from this precocious teen. 

I liked this latest installment, but it wasn’t one of my favorites.  I wanted more Lucas.  Also, the storyline involving Lettie did seem a bit much for a 14 year old girl on her bike.  But the suspense was good.  The detective work was good. And I will pick up the next installment next May as soon as it comes out.

A note about the language…This is a police novel with many degenerates.  The conversations do have lots of course language.  If you can’t get past it, these are not the books for you.

After some thought I have to say that while you don’t have to read these in order, you would enjoy them more if you at least tried.  The first one in the series is Rules of Prey.  Also here is a link to Sandford’s website which lists them all in order for you.  I love this series and recommend it if you like gritty detective novels.