Review Praise for Easy Prey“The dialogue is deft, the melodrama masterfully orchestrated and the conclusion truly culminant. As secrets explode, as bullets fly and bodies fall, and as the ground keeps shifting, there’s hardly time to keep up with the spectacle.”—The Los Angeles Times“When you come out of the twists and turns that are Easy Prey, it is a marvel how [Sandford] could do this...he’s a writer in control of his craft.”—Chicago Sun-Times“Crackerjack suspense...[Sandford’s] at the top of his game again with Easy Prey.”—New York Post“A Grand Guignol of a climax.”—Kirkus Reviews“Wildly successful...contains all the elements fans have come to expect: solid plot, gallows humor...sex, and the likeable, self-assured Davenport.”—Booklist“Rapid-fire action...sharply evocative.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune“Easy Prey is hard to put down.”—Richmond Times Dispatch“[An] ever-entertaining series. As always, it’s a joy to follow this rare cop who gets led more often by his gut instinct than by clues. His humor, understated and perverse, can be wildly funny, and the people he runs across are shrewdly conceived originals.”—Publishers Weekly Read more About the Author John Sandford is the pseudonym for Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist John Camp. He is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport, the Kidd series, the Virgil Flowers series, three YA novels coauthored with his wife, Michele Cook, and three other books, most recently Saturn Run. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
J**E
Easy Davenport would have been a better title
I'm re-reading this series, and so far, this is my least favorite Prey novel. It’s about a model being murdered, thus “high fashion”. This isn’t Sandford’s strong point, e.g., among other things, early on, several times he uses the word "courtier" rather than “couturier”. Also, I found the plot confusing; there were too many characters to keep track of.But my biggest complaint with this book is the character (or lack thereof) of Lucas. He should be 51 now, but he’s still in his 40s in this book, and still the serial womanizer. Love Interest #1 in this book is his old college flame, Catrin, who is married, which of course doesn’t give Lucas pause. Sandford writes "they'd dated from October through February of his sophomore year", 25 years earlier, which would make Lucas closer to Catrin's stated age of 44, rather than 51. But if Lucas is 44, then his daughter Sarah would be just 4; however, when Lucas tells Catrin about his daughter, he doesn't give her age but only mentions that she's in elementary school. I don't understand why the character of Catrin is even in this book. I found her whiny, boring, and entirely unsympathetic, a character so lazy she didn't bother finishing her degree despite being married to a wealthy doctor, who's now having some sort of midlife crisis that leads to one of the worst lines ever: "Where's MY movie?"Nevertheless, Lucas wastes a lot of time mooning over her, and at one point he realizes he's forgotten to call the county attorney regarding a prisoner serving a life sentence at Stillwater for the murder of a guy who’s turned up alive because he's been thinking about Catrin, among other things. Lucas realizes people will be upset about this, but to Lucas: "...it was kinda funny." Maybe it was different when Sanford wrote this book, but in 2019 the idea of anyone serving a life sentence for a murder he didn't commit having to spend extra days behind bars because the police officer who has the info to set him free is mooning over an old college sweetheart doesn't seem funny.Weather reappears in this book. Sandford writes that she's now 38, and Lucas's heart "thumps" when he sees her and he notes to himself that she looks good. But despite this reaction and her saying she wants to see him again, Lucas continues to "roll around" with Love Interest #2. The night before he plans to meet Weather for lunch, after he's just spent some time with his Love Interest #2, Lucas realizes he still feels a strong tie to Weather and realizes that if she called in the morning and said, let's get married next week, he’d probably say yes, even though he's currently seeing someone else. In his own words, "He was risking the Weather tie with a woman who wouldn’t be around long". He admits when he's not with Love Interest #2, he doesn't think about her, but he keeps on seeing her and realizes he likes doing that.It occurs to him that Weather may want to reconcile: "...and he really wanted to pick it up, but maybe if he could just get another week of rolling around with [Love Interest #2]…Maybe two weeks?" Also, re Catrin, "he couldn’t help thinking that if it didn’t work with Weather, it might yet work with Catrin.” He is seriously messed up!On the day they're supposed to meet for lunch, Weather calls to cancel, because a French doctor whom she briefly dated (but didn’t have a physical relationship with, which she tells Lucas) is back in town and insists on meeting her for lunch. She has to go to lunch with him to tell him, in person, that she’s not interested. Lucas makes a very crude suggestion, but when Weather responds that wouldn’t be diplomatic, he yells at her and tells her she's not the State Department. Sandford writes, “He let himself get a little angry about it…and he let himself get a little angrier – and at the bottom of it, was satisfied that she was impressed by the anger. Then he went back to the shower, finished cleaning up, and got dressed. All right. He picked up the phone and dialed [Love Interest #2].” So after yelling at Weather because she’s going to lunch with someone she briefly dated to tell him she’s not interested because she wants to try again with Lucas, Lucas takes a shower and calls Love Interest #2 to get together.Sandford apparently thinks this aging, 51-year-old white male character is a gift to women, but he's wrong. I like a lot of the other characters in the Prey Series, but in this book, Lucas comes across as nothing more than a promiscuous, narcissistic, indecisive jerk. I'm not a huge fan of Weather, but she deserves so much better than this.
J**T
Not there this time....
Somehow this is not up to Sanford's standards. I can't explain exactly why, but in the first place, I am turned off by the Hollywood/Model scene. Secondly, Lucas doesn't seem to be as "real" in this book as in the others...his thoughts are not as clear. Thirdly there are too many characters involved including police personnel... I'all finish it; I'm more than halfway through, but it's not worth the $20.00 I spent for the Audible. Thank goodness Richard Ferone is still on his mark!
K**R
Not typical Sanford
I am a great fan of John Sanford. I started with his Virgil Flowers books and am now working my way through the Lucas Davenport series. That said, I have to admit that I was disappointed with "Easy Prey." While most of his books are fast paced and gripping, I found this one to be rather slow and plodding. I can usually read one of Sanford's books in less than two or three days, it took me about ten days to get through this one. It just didn't grab my interest, and I had to keep pushing myself to get back to it. I might have just quit reading it altogether, but it reallly annoys me not to finish a book.
K**R
Just OK
I like and have read most of the Prey books, and maybe the problem is that I read this one out of order. Not sure why I skipped it to begin with, but I regret going back to read it. Author is trying so hard to make Davenport into a player... and also too clever for his own good. The way he got the bad guy using the media was just silly, ham-fisted and cynical.Meh.
D**L
Best One Yet!
This is maybe the third time I've read the Prey books, maybe the first time I've read them in order (the Kindle store makes it so easy, "next in order is . . . ,") and I'm really getting a sense of the characters and the stories improving over the coarse of what I'm reading. And I'd say this is the best yet; the story is complicated enough to keep you off base, the characters are fun, Davenport's querks are just real enough to be plausible, overall, thoroughly enjoyable.
T**K
Too Many Characters
I was disappointed in several things about this book. First the very large number of characters we have to keep track of. Second there seems to be a lack of a plot. Oh yes, there is a murder. Actually there are two murders. Then a little later as we investigate those two there are some more murders. They appear to be covering up clues to the first murders. Marci, the pretty blonde police woman gets shot. Guess who shows up as one of her doctors? Lucas' ex-girl friend. So Lucas gets a chance to get back together with her. But its complicated. One complication is the nutty but beautiful Jael, the sister of one of the murder victims. Another is Catrin, a love from Lucas' college days who happens to drop by as she decides to leave her husband of 25 years. She is still a pretty good-looking blonde.The major problem Lucas has with Weather is mentioned but not in much detail. I will have to go back and read the book where they started out ready to get married and ended up with Weather having a strong psychological aversion to Lucas causing them to split for an indefinite time.There's a lot of chasing, suspecting, a little sex and nobody gets much sleep.
E**L
Great book, awful Kindle.
I like the book, this author is a favorite of mine. My problem is that there are typos sometimes on every page. Not author errors but the same typo over and over. Its a Kindle problem. The typo is always an a with an upside down mark over it. Then a Euro sign and then '''. Sentences are not completed. I've had to get a book at my library to find out what words were omitted. Its a Kindle problem, technology I guess. When I called in the person I talked to had a horrible accent, which I could not understand. So much for the new Kindle, latest and greatest. If my next book has similar problems, I will have to return the device.
S**Y
Horrible explicite language
Only made it through 2 chapters before I had to quit reading. The language was obsene and ugly and left me feeling depressed. Would never recommend this book...
