Politics is seen by many as
a life and death situation. In the latest in the Lucas Davenport series from
author John Sandford, Silken Prey: A Novel, it is
literally true as a political operative by the name of Tubbs is dead. Tubbs
occasionally was a fixer, sometimes a bagman, and sometimes he did dirty tricks
projects. Now he is missing and presumed dead by Lucas Davenport.
Not that Lucas knows about
Tubbs initially when gets the call from Governor Henderson. Nine days out from
the election and the Republican candidate for Senator has had his campaign torpedoed
by allegations of kiddy porn. Porter Smalls was winning until disgusting images
on his computer at his campaign office were accidentally found by a young
campaign staffer. Lucas doesn't care for politics and doesn't care that Porter
Smalls is now in huge trouble. But, the Governor does and wants Lucas to
investigate the situation.
Elmer Henderson, a Democrat,
is the Minnesota Governor and in four years just might be a legitimate Vice
Presidential candidate. He has good reasons to want to see conservative
republican Porter Smalls go down in flames. But, the governor is absolutely
sure Smalls isn’t into kiddie porn. He wants Lucas to investigate. Not only
because it is the right thing to do and Smalls was quite possibly framed. If he
was framed this is taking things way too far and everyone, no matter their
party, is at risk. Once this sort of thing happens, you never come back from it,
and media never fixes things after they destroy you.
“’You’re saying
the media is dangerous, immoral, and anti-democratic?
“Well…yes,” Henderson said. “They don't
recognize it in themselves, but they're basically criminals. In the classic
sense of that word.’” (Page 16)
While readers know early on
how the storylines connect together (as we usually do in the recent books of
the series) it takes Lucas and others a bit longer to start to put the pieces
together. A secondary storyline involving the actions of a computer hacker and
his wife who still has the itch to steal competes for equal attention with the
primary storylines by the end of this enjoyable 400 plus page novel.
While the novel does not
chart new ground for Lucas and the other characters one does not expect anything
new in that regard this deep in the series. Everyone is locked into who they
are---both professionally and personally. No one is about to have a midlife
crisis, dump everything for a fancy sports car, and hit the open road. These characters
are firmly established and, as such, change is going to have to come from
outside of them.
Politics has often been a major
component of the Prey series and clearly is a huge element in Silken Prey which is the 23rd novel in the series going back to Rules
of Prey. While again in this novel Lucas claims to not care about
politics and has virtually zero interest in the subject, much of what he does
in pursuit of suspects has definite political motives to it. He makes deals
with everyone about what he will say and do in the investigation and expects others
to wheel and deal with him. As in previous books, Lucas is once again working
all the angles to ensure that the guilty parties are caught in this solidly
good read. It is a dangerous minefield to pursue the guilty when they are rich
and powerful. That time is coming when the politics will take Lucas down as
Rose Marie warns:
“’A lot of
people in the Department of Public Safety and over at the BCA don't like this
kind of thing, the political stuff. And you've been doing a lot of it. When I'm
not here to protect you, when Elmer's not here...”
“Ah, it’s
all right, Rose Marie,” Lucas Said. “I’ve been fired before. Stop worrying
about it.’” (Page 21)
Silken Prey: A Novel
John Sandford
G.P. Putnam’s Sons (Penguin Group)
May 2013
ISBN# 978-0-399-15931-2
Hardback (also available as e-book
and audio book)
$27.95
416 Pages
Material supplied by the good folks
of the Plano, Texas Public Library System. If you are in the area and would
like more information about Plano libraries go here.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
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