Rules of Prey by John Sanford is a 1989 publication.

One of my book hobbies is reading through older, long-running series. Usually, that turns out to be cozy mysteries as some of them tend to go on for ages. But, instead of starting another cozy series, I decided to pick a different type of crime fiction series. This one has a whopping 34 installments- the latest sitting atop the NYT bestseller list, so I thought that made it a good pick.

Unfortunately, the jury is still out on this one…

This first installment seems basic, really, but that’s probably because I’ve read countless thrillers in which a serial killer is targeting women- and he has a type. It’s almost gotten to the point where I’m so desensitized to that type of reading material it very nearly elicits a yawn…

But… As though the author knew that this was an oversaturated trope- and would be for many decades to come- he shockingly begins the book with the voice of the killer- which grabs your attention immediately- and effectively– no matter how old or new the book is- or how many similar plotlines one has read. The inside of a killer’s mind is never a pleasant place to be.

From there, the novel slid down hill for a good while. Some of these problems might have been due to the age of the story. Davenport is not an easy character to love- or even like, for that matter, especially if you are a female reader who dislikes womanizers. Ugh- too much sleeping around for my taste.Ugh.

But it was the juvenile locker-room banter between cops that was the most annoying and offensive-and the expletives were far too frequemt for my taste. Ugh… again.

But despite all that, Davenport is a good detective, and I could see, despite some incohesive execution, why this series became so popular. I’m hoping that as the series progresses, some of the language, banter, and promiscuity trails off and the writing tightens up a bit. I have the first few books- but won’t look at adding more until I see how the series progresses from here.

Overall, despite the issues I had- most of which were a matter of personal taste-
I ended up liking the crime fiction parts- with Davenport and the killer dueling it out- so the cause is not lost… yet. I'm going to give it my best open-minded effort and hope the series gets better as it goes along because I was really hoping this one would work out.

3 stars ( )

Thriller. I like this author

I am not that much into police procedural novels but after reading so many good things about Prey series I decided to give it a go.

And I have to say I truly liked it.

Story follows Mad Dog, serial killer, who kills women at random (well it all seems to be random to normal folks) and plays with the police by leaving bunch of messages, or so called rules, for a perfect murder.

And he would live through it if it weren't for Lucas Davenport - policeman who is wealthy, knows a lot about game theory and it seems to be a character with the bit of the shady history (from the start you can see he is not ordinary inspector). Lucas is ready to do anything to put the murderer behind bars and by that I mean anything. He is not a cop that shies away from beating up a criminal when he thinks this deserves it. Or planting false evidence. Or disposing of the criminal and planting false evidence around because he knows he cannot let the maniac walk away due to some technicality in the justice system.

He does amoral things to achieve moral goals, you might say. When he is sure of ones guilt he goes after the criminal no matter what. And if normal inquiry cannot stop the criminal, Lucas Davenport makes sure criminal gets stopped in a very final way.

Recommended to all fans of thrillers. ( )

Book on CD read by Richard Ferrone

This is the first book in the Lucas Davenport series. He’s a lieutenant with the Minneapolis Police, and also a creator of computer games which have made him very wealthy. He’s somewhat of a lone wolf, though he has carefully cultivated a wide variety of “sources” over the years. And he’s more than friendly with a number of very attractive women, too.

As the book opens, Davenport’s being shadowed by a couple of undercover cops; he’s on to their surveillance and figures he’ll eventually find out why internal affairs has chosen to follow him, but he doesn’t let on. But all becomes clear after a psychotic serial killer murders his latest victim while the cops are watching Lucas at leisure. The chief soon lets him know that a few previously undisclosed details of the killer’s modus operandi, led some to think the killer might be a cop, and Lucas (of course) fit the limited profile they had. Now he’ll be leading the team searching for this “maddog” killer.

Sandford is really skilled at writing a taut, suspenseful, psychological thriller. We always know the identity of the killer, so it’s not a typical mystery. But, boy oh boy, is this an exciting ride!

Richard Ferrone does a pretty good job of narrating the audio. He has a very low-pitched voice, that tends to be a little gravelly. This works very well for the male characters, but his skills as a voice artist are really tested when women are speaking. I really enjoyed the author notes that explained how Sandford came to write this series. ( )

Rejected during the first chapter ( )