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Chosen Prey

Chosen Prey

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 4 1/2 Stars -- A Real Page-Turner!
Review: Be prepared to rarely get up from your seat once you start Chosen Prey. Sandford's characters are very credible, three dimensional and well-developed, and Lucas Davenport continues to be one of the more interesting "good guys" in crime fiction. The plot is very suspenseful and riveting. In typical Sandord style, there is no surprise as to who the killer is, yet the need for non-stop reading of his books is to see how the killer is caught. If you've read some of the other books in the "Prey" series, you'll know that how the criminal is brought to justice is not always in the way you'd suspect. Chosen Prey is a book I think you'll enjoy very much. As I said, though, be prepared to delay other things you need to do because you won't want to put this book down. It's well worth you're time and money.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 4 stars as part of a series 2 stars as a stand alone book
Review: This was a hard book for me to rate. I have read the previous books in Sandford's Prey series, eleven in all. As a reader who is familiar with all long running characters and plot threads, reading this book was like running into an old friend you have not seen in years, and talking like you live next door to each other. It was a pleasure to read simply for the continued evolution of the characters I have grown to know and love.

On the other hand, as a passable, stand alone novel, Sandford falls so far short of his past triumphs that I wonder if this does not signal the end for Lucas Davenport and company. Gone is all the tension, suspense, and thrill-of-the-chase that was so prevalent in many of the early Prey books. It has been replaced with a tired reworking of past Prey villains and a soap opera pace. In fact, the hunt for the bad guy plays a secondary role to Lucas' relationship with his ex-fiancée. It is writing like this that leads me to believe that Sandford is trying to stage a stopping point in this series.

If you have not read the previous Prey books, perhaps your money or time would be better spent reading a different book. If you are a Prey veteran, then carry on.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Satisfying!
Review: It takes a great thriller writer to keep me guessing throughout and satisfied in the end. THANK YOU, Mr. Sandford! A true writer's-writer; someone who inspires.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another entry in the Davenport saga
Review: By now, John Sandford (the pen name of John Camp) has these things down pat. His main character, Lucas Davenport, is a three-dimensional policeman, hunting serial killers and dangerous murderers, seducing women, and cracking wise now and again. The secondary characters---other cops, the killer, his girlfriend, victims---are marvelously rendered, and you're actually sad when one meets his/her end.

This time around, the bad guy is an art professor named James Qatar, who kills beautiful women, and has been doing it successfully for years. He's an interesting and very well-drawn character, what with his obsession with clothing, and his meticulousness about the killings that he does. Davenport is looking at a particular murder, and it's discovered that a woman, missing for several years, resembles the killing in a few details. Then clues begin to build up, and the suspense builds as the plot thickens, so to speak.

I would recommend this book, though of course it's not the best (I still think Rules of Prey was in a class by itself; it should be read first) and if you haven't read other books in the series you're going to be a bit at sea about the relationships between the various characters. Still, a good book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another good read
Review: Chosen Prey is one of Sandford's better efforts in this series. The storyline is suspenseful and fast-paced as usual though the villain is a little more down to earth than the usual drug-using freaks Sandford typically supplies us with. In fact, it is this aspect of the story that sets it apart from his previous works in that this was a character that on some levels and in some aspects, most people can relate to as regards his everyday life. Chances are, if you're looking at this book, you've already read at least some of the Prey series and are hooked like the rest of us. This one doesn't disappoint.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wow! Can't wait to get my hands on the others!
Review: This was the first John Sandford book I have read, and I have to totally disagree will all that say this is a stand alone book. It does quick well alone, and now that I know there are others in the series I will go back and read them as well.

Lucas Davenport chases a serial killer through this novel who has more fashion sense then conscience. His only leads in the beginning are some poorly (at least in the eyes of the art community) sketched drawings of the now deceased women, and a huntch or two.

The character of Lucas Davenport feels very human, and his creator leaves you no choice other than to admire him for his skill as a detective, his sense of right and wrong, his ability to do what he thinks is right no matter what the cost, and his pateince with life as it throws one curve after another his way.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad, but his who-dunits are better
Review: This one wasn't bad, but most of his Prey books are either whodunits where the reader is constantly trying to guess the killer's identity, or the type like this book where you know the killer from the beginning, and just watch as Lucas tries to figure out what we already know. A lot of the early ones in the series were whodunits, not many of them are now.

I prefer the whodunits (at least the ones where the reader has a reasonable chance of figuring it out); this book follows the formula where Lucas turns up reams and reams of clues, getting closer, closer, then farther again, then closer, and so on; and finally a few clues fall into the place and the hunt is on.

It gets tedious at times, with only the hilariously crude male banter between the cops, and the verbal abuse of druggie contacts providing entertainment. We knew eventually a connection would be made, although you wonder why it took him so long to think of the son once he started talking to Mrs Qatar.
Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sandford is simply brilliant!!!
Review: After starting to read this book, I just couldn't put it down. There was always something interesting happening, and you get caught up in this Triller with no way to escape.
James Qatar has a thing for the neck of pretty blondes, and can't keep away from them. After a dead body has been found he no longer feels safe and becomes more and more careless. Even though he knows he cannot keep feeding his desire, it just gets too stong. Capable of anything, he finds himself another pretty blonde...

Lucas Davenport is the brilliant Deputy Chief who, despite the difficulties he sees the future will bring, takes on the mission to stop the killings and find out who is the one behind it all.
Sandford is a brilliant writer and once you start reading it, there's no way out. His way of writing makes you feel that you're in the middle of it all, experiencing and seeing everything through the eyes of the writer.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves ficion!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ends Perfectly
Review: Here we go again. This one has my favorite ending yet. The often present suspicion hanging around Lucas at the end of a case, is masterfully handled. While Lucas is assuaging his conscience, his peers hold the hush, information leaks strategically to the press, and politicians praise the department for the way the case was handled although everybody knows something wasn't quite right. Mission accomplished. Justice served.

Once again... beautiful.

Think about it. Sandford doesn't start out with anything new. A serial murder and an investigation. Lots of people write that. Sanford just writes it right. He is a master of leading and feeding the mind of the reader. He leaves no stone unturned, no twist unraveled, and no question unanswered. Timing is flawless. The balance between plots and between characters, perfect.

This time we get the subtle, strong character of out of town Deputy Terry Marshall tagging along, stepping up when the heat is on, and stepping in to flip steaks on the barbee. Marshall is obscurely and perfectly developed for his supporting role here. Lucas and Del never give an opinion of Marshall. They more than tolerate him accompanying them on the case, but Sandford leaves it to the reader to form the opinion. Then we get Weather's opinion at the exact perfect time.

There aren't any words strong enough to describe the quality of John Sandford's writing. If you find a 'weakness', it is there deliberately. If you find a hole... Forget it! You're not gonna find a hole! Sandford could write Lucas Davenport all the way into the nursing home and it will be a blast!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just a bunch of words on a page...
Review: I picked this book randomly and with great anticipation after reading the first two pages. I thought I had a sexy, suspense on my hands that would keep me up at night biting my fingernails. Boy was I wrong!

This book lacks any type of suspense. Sanford described the main players making them all sound deformed as well as thousand irrelevant characters. The killer was feeble and all of the cops were morons.

To make matters worse, the Sanford stirs in this ridiculous subplot about Detective Davenport and his girlfriend (who out of desperation due old age and not love becomes his fiancee) trying to have a baby. It had nothing to do with the story at all. I'm sure it's just a pathetic attempt to get the reader to pick up the sequel. But honestly, the characters are so bland you don't really care.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who has to finish a book once they've started. Halfway through, you'll start to wish you were one of the killer's victims so that it would just be over!


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