What's the longest-running series that you read? In the crime fiction genre, establishing a well-received character and spawning a series featuring that character is like capturing lightning in a bottle. Not every detective is shaped up to star in a series. John Sandford's Lucas Davenport is one who has withstood the test of time. The first book to feature the character, Rules of Prey, was published back in 1989, and the 32nd installment Righteous Prey released earlier this year. I've read and enjoyed both books, but I haven't routinely kept up with the series. In fact, I've only read that first novel and the latest two releases. Needless the say the Lucas Davenport of thirty years ago is quite different from the character that appears in Sandford's series today. I've enjoyed Sandford's writing enough that I decided to venture back in time again and pick up the second book in the Prey series.
Murder is a grisly affair no matter how you shake it. The brutal execution of a slumlord in Minneapolis, an up-and-coming politician in New York, and a judge in Oklahoma City would be newsworthy in their own right, but it is the similarities in each instance that make the murders all the more unsettling. Each of the victims' throats has been ritualistically slashed with a type of knife most commonly used in Native American ceremonies. The killer seems driven by a primal force to murder. Not even those closest to him will be able to stop his reign of terror.
Lucas Davenport, an investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, is called to the case when the first murder occurs. He's got a few things working against him from the very start. For one, his usual strategy of planting himself within the community and working with his contacts to gather information is narrowed by the close-knit Native American community's unwillingness to work with an outsider. He's also got a few distractions on the home front. He's still in a relationship with the mother of his young daughter, but Lucas's eyes have strayed to that of a New York cop who is also investigating the murders. As his personal life begins to tangle, the killer and those who are driving the crimes set their target upon him. He'll have to overcome every obstacle to make it out alive and bring the murderer to justice.
Books can be seen as something of a time capsule to the time in which they were written. Shadow Prey, the second Davenport novel by John Sandford, is certainly an example of this idea. Davenport is still in his raw form. Sandford works to give him some higher stakes in this book, but I could tell that the character lacked the confidence that he owns in the more recent installments. The underbaked elements of the character aside, it is the cultural ramifications of this book that really took me out of the entertainment. The main plot centers around some troubling stereotypes about Native Americans that I found to be alarmingly out of date. Sandford toys with a few social commentary moments, but they just ring so wrong to my modern ears. Having read his more recent works, it is clear that Sandford, like many of us, has evolved with the times. Still, some of the more blatant elements of this novel are pretty tough to reconcile with. There are the bones of a solid thriller here, but I feel this story may be one that is better left in the past.
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(2022, 59)
