Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant storytelling
Review: Colleagues respect St. Patrick University associate professor art historian James Qatar for his collective works. This includes one book and several scholarly articles published in highly regarded journals and magazines. Unbeknownst to his peers is that Professor Qater has a second life in which he hunts blondes, has sex with them, and kills them.When an early victim is found, the police link her to photographs that are part of Qater's hobby of creating pornographic works with women he knows but who don't really know him. Being a political appointee, Minneapolis Deputy Chief of Police Lucas Davenport expects to lose his job within six months when the mayor retires. Lucas intends to use his time wisely to catch the killer. John Sandford is one of the top authors of police procedurals due to his three dimensional characters that consistently turn the "Prey" books into great reads. The hero is a flawed individual with a complex and realistic personal life that places demands on him even as he risks everything because he believes in the value of justice for all. CHOSEN PREY is the best of a great series. The audience knows the identity of the killer early on, but watch in fascination as Lucas tries to do likewise while balancing his complex personal life. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Sandford Falls Short
Review: This is John Sandford's twelfth "Prey" novel,and,although good, falls short of his past ones.All the familiar characters,Lucas Davenport,Marcy,Del,Rose Marie and a few others are there,plus the usual introduction of new individuals essential to the plot.Immediately we are introduced to James Qatar, a university professor,who is the serial killer that the story revolves around. His penchant for wooing and killing blonds leads Davenport and crew on a merry chase. Qatar focuses on Ellen Barstard throughout the book,but never seems quite credible as the serial killer who killed and buried all the women whose bodies were unearthed on a hillside. He appears too shallow to be the person we are led to believe he is.His character is without depth. After being introduced to Terry Marshall, a Wisconsin detective whose niece was killed, the chase broadens and we are led hither and yon on the search for this elusive killer who cleverly manages to escape detection because of his blandness until close to the end,in spite of several other unsimilar killings. The ending is predictable almost half-way thru this book.There is also the possibility of Lucus and Rose Marie being replaced in the near future, so who knows where the next"Prey" book will take us.We also could have done without Weather's trying to get pregnant. Lucus as a father does not lend itself to his expected role as the cool detective with a Porsche and witty repartee.Let's hope he remains the same.
Rating:
Summary: SANDFORD LEADS THE SUSPENSE GENRE!
Review: All of us Sandford fans deeply look forward each year for early May to come around because that mostly means the release of a new Prey novel! In "Chosen Prey," Minneapolis Detective, Lucas Davenport, along with Marcy Sherrill, Sloan, Del, and Weather (Lucas fiance), return in one of John Sandford's most interesting and exciting Prey novels that he has written. The plot: James Qatar is a prestegious history professor at St. Patrick University in Minneapolis. He has a very secretive life on the side. He enjoys playing kinky sex games with women he barely knows and ends up killing them for pleasure. He also enjoys taking pictures of women and distorting their figures to look like they are participating in grotesque sexual activities. His method of murder: a rope. James Qatar is a very sick individual that has killed over eight women in three states. None of the cops have been able to link him to the murder. When a murdered women turns up in the barren woods, close to home to Lucas Davenport, he vows to find this killer who killed this beautiful woman. After investigating for a while, and with the assistance of and out of state officer, he discovers that three other women have mysteriously disappeared in Wisconsin. All these murders/ disappearances are connected. Can Davenport and the gang get James Qatar before he claims his next victim? The twelfth novel in this amazing series is a definite success!
Rating: 
Summary: A better work in the Prey series.
Review: Lucas Davenport returns to take down a serial killer-voyeur on the prowl.
James Qatar is a man with a deadly secret: he is a killer and he loves it. His Chosen Prey are young blonde artsy girls, attracted by his pleasant mien, deceived by his intentions, victims of their own unbridled desires.
The police have just gotten a break. The killer is an artist who has been sending victims drawings of them in the nude. With one error after the other, Lucas and his band of brothers are catching up to James; however they be able to get him before he claims his final trophy?
John Sandford's Prey series has lived a long and eventful life; its age is now showing. Yet if you think this series is out of spunk, Chosen Prey will sure change your mind.
This is a deftly written, morbidly entertaining novel. One wonders how Sandford makes so gruesome a subject so tender to the readers palate. Unlike the previous books, we are shown how the police investigated the killings. Since, there is no suspense given that the killer has been revealed from the beginning, we instead wait anxiously for Lucas's epiphany, made difficult by his personal problems. This interplay--his personal life and work life--is fun to read.
Drop that boring stuff you've been reading, and try this out. It's a nice treat for those who subsist on the thrills of the chase.
Rating:
Summary: Lucas Davenport:: the ultimate cop
Review: Through 15 or so "Prey" novels, John Sandford has buffed, embellished, smoothed and reworked Lucas Davenport, his hard-working, clever Minnesota detective.
In "Chosen Prey," an art historian get his kicks murdering woman of a particular type. I'm giving nothing away here for Sandford identifies the killer early on.
The suspense is in watching Davenport hunt down this very clever murderer.
Davenport is not a super-cop. He works hard, thinks hard, is sometimes luck, sometimes not. He is doggedly persistent. Oh, he's quite the womanizer as well in the earlier "Prey" novels.
All in all, Davenport is a constantly evolving character and, in my opinion, one of the great fictional characters. My hat is off to John Sandford and Lucas Davenport.
Jerry
Rating:
Summary: First Prey book I've read and I'm hooked
Review: This is my first book in the "Prey" series and John Sandford had me hooked in the first chapter. James Qatar is killer, a man who likes to seduce women then strangle them. Qatar has other perversions, such as photographing women from afar and turning those photos into pornographic drawings and mailing them to the women anonomously.
Qatar's latest potential victim is Ellen Barstad. Qatar seduces her and lays the groundwork for another killing when Barstad surprises him by being a willing sexual partner. Thus their relationship continues.
Lucas Davenport and his band of police officer friends enter the scene later, investigating a cold case where the body was finally found. Finding the body causes the police to look closer at the case. Several clues allow Davenport to proceed in the case. The dead woman found had a pornographic drawing of herself in her apartment. Then several other women come forward who have drawings but have no idea where they came from. Then a police chief from Wisconsin comes forward and reveals they may be dealing with a serial killer because his neice may have met the same fate.
Chosen Prey's strength is the police investigation. They work hard for their info and at times seem to be getting nowhere. Still they slowly make progress and get closer and closer to Qatar. Sandford doesn't make it seem easy like some other authors tend to do.
One complaint I have is, after all of the thorough police investigations, the way in which Qatar's identity is found has nothing to do with police work. Qatar is a quality villian who seems to have covered all his tracks, yet through some convenient finds and plausible twists, justice is done.
This series is one I plan to continue to read because besides telling a great story, Sandford doesn't let the personal lives of the characters interfere with the book. Its easy to pick up and follow the lives of Lucas and his fiance Weather.
Rating:
Summary: Satisfying!
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:
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.
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