Review and Days of Prey tour: Storm Prey

Lucas Davenport is the Chief Investigator for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in Minnesota.  His wife, Weather is on the surgical team that is going to attempt to separate conjoined twins.  On the day the initial surgery is scheduled, the hospital pharmacy is robbed, and a pharmacist is murdered, so the surgery has to be canceled for the day.  Weather sees the thieves on her way into the hospital and helps the police draw a sketch of one of them.  Trying to cover their tracks, the robbers target Weather and some others, and things soon spiral out of control.

Along with the local police, Lucas and his team investigate the robbery and murder, and slowly unravel the mystery, but not before more crimes are committed.

Storm Prey, by John Sandford, is the 20th in his Prey series, featuring Lucas Davenport.  I’ve been a fan of this series for years, so my expectations were high and I was not disappointed!  I love Lucas – even though his methods are sometimes questionable, he gets the job done and he’s fiercely loyal.  The mystery in this series isn’t who committed the crime, but rather, how they’ll get caught.  This book was so much fun – it’s action packed and got my blood pumping at times!  I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.  Lucas and some of the other characters in this book feel like old friends to me, so I was thrilled to find this book a sold addition to this series.

Even though this is part of a series, it stands alone great.  If you’re a fan of the series, you won’t want to miss it.  If you’ve never read this series and enjoy mystery/suspense novels, you’ve got to give it a try!

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Title and series number of the book you read:

Storm Prey is the 2oth book in the series.

Year published:

2010 – today, as a matter of fact!

Tell us about Lucas Davenport:

• What is Lucas doing when he first appears in the book? Set up the scene.   Weather has gone to bed early in anticipation of surgery the next morning.  Lucas comes to bed later, but wakes up enough to wish her luck as she’s leaving for the day.
  
• Give us a sense of time and place.  Storm Prey takes place in and around the Twin Cities of Minnesota in the present day.
• Lucas’s occupation or professional role? Lucas works for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (state police).
  
• Lucas’s personal status (single, dating, married): Lucas is married to Weather Karkinnen.
  
• Lucas Davenport is a known clothes-horse; did you notice any special fashion references?  There are several, but my favorite reference was this one:

He (another doctor on the separation team) and her husband, Lucas, who got along improbably well, once spent an hour talking about men’s fashion, nearly driving Weather crazy with the inanity of it.  She’d said, “Fifteen minutes on loafers?  Loafers?”

“We were just getting started,” Lucas said.  She wasn’t sure he was joking.

Let’s talk about the mystery:

• Avoiding spoilers, what was the crime/case being solved? Several men break into the hospital’s pharmacy and unintentionally murder someone.  As they try to cover their tracks, things spiral out of control.
  
• Does the title of your book relate to the crime?  I would say it does.  A snowstorm affects the crime and the investigation.
  

Who was your favorite supporting character, good or evil?

I’d have to say Weather – she was determined to do her job no matter the danger, plus she doesn’t put up with anything from Lucas.

What was your favorite scene or quote?

I really liked the final scene of the book, when Lucas, Virgil and Joe Mack are having a beer together – it really shows the human side of the police.

Finally, how do you envision Lucas Davenport? If he were to be portrayed in a movie, what celebrity would play him?

This is a tough question!  I have a picture of Lucas in my head and can’t think of an actor who resembles it.  I think I’m going to have to agree with Lesa and Jenn and go with Hugh Jackman.

Review copy provided by Penguin Books for this TLC Book Tour.