The thirteenth title in the 'Prey' series featuring Deputy Police Chief Davenport. Sandford's thrillers are reliably excellent and here he is in top form.
The deadliest of crimes . . . the coldest of killers.
It was just a murder; not an unusual occurrence in a city the size of Minneapolis. A young woman strangled with a length of cord.
Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport was used to the tragedy; it was his job, after all. But on a misty, oak-covered hillside south of the city, everything changed. By the time the grave site was discovered, and six more bodies unearthed, it was clear the a routine murder investigation had become the search for a monster.
From the comfort of his immaculately kept office, Associate Professor James Qatar watches the gruesome scenes unfold on his television, and realises that his thin veneer of safety and respectability is being scratched away. It would be prudent to cease his activities for a time, but he cannot. The necks are too pretty, the desire too strong. So he kills again, but everything is different now. The carefully considered work of the aesthete has been replaced by the base instinct of self-preservation. His hunger and his haste make him careless.
As Lucas Davenport's case comes together, James Qatar's world begins to fall apart, and a deadly game is joined, one that neither player can afford to lose.
Lucas Davenport: brilliant, implacable, and determined to stop the killings. And James Qatar: vain, damaged, and capable of anything when he has cornered his chosen prey.
