Easy Prey (Lucas Davenport #11)

I’m re-reading this series, and so far, this is my least favorite Prey novel. Its about a model being murdered, thus high fashion. This isnt Sandfords strong point, e.g., among other things, early on, several times he uses the word “courtier” rather than couturier. Also, I found the plot confusing; there were too many characters to keep track of.

But my biggest complaint with this book is the character (or lack thereof) of Lucas. He should be 51 now, but hes still in his 40s in this book, and still the serial womanizer. Love Interest #1 in this book is his old college flame, Catrin, who is married, which of course doesnt give Lucas pause. Sandford writes “they’d dated from October through February of his sophomore year”, 25 years earlier, which would make Lucas closer to Catrin’s stated age of 44, rather than 51. But if Lucas is 44, then his daughter Sarah would be just 4; however, when Lucas tells Catrin about his daughter, he doesn’t give her age but only mentions that she’s in elementary school. I don’t understand why the character of Catrin is even in this book. I found her whiny, boring, and entirely unsympathetic, a character so lazy she didn’t bother finishing her degree despite being married to a wealthy doctor, who’s now having some sort of midlife crisis that leads to one of the worst lines ever: “Where’s MY movie?”

Nevertheless, Lucas wastes a lot of time mooning over her, and at one point he realizes he’s forgotten to call the county attorney regarding a prisoner serving a life sentence at Stillwater for the murder of a guy whos turned up alive because he’s been thinking about Catrin, among other things. Lucas realizes people will be upset about this, but to Lucas: “…it was kinda funny.” Maybe it was different when Sanford wrote this book, but in 2019 the idea of anyone serving a life sentence for a murder he didn’t commit having to spend extra days behind bars because the police officer who has the info to set him free is mooning over an old college sweetheart doesn’t seem funny.

Weather reappears in this book. Sandford writes that she’s now 38, and Lucas’s heart “thumps” when he sees her and he notes to himself that she looks good. But despite this reaction and her saying she wants to see him again, Lucas continues to “roll around” with Love Interest #2. The night before he plans to meet Weather for lunch, after he’s just spent some time with his Love Interest #2, Lucas realizes he still feels a strong tie to Weather and realizes that if she called in the morning and said, let’s get married next week, hed probably say yes, even though he’s currently seeing someone else. In his own words, “He was risking the Weather tie with a woman who wouldnt be around long”. He admits when he’s not with Love Interest #2, he doesn’t think about her, but he keeps on seeing her and realizes he likes doing that.

It occurs to him that Weather may want to reconcile: “…and he really wanted to pick it up, but maybe if he could just get another week of rolling around with [Love Interest #2]Maybe two weeks?” Also, re Catrin, “he couldnt help thinking that if it didnt work with Weather, it might yet work with Catrin. He is seriously messed up!

On the day they’re supposed to meet for lunch, Weather calls to cancel, because a French doctor whom she briefly dated (but didnt have a physical relationship with, which she tells Lucas) is back in town and insists on meeting her for lunch. She has to go to lunch with him to tell him, in person, that shes not interested. Lucas makes a very crude suggestion, but when Weather responds that wouldnt be diplomatic, he yells at her and tells her she’s not the State Department. Sandford writes, He let himself get a little angry about itand he let himself get a little angrier and at the bottom of it, was satisfied that she was impressed by the anger. Then he went back to the shower, finished cleaning up, and got dressed. All right. He picked up the phone and dialed [Love Interest #2]. So after yelling at Weather because shes going to lunch with someone she briefly dated to tell him shes not interested because she wants to try again with Lucas, Lucas takes a shower and calls Love Interest #2 to get together.

Sandford apparently thinks this aging, 51-year-old white male character is a gift to women, but he’s wrong. I like a lot of the other characters in the Prey Series, but in this book, Lucas comes across as nothing more than a promiscuous, narcissistic, indecisive jerk. I’m not a huge fan of Weather, but she deserves so much better than this.

Somehow this is not up to Sanford’s standards. I can’t explain exactly why, but in the first place, I am turned off by the Hollywood/Model scene. Secondly, Lucas doesn’t seem to be as “real” in this book as in the others…his thoughts are not as clear. Thirdly there are too many characters involved including police personnel… I’all finish it; I’m more than halfway through, but it’s not worth the $20.00 I spent for the Audible. Thank goodness Richard Ferone is still on his mark!

I really liked this. I had read every book in the Prey series and most of the Virgil Flowers books except this one. IMO the Prey books were hurt when Lucas got married. I liked his skirt chasing and it is prominent here. Now Lucas must be 100% faithful else he would lose all his female readers who I’m guessing are the majority. The murder case is a tough one to solve but Lucas and his crew eventually do it. The negative reviews, as some stated, are based on the fact he was thinking about 3 women all through the book but only really did anything with 1 who was a super model. As a man I say “who could blame him ?”.

I like and have read most of the Prey books, and maybe the problem is that I read this one out of order. Not sure why I skipped it to begin with, but I regret going back to read it. Author is trying so hard to make Davenport into a player… and also too clever for his own good. The way he got the bad guy using the media was just silly, ham-fisted and cynical.
Meh.

This is maybe the third time I’ve read the Prey books, maybe the first time I’ve read them in order (the Kindle store makes it so easy, “next in order is . . . ,”) and I’m really getting a sense of the characters and the stories improving over the coarse of what I’m reading. And I’d say this is the best yet; the story is complicated enough to keep you off base, the characters are fun, Davenport’s querks are just real enough to be plausible, overall, thoroughly enjoyable.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member