Shadow Prey

I am a big fan of this author, however, I have to tell it like it is.
This book is absolutely "Awful". It dragged and dragged. There were too many characters and the plot was senseless. The only redeeming factor in the story is the relationship between Lucas & Lily.
Save your money, this one was a loser!

In his second outing, Lucas Davenport hunts a family of disgruntled Native Americans who have big plans for a political bad guy (who really does deserve to die.) He also meets a new woman, and you may find yourself not liking him very much afterwards.
However, by introducing us to the many faults of Davenport, Sandford goes a long way in making him even more real. And, if you keep reading the Prey series (and you should) you will find yourself taking satisfaction in Lucas' maturation process as much as in his hunting down the bad guys.
Read this book, and keep reading the Prey series

The hot and bothered Lucas Davenport is back and at full speed in this second entry in the popular "Prey" series. The plot revolves around some killings being done by a band of Indians, out to wipe out a politician who years before had assaulted a Native American woman. And of course, Lucas falls for NYPD Lily Rothenberg, and spends much of the book trying to get into her illustrious pants!
I have to hand it to Sandford, though. His plots are compelling and you can't help but finish them. Fortunately, this series gets better with each installment. This is not one of the best, and it has a wooden ending, no pun intended.
Things get better with "Eyes of Prey" and "Silent Prey."
Stick with him if you haven't given up on him yet.

The head of the FBI is targeted for death by a group of Indians bent on getting personal revenge for something the FBI man did early in his career. However, in planning to get to him, they make it appear as if a war is called on the white man¹s sins against the Indian people. John Sandford creates an excellent story, set in the context of the Native American people living in Minnesota. Deputy Chief of Police Lucas Davenport investigates the murders along with New York City Detective Lily Rosenthal. An interesting addition to Sandford's Prey series.

In this second "Prey" novel, the Crows and their son, Shadow Love, are out to settle an old score with the Director of the FBI for sins he committed years ago. Lucas Davenport, Minneapolis-St. Paul detective and new father, is assigned to work with attractive Lily Rothenberg, an NYPD detective, as they hunt a killer who uses an obsidian knife with special meaning and power to Native Americans. John Sandford creates a powerful, action-packed thriller that deftly combines the two plot lines as he continues to build the strong and complex character of Lucas Davenport in this second Prey novel and sequel to "Rules Of Prey". Highly recommended (especially if you've never read any of Sandford's or John Camp's earlier work).

John Sandford's Minneapolis cop, Lucas Davenport, can't decide if he wants to stay with news-woman Jennifer and their baby-girl Sarah. When politicians start to get killed by Native Americans, it soon becomes clear, that something more than "just" random killings is going on. When a high profile politician from New York is killed, and it looks like the killer is headed towards Minneapolis, female cop Lily Rothenburg is sent there to crack the case. Lucas Davenport quickly finds himself very attracted to Lily, and while they try to solve the case, and more people gets killed, they also start an affair.
In the shadows, throughout the book, lurks a scary Native American called Shadow Love, and his Fathers, the Crows, who are the masterminds behind the killings, which are parts of a much greater scheme.
The stpry does not flow as easily as the other books by John Sandford, and I was in fact a bit disappointed by this one. The last 150 pages are quite good, though, but it does take a while before the story gets going. The main plot, served already at the first pages, is however interesting, and it is hard not to develop some sort of sympathy with the Crows and their case, regardless of their methods. There is a lot of politics in this book, and that may have been why I wasn't that excited about it.

In my humble opinion, this is the best of the Prey series books...it's certainly my favorite. Having read all of them, I think this book captures the true spirit and soul of Davenport's character. He's a loose cannon, a snazzy dresser, a serial womanizer with a heart of gold, and a wonderfully complicated man. After his character was married off and had another kid, he became boring and somewhat predictable. But back in the early days, before he was tied down, he sure was a lot of fun.,,,having affairs with married cop partners, going out and dancing, having wild shootouts with the bad guys...(sigh). I sure miss the wild and single Lucas Davenport.

I read 3 books in this series before I decided to start from the beginning. As with Rules of Prey, Shadow Prey is fun to read. Sandford leads Lucas and friends on a believable pursuit of the killers. Nothing comes easy as Lucas tries to get to the bottom of a group of Indians who are killing people who have harmed Indians in the past.

After reading five or six novels in the series, I decided to voice my complaints in this review. I still plan on reading the entire series, but some things have got on my nerves. First, Sandford reveals Lucas' age to be 41 (probably real close to Sandford's age at the time.) Forty one is fine, but in current novels that makes Lucas in his late 50s. If this series is going to continue, Lucas needs to stay young.

I've accepted the fact that Lucas has a foul mouth, dropping constant f-bombs. But does every single cop, or person for that matter talk that way. In Sandford's books, every single character, except for the nun, cusses like a sailor. And Lucas and Jennifer even cussed around their baby. Obviously everyone doesn't talk like this, and even people who cuss all the time don't want their kids to talk that way.

Third, Lucas says he just "loves women" and therefore can't keep his hands off them. He can't resist cheating on the mother of his child with a married woman NYC cop Lily Rothenberg and then going right back to the mother of his child and sleeping with her. Lily shows some guilt in having an affair yet goes out of her way to cheat on her husband. What a woman! Actually, all of this womanizing by Lucas doesn't bother me too much, except for the fact that we don't know why he does it. Why does this 41 year old man still think he's a 25 year old batchelor sleeping with every woman he can?

Finally, all the cops seem the same and run together. They all talk alike and do the same things, and there isn't any characterization to set them apart.

On this book specific, Sandford draws from his knowledge of Indian culture to write some Indians as bad guys. Probably the weakest bad guys of the series so far. Yet their final motive is just, and none of the cops actually mention that the Indians' ultimate goal was more than just terror.

I recommend this book and the entire series. But be prepared for a lot of bad language and loose morals.

So far i've read about 4 of the Prey series, but didn't like this book nearly as much. One thing that really irritated me, as a few other readers had mentioned, was Lucas's great preoccupation with the married cop. I also didn't like the fact she was as willing to start an affair as he was, despite the fact they both claimed to be 'happily taken'. I don't much like his girlfriend, Jennifer, because of her trash mouth, but i think it's especially tacky that he couldn't say loyal to her when they both love eachother and have a baby.

I've liked Lucas in the other Prey novels, but his behavior in this one with that female policewoman really put me off. Though Lily was at least a little classier than Cassie, a girl he got intimate with in Eyes of Prey. Cassie was, plain and simple, a [...] ! The only reason i could tolerate her character was because she seemed to help Lucas feel better when he was in a state of depression.

I was also really bored by the Indian storyline. Something else that's bothered me about these books is the foul language in them. I wish i Sandford would tone it down some.

I really thought that the opening of this book was great - Indian girl gets raped by prominent politician and her Indian brothers try and get revenge & this is basically what the book is about. The first 50 pages or so are really good - American Indian going around killing 'innocent' people with a large blade, police trying to track him down. But after a while, the story gets really quite boring and soon you are really not interested if they get their man. As much as I love Lucas Davenport, I am really not impressed with Sandford, I keep hoping that I will find another Mind Prey, but this certainly wasn't it...