Rules of Prey by John Sandford, Berkley, Prey #1

Targeting romance for my own writing, I've been reading lots of romances lately and few of any other genre. I picked up the first in John Sandford's Prey Series, Rules of Prey and am glad that I did. The reader knows who the killer is most of the way through the book, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book, or of Lieutenant Lucas Davenport. The book is set in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota and it was fun to read about spots that are familiar to me.

The book opens with "the maddog's" third attempt at murder in Minneapolis. After each murder he leaves behind notes made out of cut out newspaper letters. These notes are his "Rules of mrder" and offer little insight into who he is or why he's committing these murders or how he's choosing his victims.

Lieutenant Lucas Davenport is a cop I'd love to meet if I were able to stay on his good side, not a cop I'd even want to see in a well lit room let alone a darkened Hennepin Avenue alleyway if I were on his bad side. He perhaps crosses the border of being a dirty cop, but I think most readers might actually applaud his efforts and what he's trying to accomplish by crossing those lines. Davenport has a rather eclectic selection of friends, ranging from his childhood friend who is a nun and those in a group with her who reenact the Civil War for a video game Davenport's trying to come up with, to informants who both admire and are frightened of him, to women who seem to flock to him despite knowing she is only going to be one of many.

The only thing that really bothered me about Davenport, and this stems from personal issues for me, was the fact he is sleeping with two women at the same time and isn't particularly forthcoming with this information to either woman. Since one of the women is pregnant with his child - granted, she purposely got pregnant without informing him she was going to be trying - and he broaches the subject of marriage this sort of put me off to him. It didn't lessen his potency as an appealing specimen of a man, it just lowered my respect for him a notch and lessened his personal appeal to me. (Truthfully, I didn't care for the woman who is pregnant, so I can't say that I was really that upset at his actions!)

Davenport is assigned to the maddog case independently and sets out using the media, newspapers and TV alike, to snare the killer. Ironically, Davenport comes face to face with the killer once and doesn't even know it. Sandford never reveals to us when everything is said and done if Davenport realizes it is the man he had seen before or not, I would have liked to have known if he realized he had come face to face with the killer.

I enjoyed Rules of Prey. It was a great read to get me out of my romance reading rut and encourage me to branch out again into other genres. The reader was kept guessing, the suspense was well done, and I didn't think the solution was too simply come by. I definitely look forward to reading the rest of the series, the next of which is Shadow Prey and to see how Davenport has evolved and grown from this first book.

©Susan Matthews and phantomroses.com