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Whistle Stopper - Phantom Prey (Lucas Davenport Mysteries)
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List Price: $26.95
Our Price: $11.59
Your Save: $ 15.36 ( 57% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780399155000
ISBN: 0399155007
Label: Putnam Adult
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-05-06
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Studio: Putnam Adult
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Comment: I, like many other avid Sanford readers found this book sorely lacking. It really did seemed forced. I was really looking forward to reading this book until the "weirdness" (I won't spoil it...) and the excessive use of unnecessary profanity and talking about females in such a vulgar way. I am no prude by any stretch, but it seemed Sanford was pushing boundries just to see if he could.
If you are new to the "Prey" books I would NOT start with this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Wait
Comment: I couldn't wait for the new Sandford to come out. I'd read the others and enjoyed every one. Finally, it comes in and I start reading. Then I couldn't wait to get to the end. Not because of suspense or great characters or deep plot. Just so I didn't miss something that would redeem this book from dull, boring and flat out weird.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but a little tired
Comment: I get the feeling that Sandford is going through the motions here. Time for the next Davenport. Now let's see...Oh, well, I'll come up with something. And so he has. It's not a bad book. The characters are as usual well done. The dialogue is witty and true to life. The only problem here is the villain, whose motivations and general situation are simply too over the top to be believable. What's worse, it was pretty obvious (but pretty hard to accept) who the villain was early in the book, and when my preconceptions were finally confirmed, I could only shake my head. I've been reading this series for a long time and this is the only really weak link. Here's hoping the next one is better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sandford's worst yet.
Comment: John Sandford has a gift. His plots are riveting and unexpected. His characters are compellingly flawed. And most noticeable, his dialog is pithy, quick, and "tight". (I'm not a writer, but this is the word that first comes to mind.) Even though I found some of his previous villans to be almost TOO dark for my taste, his books keep me awake and reading.
But this book seems forced. As though Mr. Sandford's publishers are pushing his deadlines. The plot is all Hollywood - shallow, unimaginative, 800% predictable. In fact, I'm a little angry that Mr. Sandford broke my trust. I will buy anything he writes immediately. But fool me once...
In this case, the villan is silly. Our beloved protagonist, Lucas, follows his script by rote. And the plot unfolds over 200 pages just as we might predict after reading the first 20.
But you should NOT dispair. Don't buy this book, but instead, buy ANY OTHER SANDFORD NOVEL that you haven't already read at least twice. While not High Literature, they are deeper and more entertaining than anything else in the category.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Our "literary crapshooter" John Sandford has rolled a seven instead of snake eyes!
Comment: Phantom Prey, the 18th novel in Sanford's "Prey" series, marks the return of Lucas Davenport, a state investigator for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. This action-packed yarn of a serial killer roaming loose in the Twin Cities is one of author's best.
When a wealthy widow, Alyssa Austin, returns home and finds blood splattered on the wall, she fears the worst, for her college-age daughter, Frances, is missing. Davenport's wife, Weather, one of Alyssa's friends, persuades him to help find the missing girl.
Four murders occur and the chief suspect is a mysterious, elusive "fairy Goth," a diminutive but athletic young woman who apparently has joined the Goths--people who walk around in dark clothes and have a morbid fascination with darkness and death.
The serial killer is both highly intelligent and a "certified" schizophrenic--a deadly combination. Other than Davenport himself, Sanford has never before created a more fascinating, albeit chilling, character.
The novel contains a lot of foul language, and a sub-plot featuring a low-life hood named Siggy and his paramour Heather gives Sanford an opportunity to indulge in prurient voyeurism.
The good news is that Phantom Prey, featuring snappy dialogue, memorable characters, humorous repartee and bloody carnage, is a page-turner. Our literary crapshooter has rolled a seven instead of snake eyes.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Lucas Davenport has had disturbing cases before— but never one quite like this, in the shocking new Prey novel from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author.
John Sandford’s most recent Davenport novel, Invisible Prey, was hailed as “one of his best books in recent memory” (The Washington Post); “as fresh and entertaining as ever” (Chicago Sun-Times); and “rivetingly readable” (Richmond Times-Dispatch). But this time, he’s got something quite special in store.
A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood everywhere, no body—and her collegeaged daughter missing. She’s always known that her daughter ran with a bad bunch. What did she call them—Goths? Freaks is more like it, running around with all that makeup and black clothing, listening to that awful music, so attracted to death. And now this.
But the police can’t find the girl, alive or dead, and when a second Goth is found slashed to death in Minneapolis, the widow truly panics. There’s someone she knows, a surgeon named Weather Davenport, whose husband is a big deal with the police, and she implores Weather to get him directly involved. Lucas begins to investigate only reluctantly—but then when a third Goth is slashed in what is now looking like a Jackthe- Ripper series of killings, he starts working it hard. The clues don’t seem to add up, though. And then there’s the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing: Who is she? Where does she come from and, more important, where does she vanish to? And why does Lucas keep getting the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here . . . something very, very bad indeed?
Filled with his brilliant trademark suspense and some of the most interesting characters in thriller fiction, Phantom Prey is further proof that “Sandford is in a class of his own” (The Orlando Sentinel).
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