The latest in a long series from
author John Sandford, Gathering Prey opens with Skye and
Henry befriending Letty, the adopted daughter of Lucas and Weather Davenport.
Letty knows very quickly that Skye and Henry are part of a group known as
“Travelers” and spends some time with them learning about how they move around
the country. Their lifestyle is far away from Letty’s life as a student at
Stanford.
During the course of a fast food
meal Henry and Skye tell her about someone they know as “Pilot” and his band of
disciples. As Skye explains it becomes clear that Pilot is basically head of a
small cult whose members will do anything for him. The man they know as Pilot
preaches his own brand of end
of the world of end of the world fanaticism known
as “The Fall.” Skye believes he and his people will kill and have done so
though Henry just thinks the dude is cool as well as a bit odd. The man has
movie connections and Henry very much would like to be in the movies.
Weeks pass into summer, Letty is
back home in Minnesota, and Henry disappears. Skye is alone, scared, and calls
Letty for help. Letty arranges for Skye to get to Minnesota. She also talks to
her dad, Lucas Davenport, about the situation. Lucas works for the Minnesota Bureau
of Criminal Apprehension and is very good at his job when left alone to do his job.
The politics of the job is increasingly interfering with his primary job of
catching killers. Lucas believes the bosses are supposed to deal with the media
and the flack of the cases when necessary while leaving him free to do his job
of getting the bad folks off the streets. Increasingly it is becoming apparent to
Lucas that containing costs and covering one’s backside is taking over in favor
of getting the job done. He has enough going on without Letty bringing him
something that most likely is nothing more than Letty being played by scammers for
money.
Though he should be working a couple
of other things, he agrees to meet Skye and listen to what she has to say. That
meeting changes everything because there is enough there to get him interested
enough to make a couple of calls. Those calls lead to other nuggets of
information worth pursuing. That daisy chain of connections gets strong and
stronger and before long, Lucas is far from home and Minnesota as he chases a
crazed idiot and his followers bent on escaping at all costs.
The latest in the long running
series is a good one though not nearly at the level of earlier books in the
series. Family has been a major theme in many of these novels and such is the
case here in Gathering Prey where Letty takes a major role. A role that could
be further expanded depending on how the author decides to take things as a
result of the turning point ending of the book.
At the same time, the book is predictable
in that from the first few pages readers once again know who the bad guys are.
That is quickly confirmed as the point of view switches to follow them again
and again throughout the book as they do the bad things you would expect from deranged
whack jobs. As they escalate their violence and the manhunt comes closer to
them, it becomes more and more clear that this is a thriller style novel
featuring shallow deranged whack job characters, plenty of action, and not the
mystery we used to see in this series. The read quickly becomes all about the case
with the good guys in hot pursuit all across the countryside of the upper Midwest
and bad guys doing very bad things. Everyone has guns as do the numerous
civilians who become heavily involved towards the end of the book.
This is not to say that Gathering
Prey is not a good book. It is. One just has to read it for what it is
and not what one wants it to be as expressed in many of the negative reviews.
One has to understand that this series, especially over the last several books,
has changed to a thriller series. Gone are the complex mysteries of the earlier
books in the series. Gathering Prey is billed as the 25th
book of the series and things have changed over time. Expecting the exact same
kind of book the reader got in book five, book ten, etc. is foolhardy and shows
a lack of understanding regarding how series change over time.
Those who can’t get enough of Virgil
Flowers will also be thrilled to know he has a presence in this book.
Gathering Prey, while certainly not the best in the series, is one that is
good.
Gathering Prey: A Novel
John Sandford
Thorndike Press (Gale Cengage)
May 2015
ISBN# 978-1-4104-7725-5
Large Print Hardback (also available
in hardback, audio, and e-book)
533 Pages
$35.99
Material
was picked up at the Haggard Branch of the Plano Public Library System to read
and review.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2015
This series has definitely changed, and I'm afraid I'm among those readers who preferred the tone and complexity of the earlier books. I've reluctantly given up on the Prey novels. I do love Virgil Flowers, though, and will continue reading that series.
ReplyDeleteI was not that big of a fan when they started out, but now I really look forward to the Flowers books.
ReplyDelete