John Sandford, Broken Prey

John Sandford, Broken Prey - The first body, that of Angela Larson, was found in a posed position, her body scourged, her neck sliced open, and ligature marks on her hands. The second corpse, Adam Rice, is found in the same manner with his young son killed as an afterthought. Lucas Davenport, who was at both crime scenes, concludes that the same person did the killings. When the news leaks to the media, parole officer Mark Fox Calls Davenport and tells him he thinks his parolee Charlie Pope, who was just released from St. John's mental institution for raping and strangling a woman, was the perpetrator.

Charlie is nowhere to be found. His trailer is deserted, he failed to show up for his job and the electronic surveillance bracelet he was forced to wear was cut open. He gets in contact with newspaper reporter, Russell Ignace of the Star Tribune, and tells him that he has a third victim that he will kill next. When Lucas learns of this, he leads a massive search to find the perpetrator but he is too late. Now Lucas really is determined to do whatever it takes to find and cage the killer.

John Sandford writes the best police procedurals on the market today. The killer is playing a diabolical game, constantly shifting the evidence so it falls on the wrong person and Lucas doesn't catch on to the scheme until three innocent lives are lost. Even when he figured out what is happening, there are so many viable suspects that he and the readers will find it near-impossible to identify of the killer. This who-done-it is one of the best Lucas Davenport tales in this long-running series.

Putnam, May 2005, $26.95, 400 pp.

ISBN 0399152725

Harriet Klausner