Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5832 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Synopsis
A wealthy widow returns to her large home in an exclusive Minneapolis suburb to find blood everywhere, no body - and her student daughter missing. Instantly, she suspects the involvement of the weird Goth crowd her daughter was hanging around with. With no sign of the widow's daughter, dead or alive, a second Goth is found slashed to death - but it's only when a third dead Goth turns up that Lucas Davenport gets involved. But the clues don't seem to add up. And then there's the young Goth who keeps appearing and disappearing. Who is she? Where does she come from and, more importantly, where does she vanish to? And why does Davenport get the sneaking suspicion that there is something else going on here - something very, very bad indeed?

Customer Reviews

Another excellent thriller from a great author
This was an excellent read. The characters in the series have all moved on, and it probably would need to be read as part of the series to get the most of it. I for one, did not see the end coming. Read this in 2 sittings, must tell you something.

A `thriller' with no thrill
This was the first of the Lucas Davenport novels that I had read although I understand that `Phantom Prey' is one novel in an established series. The novel begins when a woman returns home to find a small amount of blood on one of the walls of her home, and also that her daughter missing. There follow a number of murders of other young people involved on the local Goth scene, apparently by someone described as a `fairy' - a young petite Goth woman with long black hair and a slight figure. Lucas Davenport investigates at the request of his wife, who knows the mother of the first victim.

I am willing to concede that, as I have not read the other books in this series, I might not have benefitted from the development of the characters over the course of the series. However, I have read other books which are part of a series which stand alone and give an adequate enough portrayal of the characters for you to understand them and their motivation. This wasn't one of them. The characters were, without exception, one dimensional and boring. The plot was laborious and the `twist' was absolutely ridiculous. The explanation of the murders wasn't really an explanation at all, and left many loose ends.

Really, really lame and I won't be reading another one. This doesn't even make for passable beach reading. If you want a decent thriller try Chris Simm's `Shifting Skin', at least that won't leave you feeling like you'd wasted four hours of your life!

Latest in Prey series.
This long running series continues with another solid outing for Sandford's Lucas Davenport. At his wife's request Davenport looks into the case of a wealthy widow's missing daughter. There is also the stakeout of an attractive gangster's moll and a particularly nasty character turning up to deal with. Other reviewers haven't enjoyed the main character's moments in this book but I disagree. In fact they are what makes it all the more enjoyable, especially the scene where he is trying to figure out what took place at the scene of the crime. I'd recommend starting at the beginning of the Prey series to get the most from these top notch cop stories.