Fri 21 Aug 2020
REVIEWED BY RAY O’LEARY:
JOHN SANDFORD – Shadow Prey. Lucas Davenport #2. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1990. Berkley, paperback, 1991.
Over 20 years ago, Larry Clay was a policeman who used his uniform to get away with raping 12-year-old Native American girls. Now, Lawrence Duberville Clay is Director of the FBI — and a small group of Native Americans have devised a plan to lure him to Minnesota, where they plan to kill him.
Realizing Clay is a Publicity Hound, the group plans to draw his attention with a series of well-publicized murders. But since the killings began in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where most of the Indians live, the bulk of the investigation is handled by Lt. Lucas Davenport of the Minneapolls PD.
I found this inordinately easy to put down. Davenport is hardly a likeable character — he has proposed marriage to the unwed mother of his child, a Murphy Brown clone, but has no qualms about starting an affair with the female cop sent to assist him — and the ending is swiped from an earlier — and better — book by William Goldman.
August 21st, 2020 at 2:42 pm
I had the same experience as Ray. I read one book in the series, and found Lucas Davenport as a character so off-putting I never read another.
We must be the odd balls out. There are now 33 books in the series, including one novella. He has a lot of fans.
August 21st, 2020 at 8:05 pm
I disliked Davenport so much I never read another one after the first. It’s unusual to be so put off by a character I refuse to ever give the writer a second chance.
I’m content to be odd man out in this case.
August 21st, 2020 at 8:59 pm
Makes three of us. I’m willing to let any of his fans, and there are many, have a say, though.
August 21st, 2020 at 9:00 pm
Makes three of us. I’m willing to let any of his fans, of which there are many, have a say, though.
August 22nd, 2020 at 7:30 am
I read the first Prey book when it came out years ago after hearing what high praise it received, and didn’t think much of it. Then a couple of years ago read the first Virgil Flowers book, and loved it. Virgil has been in 10 books or so since, and have enjoyed them quite a bit. I get the impression that the Flowers books are not as dark as the Prey novels. Not sure if Davenport has lightened up some of his less likeable ways as the books have continued. Flowers as a character is a joy to read about.
August 22nd, 2020 at 9:19 am
It is quite possible that Davenport became more likable as the stories went along. Those of us who read only one and no more, it has been one of the early ones that did the damage.
And now that you’ve reminded me, I have read one of the Flowers books too. As I recall, I liked it well enough to have read another, but for reasons I don’t remember, I never did. Too many other books calling my attention, I imagine. I may have been missing something.
Flowers and Davenport appear in small roles in each other’s books, don’t they?
August 22nd, 2020 at 5:38 pm
Yes, Flowers started as a minor character (from what I have read) in the Davenport books, and Davenport is his boss in the Flowers books. In the Flowers’ books Davenport comes across as a pretty decent guy, which I why I was thinking about going back and trying to start at the beginning of the Prey series.
I think I read somewhere the Lawrence Block loved the Prey books and was reading them in order.
And I may be way off base on this, but there was a rumor that either Sandford’s (John Camp) wife or a friend of his help write the books.
Either way, I enjoy Flower’s stories, they are a lot of fun.
August 22nd, 2020 at 7:30 pm
Whenever an author is as prolific as Sandford is, there are rumors that he’s getting help with the books. Especially when the several series he’s still cranking out are so successful. But as far as I know, the rumors are only that. Rumors.