Jim Kresge, chairman of the board of Minneapolis' Polaris Bank Group, is on an annual company hunting trip when he is gunned down while hiding in a deer blind. Deputy police chief Lucas Davenport takes the case, if only to distract himself from his deteriorating relationship with lover Weather Karkinnen. She was nearly killed in Lucas' last bloody confrontation, and she can't come to terms with the violence that is his life. This case seems almost cozy to Lucas – it was the work of either an ambitious employee or a disgruntled ex-wife. Davenport hones in on Wilson McDonald, an overweight, ambitious wife-beater from old and profound Minnesota wealth. Lucas is enjoying the hunt when his prey is killed by a shotgun blast from his severely beaten wife, Audrey McDonald. End of case? Not quite. The reign of terror continues and moves ever closer to Lucas and his circle of friends. Sandford has sustained his Prey thrillers by varying the premise with imaginative plotting; shifting points of view; a subtle, melancholy protagonist; and most of all, great villains. The ninth prey novel may well be the best, and that's high praise in the context of such a consistently entertaining body of work.

Deputy chief of Minneapolis PD Lucas Davenport returns for Sandford's ninth outing in the well-received Prey procedurals (Sudden Prey, 1996, etc.). The cop ripostes herein are a brilliantly welcome routine and rival the richly characterized acid blackness of TV's Homicide show. Unique for the series is Davenport's bipolar disorder, with the gloom-ridden hero often on the verge of a total depressive breakdown, despite the heartening presence of fellow cop Sherrill, her statuesque figure drawing attention away from the chrome revolver in her shoulder holster. Sadly, the bloody violence of Davenport's LaChaise case has cost him his fiance, Weather Karkinnen – they're both seeing a shrink about it. Ironically, Davenports battle with depression turns out to be a help in the present case, when his disorder leads him to the Prozac clue that eventually solves a central group of murders. Five bank-company executives are on a hunt on opening day of deer season when the company's chairman takes a slug through the heart. Before novel's end, only two of the execs are left alive, which certainly cuts down on the suspects. Why was chairman Daniel S. Kresge shot? Because he has just bamboozled his wife into accepting an $8 million divorce settlement and is merging his 230 banks with a larger, a move that will net him $40 million after taxes? Yes, he'll lose his job, as will nearly all the execs on the deer hunt, but that's life. As is revenge. Lucas's clues pile up as an unknown woman keeps shipping them to him by mail and phone. But a perplexed Davenport soon has something else to solve: Someone, for reasons unknown, firebombs Weather's house. Are his cases related? Events from earlier Prey novels weave intriguingly through this one, inviting the reader to plunge into the entire series. Not a bad idea.

After his muscle-stretching sidestep in 1997's The Night Crew, Sandford is back with his ninth Prey novel featuring dapper, dangerous Minneapolis cop Lucas Davenport. Fans of the series will be glad to hear that this is the best installment in years, full of smart suspense and deduction as well as explosive action. Newcomers can plunge in without backstory research; all they need to know is that Davenport and his fellow cops are still nursing the wounds they garnered in Sudden Prey and that a depressed Lucas has gotten dumped by Weather, his girlfriend in that novel, when he is sent to investigate the murder of banking executive Daniel Kresge in a hunting lodge north of Minneapolis. Any of Kresge's four fellow hunters – all employees at his Polaris Bank – could have shot him, and all had motives (as did his "soon-to-be-ex-wife"). We find out about halfway through the book who the real killer is, just a few pages before Lucas does, and that villain is a masterful creation. This is where Sandford's suspense-making skills really kick in, keeping us fascinated as Davenport – revitalized by an affair with a jaunty colleague – tries to turn what we all know into hard evidence.