Field of Prey by John Sandford, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Detective Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in St. Paul is assigned, together with Agent Bob Shaffer, to gather as much information as possible, and as quickly as possible, about a serial killer that has apparently been active in their area for at least 15 years, in Field of Prey, the 24th mystery in this series by John Sandford.

Police have recovered fifteen bodies of women from a cistern on a local farm, some of whom appeared to have been killed at least a decade earlier. The press quickly dub the crimes "The Black Hole Murders" and the mayor as well as Davenport's superiors want a solution now. He tries to tell them that with all the bodies found together, and obviously placed there over an extended period of time, forensics is going to have trouble identifying them. But he surmises that the killer must also be local, or at least very familiar with the area, and smart enough to choose victims that won't be missed. This is not going to be an easy case to close and as it is mid-summer, it's likely there will be another victim … and possibly very soon.

Lucas Davenport as a character and the Field of Prey primary murder mystery storyline are probably reason enough to read this entry in this long-running series. But there are lots of distractions here, some of which are more troublesome than others. Most particularly are the other cases the BCA is working on, and the inclusion of Sandford's other series characters. A cross-over now and again is fine, but here it seems rather intrusive. So too is Davenport's personal life. Of course he has one, but quite a bit of page time is spent on him brooding over it — or more accurately, his lack of a satisfactory one. Still, fans of the series will enjoy the complicated case and the outcome will likely come as a surprise to most.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Field of Prey.

Storm Front
Putnam (Hardcover), October 2013
ISBN-13: 9780399159305; ISBN-10: 0399159304

Deadline
Putnam (Hardcover), October 2014
ISBN-13: 9780399162374; ISBN-10: 0399162372

Field of Prey

A Lucas Davenport Mystery by John Sandford