We learn from the very beginning of the book that James Qatar is a serial killer. He is a crazed sadist and would be artist. With little talent of his own, Qatar's "art" is sketching pictures projected on paper. His sketches are all pretty much the same, the head of some blonde woman who has angered him in some way so obscure that she's not aware of it merged with a body he has found at some ... site on the Internet. Sometimes Qatar mails the picture to the woman, and sometimes he has formed a relationship with his victim before killing her. He probably would have continued with his avocation if one of the bodies buried in his woodland "graveyard" hadn't been discovered leading to an investigation headed by Davenport.
To the uninitiated, Davenport is a Minneapolis super cop who specializes in high profile cases. His usual team of helpers is along for the ride, and they are as likeable as always. Davenport, as usual, eventually deduces or guesses the killer's identity at some point with the rest of the book being devoted to building a case against him. In this regard "Chosen Prey" is no different then the rest.
However, Sandford has become a bit predictable. I saw Qatar's eventual fate coming about halfway into the novel. The murders of three supporting characters were also no surprise. Of course Qatar was going to kill them for the reasons that he did.
There is a cameo appearance by a character referred to as Kidd. Kidd was the main character in a couple of Sandford's earlier, non-"Prey" novels. It appeared to me that Sandford may be planning to take a break from or discontinue writing the "Prey" novels. The series' police chief will be leaving her position soon, and once she's gone, Deputy Chief Davenport will almost certainly lose his highly political position. There is some talk of the chief moving to the Minnesota State Police and taking Davenport with her, but that seems to be more of a lifeline in case Sandford decides to resurrect the series at some future time. Also, in this novel Lucas is back with his old girlfriend Weather with the two of them planning marriage and parenthood, although not necessarily in that order. Finally, there is the presence of Kidd who serves little purpose to the story. It struck me that Sandford was pushing Kidd at his readers as a preview of who his next novel will be about.
If this is the end of Lucas Davenport, then I, for one, will miss him. However, I'd rather see him sent to literary purgatory then have him hang around in a series of increasingly bad novels.
That is not to say this isn't a good book, it just isn't one of the best in the series. As usual, there is a good deal of suspense and a sufficiently nasty villain to keep things interesting. There are flaws, however, most notably an ending that can be seen a mile away.
I think that Sanford needs to refocus this series a little more on Davenport, who can be a compelling character when he is really focused on. Also, although it's not likely to happen, I wish that the titles in the series were a little more distinctive: without reviewing plot summaries, it's hard to remember which Prey book is which...I think only Eyes of Prey and Rules of Prey stand out because they relate somewhat to the story.
These criticisms should not take away from the fact that this is a generally good book. It is a must for Sanford fans and will not be wasted time for mystery fans in general (although since this is part of a series, when read as a standalone book, there will be certain references that the new reader will not fully understand).
In the earlier books, Lucas had a sort of elegance abouthim. This writing seems more hackneyed, stereotyped - all in all a more tired effort. Yeah, I agree, it seems the authoris tired of Lucas, or has lost that elegant way of presenting him.
The ending was predictable, and the book slowed down as it neared the ending when you were no longer taken into the mind of the killer. I wanted to experience more of him as he got closer to being uncovered, but you actually got further away. And when they caught him, cowering in his office, well, that was kind of a quickie-let-down, then you had him escaping and chased by Marshall and blah-blah-blah. Not ingenious enough. I kind of didn't care by then.
And yes, the Weather-love thing is tired, too.
None of it was very witty or amusing...but the Quatar character and his mother held out hope...it just never reallywas fulfilled, in my opinion.
