Sudden Prey by John Sandford

Title: Sudden Prey

Series: Lucas Davenport

Author: John Sandford

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

It begins with a death and ends with one. For months, Lucas Davenport's men have been tracking a vicious woman bank robber named Candy, and when they finally catch up with her, she does not go quietly. In the ensuing shoot-out, she dies – and Davenport's nightmare starts. For her associates are even worse than she was, particularly her husband, a deeply violent man who swears an appropriate revenge: first he will find the names of those responsible; then he will kill those nearest and dearest to them, just the way they did Candy.

So it begins. The husband of one officer is shot and killed. The wife of another is ambushed at work. When a third attack is thwarted, the pattern becomes clear to Davenport, and with an urgency born of rage and terror, he presses the hunt, desperately trying to track down the killers before they can strike again, before they can reach out for Davenport's own loved ones. But in this effort, he may already be too late.

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Sudden Prey was not as exciting to me as its predecessor. This one was missing the sense of desperation and urgency. I did like it but didn't love it.

At the beginning of the book, Lucas and his team are ready to apprehend two women, Candy and Georgie, who are bank robbers. Lucas knows which bank they are hitting next and he's more than ready to get them. What he wasn't counting on, was on them not surrendering and rather dying by an onslaught of bullets instead. 

In prison, Dick La Chaise, who was Candy's husband and Georgie's brother makes a promise to seek justice for them. An eye for an eye. After a well-planned escape, La Chaise with the help of two of his buddies, Butters and Martin, will find the cops who participated in the shootout and they will murder their loved ones as payback for Dick's loss.

I've become accustomed to Lucas's way of seeing things and doing what he thinks needs to be done. To be honest, I don't believe the shootout was his fault. He has done some very questionable things before but I didn't think this one was one of them.

I did roll my eyes in a scene between Weather and Dick. Quite unbelievable. I can go further and say that to me, she acted quite differently than in the prior books. I mean, be serious, you know people are after you, they want to kill you and you want to go to work because you think they can't get to you?

I've come to care for Lucas, Del, Sloan, Jennifer, Weather. I know I'm going to keep going until I can catch up with his latest book.

Cliffhanger: No

3/5 Fangs