Certain Prey by John Sandford (#10)

Certain Prey by John Sandford


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


From Goodreads:  In the 10th installment of his popular Prey series, John Sandford (a.k.a. John Camp) pits his popular antihero, Lucas Davenport, against a pair of cunning killers unlike any he has encountered before.


Attorney Carmel Loan is preternaturally beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious. When she becomes infatuated with fellow barrister Hale Allen, she isn't going to let a little thing like his being married get in her way. A quick meeting with an ex-client sets up the hit on Hale's wife, Barbara. The professional killer, Clara Rinker, is one of the best in the business. Smart, attractive, with a gentle Southern drawl, no one would suspect her of being a top Mafia hit man... er, hit person. When she takes the Allen assignment, she figures it will be easy money for a day's work. But things go wrong from the beginning. Loan's ex-client made a tape of the meeting, and is shaking her down for money. Worse, the shooting of a witness--a cop--brings deputy inspector Lucas Davenport into the case. Somehow Davenport has not only linked Loan to the killing, but seems to have a lead on Rinker as well. Carmel and Clara team up to clean up the loose ends, which includes getting Davenport off their back by whatever means necessary.

Davenport gets to match wits against a professional hitwoman and a lawyer who is known for her ruthlessness. Carla's character and personality - our hitwoman - seemed to waffle between hard ass bitch and uncertain teenybopper. Portrayed initially as cold and methodical, when with Carmel she seemed to let the lawyer sweep her along rather than trusting her instincts. Carmel was just psycho.

This is another book where we get to see inside the killers heads. I'm not wild about this as a plot devise. I'd prefer not knowing every. single. move. the antagonists are making and thinking.

I'm still waffling if this is a book about villains making bad decisions and the cops being very lucky, or if this is a battle of wits between a couple of very smart villains and a smarter Davenport.




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