Rating: 
Summary: The Best Prey Ever
Review: I never gave Sanford's book more than 3 stars and I did not read any of the Prey Series for a few years. Mr. Sandford really improved with age: all the recent entries (Hidden Prey, Mortal Prey and Certain Prey) are way better than the rest.
This "prey" definitely deserves 4 stars despite a few traditional weaknesses. First, villains are "pretty normal criminals" not traditional monsters, this is really nice for a change. Second, there are several side-plots, which add to the mystery. Third, there are quite a few very good and very interesting characters.
Rating: 
Summary: More of the best from Sandford
Review: I own and have read every book in the "Prey" series and this one is as good or better than all that've come before it. Sandford has become my favorite author and I look forward to each new book. I got a little behind in my reading so I just read Chosen Prey, Mortal Prey and Hidden Prey, back-to-back-to-back, in a week. I've enjoyed the changes in Davenport's life, including job and spouse, and it serves to keep the series fresh. My only problem is, I'm getting into Camps head and some of the plots are getting too predictable. Still a great read and a very enjoyable writing style.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: John Sandford is an awsome writer and Naked Prey is a great book. It took me about 3 days to read and I found it hard to put down. Lucas Davenport is a fabulous character and I hope Sandford continues adding to his "Prey" series of books. I can't wait for the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Complicated Plot Comes Together Towards The End
Review: Lucas Davenport and his partner, Del Capslock, go to northern Minnesota to investigate the hanging death of a black man and a white woman. In the small rural town they find themselves in, they discover not only murder, but kidnapping and a car theft ring. The plot seems a little scattered at first, but comes together by the end of the book. Sandford's writing style and sparkling dialog carries the story when the plot seems to loose direction. The second half of the book was worth waiting for. Lots of action and surprising twists. Overall, a very good read.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: Lucas Davenport is back in John Sandford's continuing series, and fans of the detective won't be disappointed. Davenport now works for a Minnesota state agency, the BCA, under Rose, his old superior from the Minneapolis police department. A murder scene that resembles a lynching is enough to bring in Davenport and his partner Del to invesigate and clean up before a major political crisis can begin. The murder scene is discovered by a very unusual 12 year old girl, Letty West, who talks and acts many years her senior. Davenport enlists Letty's help in his investigation, which revolves around the hanging murders, multiple kidnappings, a car theft ring, and drug smuggling. The individual crimes are linked through several threads that are not apparent at first to Davenport or the several law enforcement groups he is working with on the case.Davenport's domestic scenes with his wife Weather are kept to a minimum in this yarn, with almost all of the action focused on the crimes. Letty West takes center stage, and she proves more than a match for Davenport. She traps muskrats, totes a rifle, drives pickups, swears a lot, and helps pick up the pace of the book whenever she appears (which is often). There is strong rapport between Davenport and Letty, and the foundations are set for the making of a good team in future editions of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: we need more
Review: Lucas Davenport returns to do what he does best: clean up potential crises for his political bosses.
In the Naked Prey, he attempts to solve the murder of Jane Warr and Deon Carr, a couple who were found hanging on a tree. When the case is solved, the cops realize it's just the beginning, not the end.
John Sandford does well to suprise us with the familiar i.e., the serial murders, the corrupt cop, the politician in damage control mode. Moreover, he gives us a satisfactory, though expected ending.
Notwithstanding there is a lack of ingenuity which keeps this plot firmly on the ground. It seems Sandford has finally lost the ability to shock his readers.
Naked Prey is still a good novel; which doesn't say much for a writer in Sandford's league.
Rating:
Summary: Great new character keeps the prey series fresh
Review: Lucas heads off to Northern Minnesota to do damage control for the Governor when a black man and white woman are found lynched, naked, in a very small all white town. It turns out the racial aspect is a total red herring--it has nothing to do with the crime or the plot. Unfortunately, Sanford uses it as an opportunity to introduce a wholly gratuitous race baiting black activist (who I suppose is a cross between Jessie and Johniie Cochran??) Once he gets that off his chest, the plot settles down into a typical prey book. A criminal drug smuggling conspiracy of nuns, an international ring of chop-shops, and a series of child murder-kidnappings, all come unraveled as Lucas unwinds the lynching. In the midst of all, is Sanford's newest character--Lettie West. An 11 year old girl, who is also a trapper, who (as Lucas says) has a functioning age of about 42), and is not the least bit afraid to stand up to Lucas' bullying. Wise cracks abound, love grows. We should see more of her in future books!
Rating:
Summary: A great thriller with a few holes
Review: Naked Prey is an exciting thriller full of evil bad guys, twists and turns and police pursuits. Yet it also has a few plot holes and structural flaws. I listened to the book on audio tape and at times wonder if I missed a side of tape.
The story opens with the gruesome murder of Jane Warr and Dion Cash. They are kidnapped and drug out into the middle of nowhere and hung. Their naked bodies are found and Lucas Davenport and Del are called in to find out what happened in order to avoid a racial incendent (Jane was white and Dion was black)
Sandford then gives the details of the small town where Cash and Warr lived, and where they worked, Kalb's body shop. Early on, we get the details of Kalb running an illegal operation of stealing old Toyotas and selling them as new in Canada. Also, a group of Catholic nuns are running a drug operation by driving Kalb's cars to and from Canada.
Davenport and Del befriend a little girl named Lettie West who becomes a key part of the story. The investigation quickly finds the identity of the killer, a man named Hale Sorrell. Sorrell's daughter was kidnapped a few months ago and apparently Sorrel discovered who did it and then killed them. So, Lucas assumes Cash and Warr were the kidnappers. But then another murder happens and Davenport and Dell return to the small town and discover many new crimes.
Sandford also tells the story from the true kidnappers. The brief scenes where Sandford describes how the kidnapped girls were killed are chilling. Yet not enough time is spent on the kidnappings and how and why those occurred.
I saw a few other problems with the story. Kalb is established as a criminal early on and the entire small town seems to revolve around his auto body business. Yet Lucas and Del never really look into the activities there beyond a few cursury interviews.
The biggest problem I saw was when a main character was shot and seriously wounded. Lucas and Del easily surmised that the killer was trying to silence her. Yet Lucas and Del allow this character to return to the small town without any type of protection, leaving her vulnerable to get attacked again.
This is only my second Sandford book. My favorite part has to be the investigations by Del and Lucas. They seem to discover the evidence in real time. Nothing is sped up for the sake of the plot (although there are many other story sacrifices made for the sake of the plot.) In this book, the evil and the crime keep coming, and there are several twists, including one surprising one about the nuns.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Series Continues: Naked Prey
Review: The nasty business of politics has always been a strong secondary theme in the Lucas Davenport and it certainly is in this, the fourteenth book of the series. Lucas has moved on along with his boss Rose Marie Roux. Leaving a nasty political situation in their old jobs, Rose Marie with the strong blessings of the Governor has created a special situation for him. Officially he is designated as "Director, Office of Regional Studies" which is buried within the State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension." But Lucas is not a desk jockey. He is a hands on investigator, and in reality, he is to be the Governor's fix it person when crime cases become too complicated or too political for local jurisdictions to handle. This will be the first case for the newly formed unit headed by Lucas and it seems to have all the ingredients for a major media firestorm. Two people, one female and white, one male and black, have been found dead near Armstrong, Minnesota. Not just murdered, but bound, nude, and hanging from trees. Lynching is an ugly word and describing an ugly practice and the Governor wants the case solved fast. But the case isn't solved fast and is just a small segment of a fast deteriorating situation in Armstrong. Because of Lucas and his partner, Del's investigation in Armstrong, pressure begins to come down on numerous persons in the same town. Various schemes interwoven and also independent of the original case begin to emerge and unravel and a bloodbath begins in the frozen north during the dark of winter. This book once again reminds the reader of how well a mystery can be done when the author takes the time to write a first class novel. While some authors are content to crank out a quick shallow read every few months, Sandford continues to evolve the Lucas character as well as create a complex mystery in novel after novel. A lot of changes have occurred over the course of this series for Lucas and it clear that quite a few more are in order in the next novel and ones to come. In the meantime, as in most of the other novels of the series, the writing and imagery is intense and the sense of pacing is just right. Sandford steadily raises the tension level while occasionally giving the reader a glimpse of the twisted humor he is known for. This series is alive and very well and definitely well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: This book was pretty good. It was predictable but good. There was plenty of suspense and character building. The book starts out with a bang. Two murders and lots of action. It leaves you wondering why. What did these two people do to deserve such a horrible and graphic death? You will have to read it to find out but I will say that the killer had his reasons for doing it and when you find out why you will wonder why he didn't do much worse. You really get attached to Letty a 12 year old girl. She is a tom-boy who has cared for her mother all these years. She is independent and has a real spitfire attitude. She makes a great character. She is funny and I really enjoyed her. Even though you see a lot of things coming it was a good read and Sandford did a great job on the plot.
|
