Troubled by both city politics and his relationship with his fiancee, Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport finds the comfortable routines of a murder investigation as soothing as a worn pair of jeans. The discovery of a young woman's body, missing 18 months, leads to a local pornographic photography ring that posts its handiwork on the Internet. In the confiscated files, Lucas finds a photo of a woman who was standing near the site where the victim's body was found. An excavation uncovers eight more bodies, turning a routine homicide investigation into a desperate search for a monster. This thirteenth Prey novel shows signs that the series may be getting a bit stale. The investigation is routine by procedural standards, and only the last quarter of the novel generates any suspense, as the killer appears to wriggle out of Davenport's net before being pulled back in by an unlikely hand. The good news is that Davenport seems poised for significant personal and occupational changes, which may invigorate future cases. Sandford fans won't consider this one of the series' best, but even mediocre Sandford offers solid entertainment.

Minneapolis deputy police chief Lucas Davenport is trying to track an elusive serial killer and reunite with former fiancee Weather Karkinnen in Sandford's latest novel. Listeners are introduced to James Qatar, a jolly art history professor with strangulation as a hobby. Then the bodies start to pile up. Lucas finds a local pornographic photography ring that publishes its work on the Internet. The routine investigation gathers steam toward the second half of the tale, as Lucas goes after Qatar. This may not be Sandford's best story, but humor and character development help make this mediocre thriller interesting. The work contains mature subject matter and language but is entertaining in both the abridged and unabridged versions. Richard Ferrone's reading of the unabridged set is acceptable, evoking the atmosphere of a 1930s detective story, but Eric Conger's narration of the abridged cassettes and CDs puts the ideal voices to Lucas, his colleagues, friends, and adversaries.

The 13th title in the Prey series (Easy Prey, etc.) has wealthy Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport in up to his Porsche-driving fingertips. Lucas is trying to track an elusive serial killer while reuniting with former fiancee Weather Karkinnen who after a couple of years' estrangement following her narrow escape from a crazy biker in one of Lucas's former cases has suddenly decided she wants to have his baby. Weather is a formidable distraction, but the killer revealed to readers from the beginning as James Qatar, a suave professor of art history with a yen for strangulation proves to require even more attention. Soon after the body of a young blonde is found in a partially excavated grave on a remote wilderness hillside, a deputy sheriff from backwater Wisconsin shows up with a file containing case histories of several women reported missing in Wisconsin and Minnesota over a nine-year period. Fearing the worst, Lucas orders the hillside surveyed; subsequent excavation uncovers seven more bodies. The art world connections of some of the victims and the discovery of pornographic drawings suggests a link to the art community around the local Catholic university. As the net tightens, the usually coolheaded Qatar, already plotting the fate of a daring fabric artist in cahoots with the police, gradually loses control. With Lucas and his team watching his every move, he eludes surveillance and carries out a final desperate attack. Sandford is in top form here, his wry humor and his development of Lucas's combative, affectionate relationship with Weather lighting up the dark of another grisly investigation.