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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Good Story; Dr escapes trial, likes to experiment on people to 'watch' their souls leave their bodies; caught finally dressed as woman to escape capture in NYC. 2nd storyline: corrupt cop group killing bad people - taking law into own hands in NY
excellent thriller with a scary protagonist and some serious cop - on - cop plotting too
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I liked this book as a continuation of eyes of prey. Lucas really Keeps us all on our toes trying to figure out who is behind the contracted killings while still trying to hubby bekker. I personally loved it
There are twists and turns and amazing reveals; however, there was too much plotting and coincidences and not enough valid emotional tone. Still, I enjoyed reading it.
'Silent Prey' is the sequel to 'Eyes of Prey', although 'Eyes...' can stand alone. 'Silent Prey' continues with the serial killer Bekker who has escaped custody while on trial for his crimes, and I think it is a better read if you read 'Eyes..' first.
Bekker begins again with his quest to scientifically catch the last vision seen by dying people by exsanguinating his victims, also again in New York City, but without the distractions of maintaining any kind of normalcy as he had in Minneapolis. Soon, Lucas Davenport is called in by the NYPD as a consultant on the case, since he caught Bekker before. At least, that's what the Media and most of the police are told as corpses without eyes are found. The real reason Davenport is in town is NYPD has become aware of vigilante killings by members of the police and there is no one in the City's police dapartment that can be trusted to solve these crimes. Since he has resigned his position with the Minneapolis police department and he is free to work anywhere, he welcomes the work. Despite feeling like a fish out of water because of the complexity of NYC, and dealing with lingering issues with reoccurring characters from the previous book, he begins to sort through the personalities and clues with the usual mix of action, violence and angst.
Bekker is satisfyingly completely bonkers. Whenever his third-person narrated chapters are in view, the shocks keep coming. He is SO out of his mind! I promise you will love him, if you love utterly insane fictional madmen whose activities are fortunately briefly described. Personally, I am distressed by explicit mayhem, but John Sandford thankfully keeps the detail down to titulating minimum.
Unfortunately, I did not find the vigilante cops as charming, and while Davenport wraps up everything neatly, it wasn't to my gothic standard. I think Sandford did not develop that part of the book into sufficient froth and doom.
'Silent Prey' is the sequel to 'Eyes of Prey', although 'Eyes...' can stand alone. 'Silent Prey' continues with the serial killer Bekker who has escaped custody while on trial for his crimes, and I think it is a better read if you read 'Eyes..' first.
Bekker begins again with his quest to scientifically catch the last vision seen by dying people by exsanguinating his victims, also again in New York City, but without the distractions of maintaining any kind of normalcy as he had in Minneapolis. Soon, Lucas Davenport is called in by the NYPD as a consultant on the case, since he caught Bekker before. At least, that's what the Media and most of the police are told as corpses without eyes are found. The real reason Davenport is in town is NYPD has become aware of vigilante killings by members of the police and there is no one in the City's police dapartment that can be trusted to solve these crimes. Since he has resigned his position with the Minneapolis police department and he is free to work anywhere, he welcomes the work. Despite feeling like a fish out of water because of the complexity of NYC, and dealing with lingering issues with reoccurring characters from the previous book, he begins to sort through the personalities and clues with the usual mix of action, violence and angst.
Bekker is satisfyingly completely bonkers. Whenever his third-person narrated chapters are in view, the shocks keep coming. He is SO out of his mind! I promise you will love him, if you love utterly insane fictional madmen whose activities are fortunately briefly described. Personally, I am distressed by explicit mayhem, but John Sandford thankfully keeps the detail down to titulating minimum.
Unfortunately, I did not find the vigilante cops as charming, and while Davenport wraps up everything neatly, it wasn't to my gothic standard. I think Sandford did not develop that part of the book into sufficient froth and doom.
A follow up from the previous story.
I think it's okay, but essentially there are two stories into one. One about the killer and one about the police. In some ways, the ending was sort of expected, though I guess the ending does come good for the main character, Lucas Davenport.
A good read.
I think it's okay, but essentially there are two stories into one. One about the killer and one about the police. In some ways, the ending was sort of expected, though I guess the ending does come good for the main character, Lucas Davenport.
A good read.
Audio listened. When I finished listening to book 3 I had to immediately start this one. 3 was a 5. This one felt a bit ludicrously contrived. Still, it's written well.
SPOILERS
But I found the whole transvestite aspect a bit hard to believe, given the character we know from book 3... I just couldn't picture him becoming a transvestite to elude cops. I really couldn't picture Becker walking around dressed as a woman, talking in a high voice, so convincingly that women thought he was one of them too.
That said, I still found the book interesting, just not as believable. Then there was Robin Hood. Certainly a unique angle to take the story, but again, a bit contrived.
I enjoyed listening to this but it felt like Sandford had gone out of his way to make a more outrageous plot with this one. (the next book is better). I'm hoping the other books aren't terribly unbelievable, because books 1-3 were amazing and so is book 5.
SPOILERS
But I found the whole transvestite aspect a bit hard to believe, given the character we know from book 3... I just couldn't picture him becoming a transvestite to elude cops. I really couldn't picture Becker walking around dressed as a woman, talking in a high voice, so convincingly that women thought he was one of them too.
That said, I still found the book interesting, just not as believable. Then there was Robin Hood. Certainly a unique angle to take the story, but again, a bit contrived.
I enjoyed listening to this but it felt like Sandford had gone out of his way to make a more outrageous plot with this one. (the next book is better). I'm hoping the other books aren't terribly unbelievable, because books 1-3 were amazing and so is book 5.
It should be no spoiler that the psychopathic pathologist Bekker is back for this one, despite being bludgeoned and apprehended by Davenport at the end of Eyes of Prey. We know this from the book jacket. The surprise is that Bekker lands in NYC, and Lucas is asked to help the NYC police catch him once again. Who calls him of course but Lily Rothenburg, Davenport's old flame from Book 2 (Silent Prey). Lily's involved with a detective assigned to the Bekker case. Meanwhile, a rogue group of NYC cops is killing criminals that evade justice, and they have just killed a cop that was getting wise to their actions. Lucas finds that he's really there for both cases.
So, we have two plot lines, and Sandford has chosen to pull the protagonist out of his native Minnesota so he can mine the 'fish out of water' angle. There are two relationships to juggle, and the severely drug addicted Bekker somehow has managed to set up a full pathologist's lab in an unsuspecting woman's basement. It's a lot, and not all readers were on board with all of this judging from other reviews. I think Sandford pulled it off, though I felt Bekker took a back seat to the rogue cop story, and his plot line felt anti-climactic. It almost felt like Sandford himself began to tire of the villain. There's a twist to Bekker that I should have seen coming from a mile away but didn't, so kudos to Sandford for springing that one on the reader.
Like the first three books, the pacing is great, there is fantastic dialog and great characters. And although there is plenty of violence, Sandford avoids any prolonged gruesome stuff in the Bekker scenes, for those of you that are squeamish about that stuff. I hope that book 5 has something other than a Hannibal Lecter type character though; two books back to back is enough. In the preface, Sandford admits that these stories were more like horror/crime fiction, due to his 'reading a lot of Stephen King at the time.' So far, I've found the series to be well written page turners, which bodes well for the next one.
So, we have two plot lines, and Sandford has chosen to pull the protagonist out of his native Minnesota so he can mine the 'fish out of water' angle. There are two relationships to juggle, and the severely drug addicted Bekker somehow has managed to set up a full pathologist's lab in an unsuspecting woman's basement. It's a lot, and not all readers were on board with all of this judging from other reviews. I think Sandford pulled it off, though I felt Bekker took a back seat to the rogue cop story, and his plot line felt anti-climactic. It almost felt like Sandford himself began to tire of the villain. There's a twist to Bekker that I should have seen coming from a mile away but didn't, so kudos to Sandford for springing that one on the reader.
Like the first three books, the pacing is great, there is fantastic dialog and great characters. And although there is plenty of violence, Sandford avoids any prolonged gruesome stuff in the Bekker scenes, for those of you that are squeamish about that stuff. I hope that book 5 has something other than a Hannibal Lecter type character though; two books back to back is enough. In the preface, Sandford admits that these stories were more like horror/crime fiction, due to his 'reading a lot of Stephen King at the time.' So far, I've found the series to be well written page turners, which bodes well for the next one.
Fast paced but a little too convoluted as the mystery unravels
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated