Rating:  Summary: Easy Prey not an Easy Read Review: When internationally famous supermodel Alie'e is murdered along with another woman at a party attended by the "beautiful people" of the Twin Cities, it ignites a media firestorm. Lucas Davenport and his crew of usual sidekicks are frustrated as suspects begin to drop like flies. You'll need a pencil and paper to keep track of the story threads and bad guys in this novel. Lucas is also juggling relationships with three women, which further complicates matters. As always, Sanford's writing is impeccable. However, he does not give the reader a fair shot at guessing who the murderer turns out to be. I was truly annoyed at the silly finale. I know it's fashionable to bash the media barracudas, hungry for another celebrity tragedy to feed on, but this was extremely contrived and just did not play out as believable. The series seems to be tiring and going for the easy action movie type scenarios, complete with car chases, shoot-outs and bodies dropping (sometimes literally) all over the place. Not up to the usual "Prey" standards.
Rating:  Summary: Not at all impressed with this one Review: This is not one of the better Lucas Davenport novels as a matter of fact this has to be my least favorite, I didn't care about the charecters the plot was just okay, but the worst part was the ending, I enjoy mystery novels where you have an oppurtunity to figure out who done it this one does not provide that. I give it 3 stars as I am a fan of the Prey series and do enjoy reading these novels, but the ending on this one seemed forced.
Rating:  Summary: Prey series is growing tired Review: Is it just me or is the Lucas Davenport series just not very interesting anymore? Writing as a long-time fan of John Sandford, I am posting this review with a great sense of disappointment. I wanted to like this novel, but I just couldn't.It seems like Sandford has devolved into pure formula when I used to find his books full of originality and surprises. With Easy Prey, we just have the same old cast of characters involved in the same old investigative activities, and none of it is very involving. While I won't give away the identity of the killer for the true fans out there who will have to read this for themselves, I found the ending to be lazy on Sandford's part and thought it made the majority of the book seem irrelevant. In a literary world that offers the likes of Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Ridley Pearson and Jeffery Deaver, I would have to say that Sandford is rapidly falling to the bottom of the suspense writer ranks. I find that unfortunate since I remember the days when Sandford could come up with a better plot twist than a new dead body. It seems like in Easy Prey that whenever Sandford loses his bearings he just kills off another minor character. Given the number of death in the novel, it appears that Sandford lost his way far to many times.
Rating:  Summary: Another John Sandford goodie. Review: Easy Prey follows in the footsteps of the other Sandford "Prey" books. I have all of his "Prey" books and several of Sanford's other novels, all of them great reading. He continues to keep the reader interested and anxious to read the next page. One of the top authors of crime/mystery books. I look forward to his next writing.
Rating:  Summary: The master is at it again Review: Okay, I admit: I like John Sandford's "Prey" novels. This guy has developed a character, Lucas Davenport, that I think is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time. A Minnesota cop, Davenport is intelligent, resourceful,street tough and takes pleasure in his work. He isn't superman: he's just a persistent cop who encounters good and bad luck.
In "Easy Prey," a drug-addled super model is murdered at a party - along with another woman. As Davenport gets into the case, things get complex fast. Drugs are involved. Drug dealing and some very clever people doing the dealing.
Sandford does a remarkable job of never getting stuck in the ruts of his own plots. Sure, they're similar in a small way from one novel to another, but always sufficiently different to draw the reader in. And Davenport keeps growing as a person in different ways.
"Easy Prey" is another great novel from Sandford.
Jerry
Rating:  Summary: Agreed, not the best Prey-novel Review: Having read almost all Prey novels, I have to agree with the other reviewers here. Like many of them, I also do not think that this is the best or the sharpest Lucas Davenport mystery. The action starts on page one when the killer wakes up, hungover. But we are not going deeper inside the killer's mind, which would have been a good thing, and one of the things I really have enjoyed in a lot of the other Prey novels.
A super model has been murdered at a party, another woman is found dead in the same room, and pretty soon, the mediapeople are having a field day. The investigation starts, and the suspects are many. Lucas Davenport and his team has to work their way though an endless list of suspects, wasting a lot of time while all the time people keep getting killed.
The plot is easy to follow, but there are some characters adn their actions that leave the reader with a feeling of unfinished business. It would have been interesting to cut down on the suspects and instead describing the remaining characters a bit more throughly.
The book is called Easy Prey, it is also an easy read, but not as fulfilling or action packed as the other Davenport novels.
Rating:  Summary: Easy Prey or Just Plain "Easy" Review: Just a minute while I catch my breath. Reading a John Sanford PREY novel always leaves me feeling out of breath and high on adrenaline. It sure beats exercise. EASY PREY is no exception. The action is very fast-paced and the hero, Lucas Davenport, is an engaging character. His rough and tough approach to crime solving is sometimes surprising. At times, however, I find myself becoming exasperated with Lucas and want to tell him to grow up. More on that in a moment. EASY PREY has many exciting dips and twirls that left me re-thinking the villain(s) again and again. I like that.
The initial crime that spurs Lucas Davenport's investigation is the murder of a young fashion model, Alie'e Maison (Ah-Lee-Ay May-sone). During the crime-scene work-up, another body is found locked in the bedroom closet. The second body is Sandy Lansing, whose death is thought to be a by-product of the Maison murder. This begins the investigation that revolves around Alie'e and her various hangers-on and family members. Unfortunately, this line of investigation gets the police nowhere, except to involve Lucas with one of the suspects, Jael Corbeau, a sister of one of the other suspects. One of the surprising twists in the story is Jael turning up dead.
While the mystery plot of this book definitely held my attention, I was disturbed by Lucas Davenport's immaturity in handling female relationships. I was struck by how odd the contrast of this 40-something, rakishly handsome, extremely talented man, and his junior-high school approach to women.
This book, more than any of the other Prey novels, unsettled me in this area. I found it hard to reconcile this self-pleasing man to the man that is in such demand to solve crimes. I liked Lucas much better when he was in a steady relationship with Weather Karkinnen in previous novels. The re-introduction of Weather was interesting, but again, I was left disappointed. Lucas's attempts to have all of the women, all of the time, is quite tiresome. In EASY PREY, Lucas's libido lessens the impact of the story line.
There are too many brilliant plot twists to accurately summarize here, but I was not disappointed in the mystery of EASY PREY. Lucas's womanizing aside, this book was great, and I will look forward to the next one in the series.
Rating:  Summary: Another John Sandford goodie. Review: Easy Prey follows in the footsteps of the other Sandford "Prey" books. I have all of his "Prey" books and several of Sanford's other novels, all of them great reading. He continues to keep the reader interested and anxious to read the next page. One of the top authors of crime/mystery books. I look forward to his next writing.
|