Copyright 1994 by John Sandford. Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.
I love whodunnits. The thrill of the chase, the mystery of figuring out the identity of the culprit. But this is not a whodunnit; this is a howtocatchim. We learn almost immediately who is gutting the women, slicing them from guggle to zatch (thank you, James Thurber). Roughly half the book follows the killer’s movement and thoughts. So the question is only: how is he to be caught?
The protagonist in the Prey series (this is #6) is Lucas Davenport, a homicide detective in Minneapolis. He is assisted in this case by a Minnesota state trooper, Meagan Connell, who is laser-focused on capturing the bad guy quickly because she has end-stage cancer and will be dead in a few months. Obviously the girl-gutter will be caught and almost as obviously Connell will be key to bringing him down. That pretty literally turns out to be true.
So how do they bring him to bay? Lots of slogging detective work, plus a few moments of inspiration, most notably one where Davenport, while looking at his girlfriend’s ass, suddenly realizes the import of the “ASS” partial license plate clue reported by an eyewitness. A beautiful ass is often a source of inspiration, though it is unusual for one to inspire a solution to a crime.
The big break, though, comes when the serial killer just suddenly, inexplicably, does some really stupid stuff. Additionally, the final takedown, though carefully planned, goes all wrong, resulting in injury to Davenport and death to Connell.
I found this all to be pretty depressing. Not a whodunnit. A sadistic killer with no obvious motive and no scruples about killing both humans and pets. Dumb criminal behavior. Police screwups. A terminally ill sidekick. A big bummer, really. I had a hard time slogging through. Reading is supposed to be fun.
3 out of 10.