Silent Prey (Lucas Davenport, No 4)
by John Sandford
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Book Summary Information
Author: John SandfordEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN: 0425224465
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of Silent Prey (Lucas Davenport, No 4)
Book Review: (2 1/2 Stars) Sandford Disappoints Yet Again in SILENT PREY.
Summary: 2 Stars
"It is done. You've finally killed your victim. The last 45 seconds of their wines and screams were nothing more than long fingernails scratching over a blackboard. Their merciless cries for help have made you sick to the point of ending their moment in despair. With their lifeless corpse lying on the operating table, this is now your chance to play with them just for fun, just like the others. There's only one question lingering in your head: how should I finish the job?
Beside you is your own personalized tool bag. Inside it are some of sharpest utensils that no person other than you has come across; think of it as the game of the real life Operation. The scissors are useless, at least for now. The kitchen knife will make a bloody mess. It will do nothing but exaggerate your true passion for what you are about to do now. ...Aaaah...the very old fashioned scalpel. A surgeon's best friend. This small sharp weapon of yours has blood soaring through your veins faster than a late-night subway train. You are just as excited, as you were when your dad bought you that expensive skateboard for Christmas when you were eleven.
Relax, my dear Jennifer...this won't hurt a bit."
The high-swearing interrogator. The womanizing lover. The butt kicking beat cop.
Elements such as those listed above all represent the traits possessed by the hard-boiled Minneapolis police detective Lucas Davenport. Throughout the entire series of Prey novels, bestselling thriller/mystery writer John Sandford has cleverly created a dark-sided hero in his well-known protagonist, known in particular for his tormenting tactics for cracking the mental eggshell of his suspects. Especially known for the vivid description that he portrays throughout the various Prey books that he has written, Sandford nonetheless lets down his fans, creating a story that is dry and lacks depth.
In his fourth installment of the Prey series, Sandford conducts a new experiment by creating a sideshow storyline. Fans who have familiarly read the author's previous novel EYES OF PREY will remember the psychotic pathologist Dr. Michael Bekker, the sinister monster who gets the fun out of taking out the eyes of his victims. In the books beginning kickoff, Bekker escapes from a Minneapolis court and covertly hides his way in the Big Apple. Landing here, he continues to conduct his fascinating experiments on the very aspects of death. After getting beat up by Davenport in the previous Prey novel, Bekker's escape has him at full steam. Fully aware of his feud with Minneapolis cop, Bekker is at full steam, with a desire to take a dump in Lucas Davenport's backyard. Davenport, by the hand, is called in by his former lover/partner, Lily Rothenberg, to battleship Bekker out of his secret lair. As well, he is also obligated in to finding the "Robin Hoods," a rouge group of vigilante cops who are responsible for a numerous number of deaths. While Davenport plays spin the bottle on his investigation, he later finds out that the bottle is pointing to nobody other than New York's very finest.
SILENT PREY, without a doubt is nothing but a loud mess. For starters, the duo storyline that Sandford tends to cook out guarantees to be nothing but a hodgepodge of twists and turns that can become rather confusing. Such a multiple plot created by the author tends to lack the specified meat that the readers will crave in the story. Such meat definitely applies to how Bekker tends to avenge on Davenport. Another flaw that hurts the book regards the description of the overall New York setting. From chapter to chapter, readers will tend to find it pretty dull and flat. In the past, Sandford has done a remarkable job upon vivifying the setting, especially in the Prey debuting novel RULES OF PREY. What hurts SILENT PREY the most is in regard to how the author changes Michael Bekker as a character from the previous entry. In EYES OF PREY, the author did a better job portraying Bekker as the monster he was with how well he manipulated people. With this re-entry of him, however, Sandford has Bekker performs actions that are a little beyond reality. Readers will thereby have difficulty in accepting how Bekker changes from his debut in EYES OF PREY to his return in this entry.
Despite the dry description and setting, Sandford does nevertheless create a good and strong characterization in his main character Lucas. Throughout the book, the author creates some good interactions between his dark-humored interrogations, along with his lustful interaction with Lily along with his investigating partner Barbara Fell. However, the strong persona does not compensate the convoluted mess contained in this book.
Overall, SILENT PREY is a letdown for mystery readers. With finding difficulty to accept the complicated twists and the myriad cast, fans of Sandford will have to force themselves to read on to the very end. The lack of vivid description and detail will no doubt disappoint. There's a limited probability that fans will accept the way in which Bekker's persona changes from the entries that feature him. It is a literary catch-22 that Sandford is able to provide enough meat for the persona of his characters and yet to have that lack in his storyline and detail.
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