Eyes of prey

Sandford ( Shadow Prey ) brings back Minneapolis police Lt. Lucas Davenport in this terrific, fast-moving psycho-thriller/procedural featuring one of the nastiest villains in recent fiction. Michael Bekker, a pathologist fixed on his own beauty, various high-powered drugs and hatred of his wife, also is obsessed with the eyes of the dead and dying. He joins forces with Carlo Druze, an actor with a face ruined by fire, to kill Bekker's wife and the theater manager who wants to cashier Druze. Druze kills and mutilates Mrs. Bekker when Bekker's out of town; Bekker returns the favor when Druze has a solid alibi, leading the Minneapolis police to suspect a serial killer. Fighting depression, estranged from his lover and their child, Davenport seeks a frightened mystery witness, Mrs. Bekker's lover, who tries to help while remaining hidden. To cover their tracks Bekker and Cruze go on a murderous, almost random rampage providing many gory scenes, but mercifully none too explicit. Nobody's safe from Bekker's drug-powered cunning, not sick children nor a helpless invalid. The final revelation of the unknown lover is wrenching. Pulitzer-winning journalist ``Sandford'' also writes as John Camp ( The Empress File ). BOMC and Mysterious Book Club alternates. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Why is Sandford's new Kidd-series novel, The Empress File (p. 120; written under his real name of John Camp), so frazzled? Maybe because this increasingly popular author is putting his finest energies into his best-selling Lucas Davenport series (Rules of Prey, 1989; Shadow Prey, 1990)--as evidenced by this strong and satisfying entry, in which the Minneapolis homicide cop tangles with two memorable psycho-killers. The killers are coldhearted burn-deformed actor Carlo Druze and handsome pill-crazed pathologist Michael Bekker, who lures Druze into a murder trade a la Strangers on a Train: Bekker's wife for Druze's boss. The novel opens with Druze sneaking into Bekker's house to slice Stephanie Bekker and (at Bekker's insistence) to mutilate her eyes--but it turns out that Stephanie has a lover, who sees Druze, then runs away. Who is he? And why the eye mutilation? These questions plague moody, perennially unhappy Davenport as he deals with the case, and with his own demons of depression. Though from the start suspecting Bekker (whose drug-soaked soliloquies, and hidden obsession with observing dying patients' eyes at the moment of death, cast him as an unusually fascinating villain), Davenport can't figure out the mad M.D.'s connection to the second victim, Druze's boss, also found with punched-out eyes. So when the mysterious eyewitness begins feeding anonymous clues about a deformed killer, and then a third victim--an innocent mistakenly identified by Druze as the eyewitness--surfaces, Davenport looks elsewhere. His search brings him to Druze's theater company and to sexy actress Cassie Lasch, who becomes Davenport's lover and (inevitably in Sandford's dark universe) Bekker's final victim--along with Druze, whom Bekker double-crosses. In a brutal finale, a semi-deranged Davenport, throwing his cop-career away, extracts a savage revenge upon Bekker--a revenge that leads to a last-page revelation of the eyewitness's surprising identity. Atmospheric, suspenseful, and gripping from start to finish. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Minnesota-born supermodel Alie'e Maison is back in Minneapolis for a photo shoot. At the raucous wrap party, she turns up dead. Lucas Davenport, the millionaire homicide specialist who often corrals serial killers, is called to the scene. What initially appears to be a straightforward crime of passion--Alie'e was strangled after having sex (with a woman)--becomes much more complex when a second body, hotel concierge Sandy Lansing is found stuffed in a closet. Maison's international stature ignites a media circus, muddying Davenport's investigation. There are a dozen potential killers ranging from jilted lovers to dope dealers to Alie'e's born-again brother. The latest entry in the wildly successful Prey series contains all the elements fans have come to expect: solid plot, gallows humor, tasteful sex, and the likable, self-assured Davenport. If there's a bone to pick here, it's that the identity of the killer seems to come out of left field. Or maybe the plot was clever enough to completely fool at least one reader. Overall, this is an involving and very enjoyable thriller. ((Reviewed March 1, 2000)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews

This 11th novel in the Lucas Davenport series is one of the best, presenting a seemingly simplistic plot that explodes into a complex cat-and-mouse game with an invisible killer. Two murder victims are discovered after a party attended by a group of people with too much money (and they are all spending it on drugs). Famous model Alie'e Maison is one of the victims; the other is the drug supplier. To complicate matters, an undercover cop who works on Davenport's team is identified as having been at the party. Davenport, deputy chief of police in Minneapolis, heads the investigation. As the killings continue, he must determine the motive behind the first murders and then find out why someone is killing almost everyone involved with Alie'e. The book takes off like a roller coaster ride, and the tension never stops. Sandford not only creates a suspenseful tale revolving around the art world, the high-fashion scene, and the realm of a large metropolitan police department attempting to protect its citizens, but he has spun a truly engrossing mystery that leaves the reader guessing to the end. For all fiction collections. Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., OH Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Sandford ( Shadow Prey ) brings back Minneapolis police Lt. Lucas Davenport in this terrific, fast-moving psycho-thriller/procedural featuring one of the nastiest villains in recent fiction. Michael Bekker, a pathologist fixed on his own beauty, various high-powered drugs and hatred of his wife, also is obsessed with the eyes of the dead and dying. He joins forces with Carlo Druze, an actor with a face ruined by fire, to kill Bekker's wife and the theater manager who wants to cashier Druze. Druze kills and mutilates Mrs. Bekker when Bekker's out of town; Bekker returns the favor when Druze has a solid alibi, leading the Minneapolis police to suspect a serial killer. Fighting depression, estranged from his lover and their child, Davenport seeks a frightened mystery witness, Mrs. Bekker's lover, who tries to help while remaining hidden. To cover their tracks Bekker and Cruze go on a murderous, almost random rampage providing many gory scenes, but mercifully none too explicit. Nobody's safe from Bekker's drug-powered cunning, not sick children nor a helpless invalid. The final revelation of the unknown lover is wrenching. Pulitzer-winning journalist ``Sandford'' also writes as John Camp ( The Empress File ). BOMC and Mysterious Book Club alternates. (Apr.) Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information.

The 12th entry in Sandford's ever-entertaining Prey series (Certain Prey, etc.) finds Minneapolis Deputy Police Chief Lucas Davenport again rambling through a murky case with his unique combination of gutsy intelligence and aw-shucks attitude. Fashion model Alie'e Maison has been found dead in a back bedroom, seemingly strangled at a chic party. Then typical of Davenport's luck the body of a second woman tumbles out of a closet just as the investigating cops get ready to leave the scene. There's no shortage of suspects who could have killed Alie'e: her boyfriend, for instance, recently dropped in favor of a lesbian lover, or her brother, a backwoods holy man who disapproved of his sister's lifestyle. There are Alie'e's parents, who could be trying to cover up a history of sexual abuse; the local drug dealer who supplied Alie'e with heroin; and the oily banker who appears to be the money behind the drug dealer. As many of these suspects get murdered, one by one, including those connected to the second victim in the closet, it's clear that the killer remains at large. That makes Davenport and his colleagues look foolish in the eyes of the media horde descending on the case. To make matters worse, Davenport's having women trouble again, torn among three beauties who want to bed him. As always, it's a joy to follow this rare cop who gets led more often by his gut instinct than by clues. His humor, understated and perverse, can be wildly funny, and the people he runs across are shrewdly conceived originals, cut from fabric way at the back of the bin. BOMC main selection; simultaneous Putnam Berkley Audio; author tour. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.