Rating: 
Summary: Perfect beach chair thriller!
Review: The best thrillers are the ones where you are both cheering for the cops and the villain. Clara Rinker is an assassin with a very personal and sympathetic mission. She is clever, cold, and sophisticated. She is out for revenge for the killing of her true love and their unborn child. Her goal is to eliminate four mob bosses. Lucas Davenport, the hero of the series, is part of an FBI "study group" out to stop her. She is smart but vulnerable, but he is equal to the task without being omniscient. Like his other novels, Sandford makes the reader feel like they are really part of a police investigation---all the good bits, without the boring police procedural parts. The story and the writing is perfect for reading. One could almost see a screen play, but so much of the story goes on around the moves of the main characters that any picture inside the reader's head seems more vivid than what can possibly be portrayed on screen. His style and the action is tight, gripping, and easy to follow. The ending is predictable, but it is so cynical and in line with the tone of the novel and the rest of the series---it is so real---that it leaves the reader feeling very satisfied and wanting more. The writer just gets better and better. Can't wait for his next story.
Rating: 
Summary: One great read!
Review: Mortal Prey is one of the better books in this series. The story is pretty simple. Hit woman Clara Rinker is back is back in the U.S. nd looking to avenge the death of her mexican boyfriend. The FBI is hot on her trail and ask Lucas Davenport to help.
The great thing about this series is that the character's are continually changing, evolving. Davenport has gone from a fast talking ladies man to a dedicated father and husband, from homicide to detective to assistant police chief. And in the next book he ostly be a special investiator for the govenor. The other characters have grown right along with him. And Clara Rinker is the most likable villian I've ever seen. I almost hated to see what happened to her.
John Sandford's writing is consistly excellant. He grabs you on the first page and doesn't let up until the end. I'm already waiting for the next Prey novel!
Rating:
Summary: Pull up a Comfortable Davenport
Review: Looking through the 'scope, this novel features exotic locales for Lucas Davenport, well outside his usual Twin Cities ambit, and a new treat for the reader. Perhaps these varied settings presage a wider field of action as Davenport moves to a new, state job in the next novel. Viewed from the other end, I didn't find the excessive personal tensions and psycho-logical horror that he often encounters in his earlier cases. Although numerous changes are impending in his life, they play little role here. This is a stroll for Lucas, who leads all the work, and contributes all the leads, at a comfortable yet rapid pace. A nice vacation from fear for the reader, too, since the killer's hits are on people you won't particularly like. Incidentally, this could be a good book for retirees, who would be proud of the retired St. Lou gum-shoes who do good work (ALL the work, one might say, since the FBI seems only good for looking up 'phone numbers :). Davenport's quarry is once again the memorably endearing professional of CERTAIN PREY, Clara Rinker, coming back into Lucas' conflicted life. Clara is ingenious and constantly surprising, ruthlessly efficient and creative. She is as confident as ever and bent on multiple revenges, less enigmatic in aims than Sandford's usual psychos but as devious in means as ever. Stalking her ends up much deeper than you initially suspect. I found very little was extraneous to the plot, despite a high page count. Numerous characters come and go, some stereotyped for the plot, but each each well and contrastively characterized. There are two developments in Davenport's slowly progressing family life. Lucas shows he is one in a long line of sentimental detectives in literature, but very close to the top.
Rating: 
Summary: Female assassin leads cops on a deadly chase.
Review: Clara Rinker is back in John Sandford's latest thriller, "Mortal Prey." She is the deadliest female assassin that I have ever encountered in fiction. Not only is Rinker a whiz with firearms, but she can also outmaneuver the FBI and the police with ease. Rinker has spent a good part of her life killing people for money. After years of plying her trade, she has accumulated more than enough cash to retire and she has decided to settle down in Mexico with the man she loves. However, a sudden act of violence changes Rinker's plans and she is back in the business of killing once again. She decides to take revenge on the people whom she believes ruined her one chance at happiness and the cops are desperate to stop her before she wreaks any further havoc. The FBI calls in Lucas Davenport, a Deputy Chief in the Minneapolis Police Department, to help track down Rinker. Davenport has dealt with her before and he was lucky to have survived the encounter. Davenport is currently planning his wedding, but he leaves his pregnant fiancée back in Minneapolis and joins in the hunt for Rinker. "Mortal Prey" is a repetitious series of vignettes in which Rinker plies her trade, always staying one or two steps ahead of the cops. The supposedly skilled team of FBI agents and cops who are after Rinker are completely outmatched by her superhuman intellect and daring. Rinker doesn't come across as a human being. She is a killing machine with ice in her veins. "Mortal Prey" is filled with violent encounters between the killer and her victims and there really is no contest between Rinker and the cops. She is simply too good at what she does. This throws the book way off balance. A good hunter/prey book has a little more balance between the combatants. The characterizations are thin and the plot veers from one place to another with very little coherence. Davenport is a likeable enough protagonist, but he has very little to do other than try to figure out where and how Rinker will strike next. "Mortal Prey" doesn't work because the criminal is simply too deadly to be true and the book drags on long after it should have reached its inevitable conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: Prey that Carla Rinker doesn't come looking for you!
Review: Mortal Prey is the story of Clara Rinker and her search for revenge for the killing of her baby and her future husband. Rinker knows who probably hired the hit on her so she heads for them immediately. Along the way we get to see more of what Rinker has done in her past and almost feel sympathy for her. Davenport is called in by the FBI to help track Rinker down because he's the only one thats survived dealing with her (I've not read Certain Prey yet) in the past. In addition to tracking down Rinker, Davenport is burdened with building a new house, getting ready for a wedding and a new baby. The setting for this book is mostly in St. Louis but some parts take place elsewhere. Characters from past books also show up in this book. I found this book to be less dark than some of the other four books in the Prey series that I've read. Reading the other books in the Prey series are not necessary to enjoy this book, but they would help in understanding who Davenport is and how he does what he does.
Rating:
Summary: Sandford delivers consistently in the Prey series.
Review: I have now read 6 or 8 of the novels in the Prey series and I have to give it to John Sandford for consistently delivering satisfying and entertaining novels. This one, in fact, has one of the more satisfying endings of any novel in recent memory (anti-climactic perhaps, but nonetheless satisfying). Whereas most of the Prey series takes place in or near Minneapolis, Lucas Davenport's home base, and includes a predictable cast of characters (Weather, Marcy, Del, Anne Marie), this novel takes place mostly in and around St. Louis, where Lucas takes the FBI's offer to help track down the notorious contract killer, Clara Rinker. Most of the usual characters play a very lowkey role in this book but that's okay, because there is a new and interesting cast to supplant them. Deep within himself, Lucas respects how flawlessly Clara is able to pull off her jobs and still evade the authorities. Like many of the law enforcement officials he works with on the case, he really wants to bring down Clara Rinker. Unlike most of his colleagues, he sees her humanity. He knows where she comes from...what kind of haunted life...and he can't help but feel sorry for the kind of childhood that led her to this. This is a little different side of Lucas...more introspective...less of the ladie's man and the joker. I really liked it...it was a nice change of pace.
Rating:
Summary: Davenport- playing by his own rules
Review: John Sandford brings a previous antagonist back in this, the 13th book in his series.
Clara Rinker was one of Lucas Davenport's most dangerous foes. While Davenport is facing fatherhood, his wedding, rebuilding his home and some career challenges. All these things must go on without him as he is suddenly yanked from his "normal" life when Clara Rinker resurfaces. After a lengthy disappearance and an attempt on her life, she is threatening to kill a list of individuals. Since Davenport is one of the few people to have dealt with her and survived, the FBI calls him in to assist them on their investigation. Davenport proceeds in his usual manner to assist them, ie. he plays by his own rules and is not drawn in to the standard methods of investigating.
The characters ring true and the pace of the novel is rapid, driven by revenge, love and justice. John Sandford manages to keep his Davenport series strong.
Rating: 
Summary: a literary cramp
Review: "The pain pushed through the sleep like an arrow, and he rose to the surface and tried to tried to stretch his right leg, but the cramp held on and got deeper, and Lucas groaned, "Man, man, man-o-man-o-man," and tried to knead it out, but the cramp held on for fifteen seconds, twenty, then began to slacken. Thus chapter 12 opens with perhaps the most convoluted, ill-formed run-on sentence I've ever read in published literature. This is just the most egregious example. Elsewhere, action scenes are described unclearly, often requiring rereading to clarify the flow. So on the local scale, the book falls short. Clearly it lacks the level of editing and revision expected from a professional work. But on the global scale, it also fails. The book has the feel of being written on a page budget, the plot development dictated by the page number rather than by events and circumstances. After clumsy middle-chapter plodding, things are wrapped up with remarkable efficiency as the magic number of 400 is approached. The problem here is that Sandford, like so many best-selling authors, has gone to writing two books per year instead of the still-challenging one. Compromises must be made, quality must suffer, but profit justifies all. "Mortal Prey" rings with but an echo of the magic of such classics as "Winter Prey". It's not a total loss -- the echo, at least, is still there. But why settle? Unfortunately for me, this is the second consecuting Prey book which has missed the target, after "Easy Prey". So I am afraid I must now move on. My strong recommendation -- start with Rules of Prey and go through the series. The early books shine where these late works fail. Don't fall "prey" to the "best seller" syndrome.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding local research, excellent story
Review: When I grabbed the book to read, it was the story description that sold me. I was surprised, therefore, to discover that the tale takes place almost literally in my own back yard, since I live in the metropolitan St. Louis area. Sandford's research was excellent. I wasn't really able to spot anything I could fault him on. For a local, this made the read even more interesting since I was able to visualize everything much more easily. The story itself initially was a bit disjointed in the setup, but came together quickly. I found Clara Rinker to be a sympathetic villainess, and at times I was even pulling for her, much to my surprise. Her motivations and who the real bad guys were at times were a bit complex. There were things to tug at the heart, and at times you had to wonder "why are there so many pages left?" because it seemed so likely the story had to close soon. Sandford found a way to turn the tables, of course. I was very pleased with the book.
Rating:
Summary: Rinker (hitwoman) redux
Review: John Sandford's Prey series has a strong following now, and this isn't the book (despite the blurb inside the cover) to start the series with. But if you're already into the series, this is a very good novel with a number of plot twists and interesting characters. The action starts in Mexico, where Clara Rinker (the escaped killer in Certain Prey) is almost killed by an assassin, who escapes only to be killed by an accomplice. You're never certain why she was shot at, or who prompted it, but she seems fairly certain that it was prompted by old acquaintances from her days in St. Louis, MO, and so she returns to try and track them down. When it becomes apparent what's going on, the FBI calls on Lucas Davenport to help find her. The plot goes from there, and I won't tell you anything more. Suffice to say, the action is pretty evenly paced, throughout, and enough happens to keep you interested for the length of the novel. This is a very good book, worth the time you're going to spend on it, unless you've not read the previous one that involves the lady killer. If that's the case, you should read that one first.
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