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Certain Prey
 
 

Certain Prey (Hardcover)

by John Sandford (Author) "Of the three unluckiest days in Barbara Allen's life, the first was the day Clara Rinker was raped behind a St. Louis nudie bar called..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (194 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

In the 10th installment of his popular Prey series, John Sandford (a.k.a. John Camp) pits his popular antihero, Lucas Davenport, against a pair of cunning killers unlike any he has encountered before.

Attorney Carmel Loan is preternaturally beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious. When she becomes infatuated with fellow barrister Hale Allen, she isn't going to let a little thing like his being married get in her way. A quick meeting with an ex-client sets up the hit on Hale's wife, Barbara. The professional killer, Clara Rinker, is one of the best in the business. Smart, attractive, with a gentle Southern drawl, no one would suspect her of being a top Mafia hit man... er, hit person. When she takes the Allen assignment, she figures it will be easy money for a day's work. But things go wrong from the beginning. Loan's ex-client made a tape of the meeting, and is shaking her down for money. Worse, the shooting of a witness--a cop--brings deputy inspector Lucas Davenport into the case. Somehow Davenport has not only linked Loan to the killing, but seems to have a lead on Rinker as well. Carmel and Clara team up to clean up the loose ends, which includes getting Davenport off their back by whatever means necessary.

Like all of Sandford's books, Certain Prey is a fast and furious ride. Fans of previous Prey books will find Davenport a little older, a little more wary, but no less sharp-witted and determined. Though parts of the plot may stretch the limits of credulity and the dialogue falls a little flat in places, this is still a wonderfully crafted thriller, possibly one of the best of 1999. Certain Prey cements Sandford's standing among such luminaries as James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block, and Thomas Harris. --Perry Atterberry

From Publishers Weekly

For all his brooding, Minneapolis cop Lucas Davenport lacks the charisma of, say, Robert B. Parker's Spenser or James Patterson's Alex Cross. The vast popularity of the Prey novels is probably due, then, not so much to this dependable hero as to Sandford's clever plotting, sure pacing and fully rounded villainsAas well as his smart prose. As if acknowledging his series' hero's unflashy demeanor, Sandford, in his 10th Prey book (after Secret Prey), allows two gleefully unrecalcitrant female antagonists to steal the show from Davenport. Clara Rinker's life as a murderer and mob hit woman begins when she is raped at age 16 and beats her assailant dead with a baseball bat. Years later, the other femme fatale, sociopathic Minneapolis defense lawyer Carmel Loan, hires Rinker to kill the wife of property attorney Hale Allen, whom Carmel desires; within days, she has Hale in bed. The storyline spools out as a cat-and-mouse among the women and Davenport, with the villainesses dominating the action, sometimes in tangential scenes. When the junkie who connected Carmel to Rinker blackmails the pair, for instance, Carmel tortures him with an electric drill as Rinker watches. The action doesn't always wash: Davenport tumbles to Carmel's involvement too easily, and Carmel's ferocious response to being framed by Davenport redefines the term "over the top." The play between the two women, who bond like sisters, is as fascinating as the courtship of venomous lizards, and the novel's background humAcomprised of various amatory rustlings, forensic and legal ploys, and maneuvers among cops, FBI agents, mobsters and the killersAis rich in authentic detail. While not the pseudonymous Sandford's best, (he is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp) this is a swift, satisfying entry in a series with long, muscular legs. 300,000 first printing; $300,000 ad/promo; BOMC main selection; author tour. (May) FYI: Mind Prey was adapted into a TV movie, John Sandford's Mind Prey, which aired on ABC in March .
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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First Sentence
Of the three unluckiest days in Barbara Allen's life, the first was the day Clara Rinker was raped behind a St. Louis nudie bar called Zanadu, which was located west of the city in a dusty checkerboard of truck terminals, warehouses and light assembly plants. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

194 Reviews
5 star:
 (93)
4 star:
 (46)
3 star:
 (29)
2 star:
 (15)
1 star:
 (11)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (194 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Lovers and snipers, Jun 20 2004
By Louise (Copenhagen V, Denmark) - See all my reviews
This Lucas Davenport novel is one of the better ones. Well, they are all great, but the main-characters apart from Lucas Davemport and his team, are criminal women. And they are as hardcore as the male villains and serial killers we have met in other Davenport novels. Carmel is a high profile lawyer falling in love with a married man. As Carmel is used to get whatever she wants, and also is a sociopath, she is quick to put a contract out on the man's wife. She is recommended the female hit-woman Carla. Carla quickly takes out the wife, and Carmel can start her affair with the widowed man. But pretty soon things start to go wrong, and Carla is forced to bond with Carmel, and from then on, one killing takes another. Not only is Lucas Davenport on the look-out for them, the FBI is also trying to find them, and the book is a pageturner, an exciting and quick and satisfying read.
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3.0 out of 5 stars A good story hampered by limited language, May 10 2004
By Brian Reaves (Anniston, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
First, the story. It's interesting, and fast-paced. It is most definitely NOT for the squeamish, as one very brutal torture scene will cause the strongest person to cringe. The premise was good, and the ending worked.

Now, my complaint. Every author has their "pet phrases", words that appear several times in a single book. It gets annoying when an author describes everything as "pretty" or "red" or whatever. Unfortunately, Sandford's favorite word is the "F" word, and it's used in every form possible. Instead of being "very happy", a person is "F- happy". Or instead of "really stupid", they're "F- stupid". Why be hungry when you can be "F- hungry"? Friend or foe, everyone in Sandford's world uses one word to express themselves. Rather than characters having distinctive voices or phrases, they all sound the same--foul-mouthed and with a limited grasp of the English language. I sincerely doubt the author himself talks like that all the time, so why does he think everyone else does?

All in all, this is an interesting story that could have been great. Unfortunately, the unnecessary overuse of profanity detracts from what could have been compelling storytelling. When you see the same word 18 times on a single page (no kidding), it gets old.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Two Slick Black Widows vs Lucas Davenport, Mar 14 2004
By Tracy Oshima (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
As a teen-ager Clara Rinker ran away from an abusive home ruled by a stepfather who had been sexually abusing her for years. At sixteen she found a job dancing nude in an adult club. One night, after brushing off the advances of a big ugly guy, she leaves work and heads across the parking lot to her car. The guy grabs her, tosses her in the back of his van and does what he wants.

The next day she tells her boss and the club bouncers and they wait for the rapist to come in again. And he does. They buy him drinks until the place closes. Then they force him into the basement, where Clara waits, baseball bat at the ready. She's only supposed to break his arms, instead she bashes his head in. And she learns that she doesn't mind killing, kind of enjoys it in fact. She decides she can make a living doing it, so she buys a gun, takes lessons, then lets the mob know she's available.

By the time she has several hits behind her, she's hired for a job in Minnesota by Carmel Loan. Carmel is a successful Minneapolis defense lawyer, who will do anything to get what she wants. And what she wants is fellow attorney Hale Allen, who isn't the smartest attorney in Minnesota, or anywhere else for that matter. However Allen is attached at the hip to his socialite wife and her money. Carmen decides that the wife has to go, which is why she contacted Carla.

No socialite is killed in Minneapolis without coming to the attention of homicide detective Lucas Davenport. So now we have a noted detective chasing after an assassin he doesn't know is a beautiful twenty-eight-year-old woman, and she in turn is being advised by a lady lawyer, who happens to know Davenport, on how to leave false clues to elude Davenport.

The plot is humorous, intelligent and fascinating. The good guys are smart and likable, in fact the bad gals are too. The writing is slick and witty, leaving the readers wanting more. And the book is thoroughly enjoyable. What more could a Lucas Davenport fan want in a story?

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Never Overcomes Its Problematic Beginning
The first strike against Sandford in this book is how easy he makes it for two intelligent women to turn into stone-cold killers. Read more
Published on Dec 29 2003 by C. T. Mikesell

1.0 out of 5 stars cannot suspend disbelief on this one
To quote a favorite author of mine: "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force." Dorothy Parker. Read more
Published on Aug 31 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars the BEST antagonists
I admit, I'm catching up on a backlog of reading, and am devouring Mr. Sandford's last few Prey books a little bass-ackwards. Read more
Published on Aug 23 2003 by I. Haus

3.0 out of 5 stars Uncertain Characters
John Sandford's 'Certain Prey' is a fast-moving, adventure with cop Lucas Davenport hot on the trail of a hit-woman. But it's more complicated than that. Read more
Published on July 21 2003 by A. Wolverton

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice installment in the 'Prey' series...
A very fast paced book, and a nice plot. Lucas Davenport is a little older but still the same sex-crazed, hard-edged but talented detective that he has been throughout the series... Read more
Published on Jun 27 2003 by Brad Cooper

5.0 out of 5 stars Sandford strikes again
Clara Rinkler is one of the best hitwoman in the business. Just doing what she was told to do, and then leaves with her money. Read more
Published on Jan 11 2003 by Lisabeth Vefall

5.0 out of 5 stars Sandfort strikes again!!!
Clara Rinkler is one of the best hitwoman in the business. Just doing what she was told to do, and then leaves with her money. Read more
Published on Jan 3 2003 by Lisabeth Vefall

3.0 out of 5 stars Need to cut down too much swearing
I liked Prey books, but I think this will be my last book to read for good because the author keeps writing a lot of bad 4-letter words in his book almost like a movie, Scarface... Read more
Published on Oct 16 2002 by M. Steffen

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner
This book has some of the far-fetched, convenient 'coincidences' that in another author's hands, would have failed miserably. But not Sanford's. Read more
Published on Sep 4 2002 by djbrkns

1.0 out of 5 stars Who likes brutality?
I'll be brief. This is the most brutal book I have ever read. I guess I'm not into brutality and torture. I quite reading at about page 150 because I'd had enough. Read more
Published on Aug 22 2002

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