Chosen Prey (A Prey Novel)

by John Sandford

2014

Status

Available

Publication

G.P. Putnam's Sons (2014), 480 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:He seems like such a nice man. You�??d never guess what was going on in his mind�?� Art history professor James Qatar has a hobby: he takes secret photographs of women to fuel more elaborate fantasies. When he�??s alone. Behind locked doors. Then one day, he goes a step further and... well, one thing leads to another. Qatar has no choice. He has to kill her. And you know something? He likes it. When Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport takes the case, he assumes it�??ll be straightforward police work. He couldn�??t be more wrong. As the investigation trail takes some unexpected turns, it becomes clear that nothing is straightforward about this killer, his victims, or his motives. And to stop him Lucas has no choice but to walk right into his lair. WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Jebbie74

As always, a delightful Sandford/Davenport pirce of work. Two thumbs up!

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LibraryThing member Bookmarque

As usual, the plot, pacing and dialogue in this story move right along. What it lacked was depth. I didn’t understand why Qatar was the way he was. There was a bit of history of him killing ants with a magnifying glass and his mother said she knew about the cats, but there was really no

explanation. Also, the cops uncover 8 separate gravesites. The synopsis leads us to believe that this guy suddenly started killing women – not true. He’d been doing it for years. Also, the drawings he did of the women were made into a big deal and then dropped.

Also, the victims weren’t really focused on. They just sort of existed as props to the story. And Lucas’ personal life took center stage too much. Sure, we have to have some domestic goings on but enough is enough with the making a baby crap. Jeez. I’m starting to lose my respect for Davenport. I used to like his casual sex and his casual existence. Now that he’s ‘daddy’, the tough guy persona is hard to take seriously. Ugh. As usual, kids ruin things!

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LibraryThing member amf0001

This is the 13th in the prey series and the third I've reread in as many days. I liked it a lot. I liked the character of the villain, the depictions of rain and how impacted the crime scenes. I really felt for the uncle/small town cop character. I liked the way the crime was thought about. This

interested me on many levels.
I do think that the fall out over Ellen's actions was too minimal, but that's my only quibble with the book.

It's the one with the art historian killing many small athletic blonds, and how they catch him. I really felt for his mother, the smart old bat, as the police referred to her.

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LibraryThing member sonyau

Whatever malady John Sanford suffered when he was writing his previous book was cured, solved, abolished, or exorcised, because "Chosen Prey" was a million miles away from that slumpy work and back to coherent, mature, and somewhat ethically challenged Lucas Davenport. The writing was just plain

better. So thanks, 2001 John Sandford, for pulling your head out of the sand and writing a noble mystery/crime/thriller. Oooh.

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LibraryThing member housecarl

I listened to this book on my Creative Zen. The reader for this series is great.

LibraryThing member debavp

This was a bit of a let down from the previous three. Davenport is making mistakes, Weather just won't go away, and the story was just to predictable and unbelievable at the same time. There appear to be some major changes coming Davenport's way, as well as for a few others. Again only a 'Yeah,

I've got a kid' mention about Lucas' daughter, but at least her mother made a very brief cameo to let us know she hasn't fallen off the earth.

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LibraryThing member nbmars

Chosen Prey is the twelfth novel by John Sanford that features Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport. Although it is the first that I have read, I didn’t feel that I needed to have read any others to understand the characters. Here Davenport is chasing a serial killer who likes to

photograph young blonde women, render the photographs as a tracing or drawing, then, where possible, strangle and bury the women.

In some of the chapters, including the first, the narrator is the deranged killer. Thus the reader gets a direct insight into the mind of a psychopath.

Sanford is adept at describing the interplay among the various policemen and detectives working on the case as they try to identify the killer. Somewhat surprisingly, they focus on the actual killer as a suspect about two-thirds through the book, and then the rest of the book deals with their building the evidence for a compelling criminal prosecution. I was a little disappointed in the structure of the plot in that the final “smoking gun” of evidence is found in a manner reminiscent of a deus ex machina. This is particularly annoying in that we are often allowed into the mind of the killer, but not when he hides the key evidence.

I would characterize the book as more of a police procedure story and character study than a thriller, but Sanford does interject a bit of suspense at the end. Over all, I rate this a pretty decent read, but not the kind you just can’t put down.

(JAB)

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LibraryThing member JohnWCuluris

There is one drawback to being a master of your craft, of having the ability to create fascinating characters and situations, and build suspense, and make the routine seem interesting. What happens when you don’t carry it all the way through to the conclusion of the book? What happens when the

last fifty pages read as if they’d been plotted by someone else? Those superior skills turn against you. Disappointment is magnified because enhanced expectations are not met.

There are two major problems with the ending to Chosen Prey. The more important one involves the woman intended to be his final victim, whom we meet at the same time as the killer, early in the novel. James Qatar has already decided to kill her when a chance remark intrigues him enough to spare her. She continues to play a significant role throughout the story and yet, as events wind down and Qatar slips his surveillance with the intention of killing her, their confrontation happens “off-screen.” We’ve already witnessed him kill twice, one of whom was his mother; in neither case is the reader as intimately connected as we are to this character. We have to know what both killer and victim are thinking and feeling. Nothing is gained in terms of suspense or drama by withholding this scene. A lot is lost in terms of satisfaction.

The second problem is lessened because it is preceded by the breach of faith recounted above. It still stands out. Essentially, the surprise twist is not much of a surprise. The character in questions was always going to do something. Initial speculation included blowing the arrest or killing the suspect whether he surrenders or not--something along those lines. So once the “something” actually does happen, there is no other candidate. That Sanford can draw a character so deftly that his mild instability is obvious to us but not to those around him is, I repeat, a considerable skill.

Skill is a double-edged sword in Chosen Prey. I enjoyed most of the trip, I always enjoy the company, but disappointment remains. Rare disappointment; say one--maybe two--out of the twelve Davenport novels I’ve read to date. Not disappointment enough to keep me from recommending the novel based on its other strengths. But bear in mind that I’m a big fan and I fully expect a return to form next time out.

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LibraryThing member Carol420

He 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. The killer 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 an intense investigation, and with the assistance of an aout of state officer, Davenport discovers that three other women have mysteriously disappeared in Wisconsin. All these murders/ disappearances are connected. Can Davenport and the gang get the killer before he claims his next victim?

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 lucky, sometimes not. He is doggedly persistent and was quite the womanizer as well in the earlier "Prey" novels. All in all, Lucas Davenport is a constantly evolving character.

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LibraryThing member kwskultety

I don't remember reading this one when it first came out...but it was awesome! Great cop talk from Davenport et al, and a really juicy, creepy killer with issues. Loved it.

LibraryThing member JBreedlove

A truly pleasant surprise. I stayed away from Prey books because of the stupid title. But this book found at a book swap when I had run out of reading material was a golden fine. Minneapolis homicide detective LD is drawn into a well written serial murder case. Plenty of characters who were mostly

defined enough that you knew who was how, a rapidly moving plot that made sense, and not too much dwelling on the imperfect hero. Unlike the Virgil Flowers novels the book was story driven and much less hanging on the quirks and desires of the detective. Sandford writes well and I found myself barking out in laughter at some of hos one liners.A rare detective story that gets a 4.r.

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