Continuing our look at John Sandford's Prey series, let's briefly discuss Night Prey, the sixth entry in the series and available on Kindle for $7.19.
Night Prey is a terrific, entertaining page-turner, and- with its mentally deteriorating serial killer, disturbingly bloody crimes, cops putting their heads together to figure out how best to catch the killer, and personal issues facing the cops as they try to do their jobs- very reminiscent of probably my all-time favorite cops-chasing-a-killer thriller, the classic The First Deadly Sin, by Lawrence Sanders. And while Mr. Sandford definitely gives his own personal stamp to the proceedings in Night Prey, I would find it hard to believe that he didn't read and enjoy that earlier thriller, too; in so many ways this seems to be a tribute to Sanders' immersive thriller about the Ice Axe killer and Chief Detective Edward X. Delaney's attempts to catch him.
But getting back to Night Prey, I enjoyed the nice balance between Lucas Davenport's cop work and his current personal issues (is monogamy truly for him?), the extremely well-drawn character of a cat burglar/crazed killer who starts descending into deeper levels of craziness as a result of an obsession with a woman he previously robbed; the sad situation of Lucas' new female partner; and all the usual cop banter. All very engaging stuff.
But do yourself a favor if you really enjoy this book: pick up Mr. Sanders' early 70's classic (not yet available on Kindle alas) His other novels were also quite readable, including subsequent Deadly Sins entries, but oh, "The First Deadly Sin". What a great read. After all, there will be plenty of time to get back to Mr. Sandford's entertaining series after you treat yourself to that true gem of the crime genre.
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