Phantom Prey

March 10, 2008
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.

February 15, 2008
Frances Austin is a missing heiress. Traces of blood in her well-connected mother Alyssas home lead Lucas Davenport, head of Minnesotas Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, to assume the worst, but without a body, he cant be sure. The investigation centers on Frances involvement in the Twin Cities goth community. The goths collective obsession with death anddarkness makesthem an obvious starting point, but Davenport believes its a form of youthful angst rather than an inherently evil social trend. But when other young goths connected to Frances are murdered, Davenport is forced to rethink his theory. Like all good investigators, he follows the money, in this case, a $50,000 withdrawal from Frances account and its subsequent disbursementover a 20-day period preceding Frances disappearance. When Davenport is wounded coming out of a goth club after conducting a series of background interviews, he realizes hes closing in on the killer but has no idea who or why. The eighteenth entry in the best-selling Prey series is Sandfords usual mix of clever plotting, gallows humor, and explosive action, but this time he mixes in a bit of the seemingly supernatural. Davenport doesnt realize itand neither will readersbut hes actually working on two cases. The solution to one is mundanely tragic; the second genuinely disturbing. Expect another trip to the best-seller lists for one of the most consistently entertaining crime writers working today.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)