Years ago, Lucas Davenport was a young patrol officer who wanted off the streets. He was bored and not sure what he was going to do if he could not get out of patrol. The case that became known as “The Jones Case” was his way off the streets and into working homicides. Theoretically, it was sort of solved back in 1985 with the death of the main suspect but the bodies of the two missing girls were never found.
The discovery of the skeletonized remains of the two girls on a site being cleared for redevelopment brings the past to life for Lucas Davenport. He never totally accepted the idea of who did it back then and the discovery brings a wave of self-doubt. Lucas feels tremendous guilt for not fighting harder at the time and has a horrifying theory. If the dead man accused of the crime did not do it all those years ago that means that the child killer probably struck again and again over the intervening years and Lucas is at least partially responsible for those murders.
The past has always been a major issue in this series and certainly is here both in terms of the case as well as writer technique. Breaking the mold of the last several books where readers knew who the bad guys were in the first few pages, John Sandford instead gives readers the discovery of the bodies followed by an extensive flashback sequence. Titled “Then” the flashback sequence lasts for nearly 170 pages and details the case, the manhunt, and the mindset of Lucas Davenport all those years ago. A mindset that continues to present day where he will still cut corners and manipulate others while working to solve a case. For Lucas Davenport the ends usually do justify the means and occasionally have unintended and devasting consequences.
This latest in the series is a good one and provides readers an interesting tale of suspense and mystery. The clues are many and varied and the identity of the killer is not suggested to late in Buried Prey creating a puzzle for readers to solve right along with Lucas. Author John Sandford breaks the formulaic mode he had fallen into over the last several books of this series and the result is a refreshing change of pace that breathes life into the series.
BURIED PREY: A NOVEL
John Sandford
John Sandford
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Group)
2011
ISBN# 978-0-399-15738-7
Hardback
390 Pages
$27.95
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2011
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