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 ( )

Rejected during the first chapter ( )