Fantasy/Sci-Fi Lovin' GIVEAWAYS!

Coombs had parked on the street. She got a bag and a bottle of Summer Sunrise Herbal Tea from her salt-rotted Chevy Cavalier and carried it over to the Porsche. The Porsche, she said, as she buckled in, was a "nice little car," and asked if he'd ever driven a Corolla, "which is sorta like this. My girlfriend has one."

"That's great," Lucas said, as they eased into traffic.

She nodded. "It's nice when people drive small cars. It's ecologically sensitive." Lucas accelerated hard enough to snap her neck, but she didn't seem to notice. Instead, she looked around, fiddling with her bottle of tea. "Where're the cup holders?"

"They left them off," Lucas said, not moving his jaw.

Halfway to Grandma's house, she said, "I drove a stick shift in Nepal."

"Nepal?"

"Yeah. A Kia. Have you ever driven a Kia?"

Being a detective, Lucas began to suspect that Gabriella Coombs, guileless as her cornflower eyes might have been, was fucking with him.

~Excerpt from Invisible Prey by John Sandford

Following the trend of my last review, I recently read another book not on my review list. Whenever I get bogged down in one genre, like I have been lately, I like to pick up something different and my usual choices run to detective novels. John Sandford has been a favorite of mine for years. Mostly I read his Prey novels, which I believe has eighteen in the series now, the first of which was published in 1989.

The Prey novels (the titles always have the word "Prey" in them) are about Lucas Davenport, a man who started out as a Detective with the Minneapolis Police Department but has since worked his way up the ladder to an appointment as an Investigator for the Minneapolis Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCI) working directly for the Governor.

Davenport is your basic tough guy investigator-- at least typical of novels of this kind. But at this stage of the game he's an aging tough guy. He still has the ability to intimidate but it doesn't come so easily anymore. In Invisible Prey, Davenport investigates the murder of an elderly woman and her housekeeper in the richest neighborhood of Minneapolis. At first the crime appears to be random, but as different pieces begin to fit into place the crime turns out to be much larger than it first seemed. In fact, Lucas has a political hot-potato on his hands while he's trying to investigate the case and most of his attention is focused on that until it becomes apparent that more murders are linked to the case.

The most interesting thing to me about this novel wasn't so much the detective story-- it wasn't that unique as far as a Sandford novel goes. No, the interesting part was the character development of Davenport. When the first Prey novels were published, Lucas was a tough guy who was known as something of a womanizer-- again, not unusual for a detective novel. But there was always something likable about him. Now, he's older, married, has kids and he's a little tired-- and I like that. I really appreciate that Sandford brings that kind of realism to the character.

Another really strong point to Sandford's writing is his touch with dialogue. I love the conversations Davenport has with the people he meets in the book (like the excerpt above). Each character he runs into has a distinct personality and it comes across very convicingly. In a book of this nature, when the main character has to interact with lots of different people, dialogue is hugely important and I think Sandford nails it better than most.

As far as the plot-line of the book, it's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's one of his best. On the other hand, it still beats most of the other stuff you're going to find on the shelf IMO. The plot was a tiny bit convoluted at times and if you haven't read a Prey book in over a year, like me, you tend to forget who's who. Nonetheless it's still a fast enjoyable read and if you've already read, and enjoyed any of the Prey books, you're likely to like this one. If you haven't read any of the Prey books, and you like detective novels, I suggest you start from the beginning, since they are chronological, and give the series a try. Unlike some other best-selling authors (James Patterson comes to mind) Sandford hasn't lost his touch and the Prey books continue to be one of the most consistent series' out there.