Field of Prey (Lucas Davenport #24)

FIELD OF PREY By JOHN SANDFORD (THE PREY SERIES BOOK 24)
MY REVIEW FIVE STARS*****

I RECALL THIS INSTALLMENT AS A PAGE-TURNER RIGHT OUT OF THE STARTING GATE, AND I REMEMBER THE TENSION MOUNTING UNTIL IT WAS AS TAUT AS A BOW STRING BEFORE THE ARROW IS RELEASED FOR THE KILL SHOT.

I READ THIS NOVEL FOR THE FIRST (AND SO FAR ONLY TIME) DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER IN 2015. I REMEMBER THAT IT WAS SANDFORD’S NEW PREY NOVEL FROM THE PREVIOUS YEAR…I JUST HADN’T GOTTEN AROUND TO DOWNLOADING IT TO MY KINDLE.

A DUMP SITE FOR A STARTLING NUMBER OF FEMALE VICTIMS IS ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED IN AN UNDERGROUND DUMP SITE BY A PAIR OF HORNY TEENAGERS PARKED IN AN EMPTY FIELD. FORENSICS QUICKLY DETERMINE THAT THE MURDERS DATE BACK MANY YEARS DUE TO THE VARYING DEGREES OF DECOMPOSITION OF THE BODIES. LUCAS, ASSIGNED AS AN INVESTIGATOR FOR THE BUREAU OF CRIMINAL APPREHENSION, FINDS HIMSELF FACING AN OPEN CASE OF MULTIPLE SEXUAL HOMICIDES WHICH IS THE HANDIWORK OF A SADISTIC SERIAL KILLER WHO HAS HUNTED HUMAN PREY FOR OVER A DECADE AND A HALF WITH NO ONE BEING THE WISER. AN OVERLY AMBITIOUS, OVERLY ZEALOUS, AND OVERLY CONFIDENT DETECTIVE WITH THE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE BY THE NAME OF CATLIN MATTSSON SOMEHOW WINDS UP WORKING ALONGSIDE THE SEASONED AND BATTLE-TESTED Minnesota State DETECTIVE LUCAS DAVENPORT.

THIS UNLIKELY PAIR OF PROTAGONISTS WORK RELENTLESSLY TO FOLLOW ANY AND ALL LEADS THAT MIGHT HELP THEM TO FIND OUT THE IDENTITY OF THIS PROLIFIC SERIAL PREDATOR WHO IS BELIEVED TO BE WALKING THE STREETS OF THE SMALL TOWN OF RED WING, MINNESOTA WITH IMPUNITY. I REMEMBER THAT PART OF THE ALLURE FOR ME WAS THE FACT THAT A MONSTER WAS WEARING A “MASK” OF NOMALCY AND LIVING AMONG THE FOLKS OF THIS RURAL COMMUNITY FOR AT LEAST A DECADE AND A HALF, LIKELY LONGER THAN THAT.

THE “MONSTER” HAD A “FAVORITE FLAVOR” AND ATTRACTIVE TAKE-CHARGE CATRIN MATTSON FIT THE TYPE “TO A TEE”. SHE IS KIDNAPPED BY THIS SEXUAL PYSCHOPATH AND SUFFERS A DEGREE OF SEXUAL, EMOTIONAL, AND PHYSICAL ABUSE WHILE SHE IS HELD CAPTIVE THAT IT IS DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT HER PSYCHE COULD NOT BE PERMANENTLY DAMAGED. I RECALL THINKING AT THE TIME THAT I READ THIS NOVEL THAT SANDFORD HAD FIGURATIVELY “PULLED OUT ALL THE STOPS” WHEN HE DESCRIBED IN EXCRUCIATING, VIVID PROSE THE DETAILS OF HER NIGHTMARE EXPERIENCE WHILE BEING VICTIMIZED.

DAVENPORT’S CONFRONTATION WITH THE “CONDUCTOR” OF SUCH MURDER AND MADNESS WAS MEMORABLE, AND HIS “RESCUE” OF MATTSON STEEPED IN REVELATIONS ABOUT DAVENPORT’S CAPACITY FOR EMPATHY, SYMPATHY, AND JUSTICE. THE BOOK HAS A GRAPHIC, GRIPPING, AND EMOTIONALLY PROFOUND CONCLUSION.

I READ THIS BOOK, GEE WHIZ, GOING ON FIVE YEARS AGO. I DIDN’T USE KINDLE NOTES BACK THEN, DOGGONE IT!
I ASKED MYSELF SIMPLY, WHAT DO I REMEMBER ABOUT THIS BOOK THAT MADE IT SO SPECIAL AND ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITES IN THIS PROFILIC SERIES? SO IN ADDITION TO MY EARLIER REMARKS, HERE IT IS IN A NUTSHELL. LUCAS HAS ALWAYS LOVED WOMEN IN THE TRUEST SENSE OF THE WORD, NOT JUST AS THE LADYKILLER HE PROVED HIMSELF TO BE. HIS RESPECT FOR WOMEN HAS NEVER BEEN IN QUESTION IN MY OPINION. HOWEVER, IT IS IN THIS NOVEL IN PARTICULAR THAT THE VERY SIGHT OF CATLIN AFTER SHE WAS SO VICIOUSLY TRAUMATIZED, RAPED, AND HUMILIATED LEFT LUCAS SPEECHLESS. HIS EMPATHY AND SENSITIVITY FOR HER PLIGHT RUNS LIKE A POWERFUL CURRENT BENEATH THE DIALOGUE TAKING PLACE IN THE NOVEL. HIS DECISION AT THE END OF HER RESCUE FROM THE SOUL-LESS PREDATOR SPEAKS VOLUMES.

IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE REVELATIONS, I WAS VERY IMPRESSED BY SANDFORD’S TALENT FOR MISDIRECTION IN THIS BOOK. THE SEARCH FOR THE MURDERER WAS A NAIL-BITING, PULSE-POUNDING EXPERIENCE IN ITS OWN RIGHT, BUT THE LANDMINES LAID BY THE AUTHOR TO SURPRISE AND SUCCESSFULLY MISLEAD THE READER WERE MEMORABLE, ORIGINAL, AND SHOWED OFF SANDFORD’S SKILL IN THIS DIFFICULT TECHNIQUE. FINALLY, THE WRITER EFFECTIVELY PULLED OFF A TRUE “PLOT-TWIST” AT THE END THAT I DID NOT SEE COMING WHATSOEVER. I ACTUALLY SMILED TO MYSELF, AND THOUGHT “KUDOS, KUDOS…A JOB WELL DONE”.

This was an interesting book as it contains some of John Sandford’s greatest strengths (humour, easy to read style etc) but it did contain some issues that other reviewers have brought up and I felt were jarring.

Letty is a character who we have seen mature in the series over the years and there is no doubt she is a bright individual but for Lucas to bring her to a crime scene and for her to give her thoughts to the other investigators and police was really overreaching.

The subplots with Flowers and Del were strange as they added little to the plot but took up space in the novel that at 400 pages, it didn’t need.

The ending with the karma and Lucas felt like he is being softened too much. We had touches earlier in the novel of the old Lucas (the scene where he smiled but it wasn’t really a smile, this was a copy from Winter Prey) but to have this at the end of the novel with the homeless man felt forced.

The violence against Mattsson is something that I am sure will bring arguments for and against it in a Sandford novel. Personally I thought it was a bit over the top and unnecessary but I assume the author felt there was a valid reason for it.

Those were some of my issues with the novel but that being said, it was an easy to read time filler written by a writer with skills and the ability to harness a very solid fan base based on his work. He might be on cruise control now that he is famous and writing a few books a year but I think his fans will accept this by casting a fond glance back to the early Davenport books and a shrug of the shoulders with the recent work and say that Davenport and the author are evolving.

Sandford has shed some, not all, of the political machinations that have bogged down recent Lucas Davenport novels and returned his sartorially savvy Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agent to the field, where the innate challenges of a case inspire him to be most effective and interesting. As cases go, this one is a doozy. A cache of bones found in a cistern in an isolated, rural landscapesmall town Red Wing, Minnesotamurders going back at least a decade that create a public relations nightmare for the agency and a flurry of network interest, media following agents likes locusts to a feast.

After the discovery of the shocking string of murders (possibly more than seventeen by last count, many still unidentified), an investigation begun with a massive effort in manpower is predictably bogged down with little movement and thousands of pages of murder books but still lacking a break that will unravel the who and the why. When an agent leading the fact-gathering portion of the investigation, a critical element in finding the pattern behind it all, is murdered, Davenport has no choice but to retrace the agents last days, hoping to intuit what led him directly into the lair of a serial killer and certain death.

The pathology of the crimes is unusual, twisted and precise enough to avoid detection for years until two teens in search of privacy stumble over the cistern. The terrible smell leads to the discovery of the cistern on an abandoned farm. Working closely with local cops (especially the spunky and territorial Goodhue County Deputy Catrin Mattsson, who refuses to give any ground to the authority of the BCA), Davenport travels between city headquarters in St. Paul where the politicians demand action and the field work that will ultimately reveal what led the BCA agent to his death. But getting therethe slow, tedious gathering of facts, the rereading of the murder books, the incremental discovery of details that point to persons of interestis what makes crime novels so fascinating, a skill Sandford has long mastered in his Davenport series.

A proactive agent who thinks on his feet and trusts his instincts, Davenport has sometimes gotten bogged down in the politics of bureaucratic crime fighting, stuck in St. Paul to micromanage the finer point of his cases. Fans who have followed Davenport from the beginning of the Prey novels have missed that daredevil persona that got him in hot water but also added an edge to his adventures. More mature now, seasoned in the ways of the world and perhaps spoiled by the luxury of his lifestyle, its a welcome change when Lucas gets fired up and throws caution to the windespecially since the killer hes seeking hasnt given up yet, set on one more spectacular coup that puts Deputy Mattsson in grave danger and literally fighting for her life.

Replete with familiar characters of former novels and a few nerve-wracking situations that add both danger and tension to Davenports current predicament, Field of Prey doesnt lose a beat from start to finish. Lucas wants this killer badly, wants answers for the families of all the missing women and wants to put an end to the horror that has lain silently in the heart of a small town. But getting there is costly. Mattsson lies directly in the crosshairs of a monster, Davenport possibly out of time when he needs it most. This is Sandford at his most appealing in the kind of thriller he does best, with Lucas Davenport leading the charge.

This novel is #24 in the Lucas davenport series. But the first I have ever read! Needless to say, it will NOT be my last! This novel is extraordinarily dark, the killers involved nightmarish! In fact, I did actually have nightmares whilst reading this novel!
I am a fan of multiple genres, which includes the horror genre. Youd think the blurb from Stephen King, would have given me the hint!
But no, I went in assuming a typical crime fiction novel. What I got was one of the creepiest crime fiction reads; since I read The Poet by Michael Connelly!!!!!

The novel opens with the caption years ago, which we learn is the killers kidnapping their fifth victim to be Heather Jorgenson. However, Heather isnt as easy to abduct as their previous four victims. She makes a dramatic escape leaving one of the pair severely wounded! The killers are identified to the reader as R-A and Horn. The chapters from their perspective, reminds me of staying up too late and watching the true crime channel.
Truly horrifying!

R-A and Horns killing spree, has gone virtually unheard of. That is until two teen love birds, stumble across an old cistern stuffed full of corpses! When the body count reaches 15+ the bureau of criminal apprehension is brought into the case and with them is Lucas Davenport.

The crime scene is located in the middle of nowhere; with only small towns of minimal populations scattered nearby. The local cops want in, on the investigation. But it is CBA agent Bob Shaffer who is put in-charge of the case. With an intense investigation and heavy media scrutiny. The Black hole of Goodhue needs all the cops to work together to apprehend the killers.

The police make a start by identifying the victims; which takes considerable time given the varying levels of decomposition. The victims are all female and of approximately the same age. But they have nothing in common, except natural blonde hair. How is the killer picking his victims? Is he an opportunist killer? Or is he stalking his victims?

One thing is for certain, the killer knows the area. To know the area and the buried old cistern so well, he/she must be a local. This puts fear into the local community and amps up the media frenzy over the case. When weeks go by, with each clue leading to a dead end. The media begin to turn on the cops investigating the case. Bringing up past cases, indiscretions and their professional records. The cops need to solve this case, or their careers are in jeopardy!

Local sheriff deputy Catrin Mattsson, is known for her feisty attitude, but also her competency as a cop. After initially butting heads with Lucas, they begin to work together to solve the case.

I really liked Mattsson, she is tough and whilst the other cops wallow in low morale; she is consistently coming up with new ways to solve the case.
The novel has so much depth, it dips into Lucass previous cases; before he was seconded to the black hole investigation. The novel felt a very accurate portrayal of a cops daily life. Lucas also brings in, Virgil Flowers to help with the case. Although in this novel, he plays a background character. I got the distinct impression that the Virgil flowers novels, would be just as good as this series.

The case continues at a slow burning pace, but there are constant anomalies thrown in to keep the readers interest. The case in question maybe slowed down, but the action itself is not! Eventually the body count is held at 21 skulls. But when some are discovered to having been grave robbed, the case takes a sickening twist. Why would a killer, steal skulls from graves? Where did he get the skulls from? The grave robbing leads to local cemeteries and Shaffer takes off on his own to investigate further.

When Shaffer goes missing, the tension in the novel reaches critical levels. I was absolutely hooked to the pages! The cops are now not only looking for an experienced serial killer; but a potential cop killer too.

There are so many themes in this novel. It is impossible to cover them all in a review without spoiling the novel itself. But trust me, this is one hell of a creepy read! The killers begin to taunt the cops and plant leads; determined to control the investigation right up until the very dark brutal ending! American crime fiction at its finest. Highly recommended! 5*

Field of Prey is the twenty-fourth novel in the series and while I haven’t read the earliest ones I have been following the series for a while. It is slightly different from the other novels in that Lucas is on his own in this investigation as the team are tied up elsewhere.

A young courting couple smell something awful at their tryst site and when police investigate they find an old buried cistern full of bodies. Lucas and the team are not initially involved in the investigation as it isn’t their thing – too much scut work but as the pressure from the press mounts Lucas is drafted in.

The novel is told from 2 points of view, Lucas’s and the killers’. This is interesting as the reader sees the frustration growing in the investigation as they get nowhere and can compare it with the killers’ panic and disintegration. I’m not normally a big fan of the perpetrator’s point of view but I think it works well in this novel.

I like the plot. It is the straightforward hunt for a serial killer which takes some strange turns, turns the reader understands better than the BCA, turns that I didn’t expect. I was glued to the pages and read it in one sitting.

Mr Sandford’s style of writing, however, is the big draw. It is warm and friendly through the characterisation as you can imagine yourself taking part in the conversations and their is a vein of humour to it, which while not negating the violence certainly mitigates it.

I thoroughly enjoyed Field of Prey and would recommend highly to any reader with a broad mind.

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