Review: Rules Of Prey (Lucas Davenport, #1) by John Sandford

Rules Of Prey by John Sandford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having just finished reading Gathering Prey, the #25 book in John Sandford’s brilliant Prey Series, I decided to go back memory lane and read the 1st book, Rules of Prey, where we were first introduced to Minneapolis nonconformist police officer, wealthy video games creator, great dresser and ladies man, Lucas Davenport,

He was slender and dark-complexioned, with straight black hair going gray at the temples and a long nose over a crooked smile. One of his central upper incisors had been chipped and he never had it capped. He might have been an Indian except for his blue eyes.
His eyes were warm and forgiving.
Though his eyes were warm, his smile betrayed him.
If the chill of his smile sometimes overwhelmed the warmth of his eyes, it didn't happen so frequently as to become a social handicap.

Rules of Prey is fast paced, gritty, dark and electrifying thriller of a cat-and-mouse game between not your average cop and a deranged and organized serial killer.

So he was mad.
But not quite the way the police thought.

The maddog waited in the dark.
The maddog was intelligent. He was a member of the bar. He derived rules.

Never kill anyone you know.
Never have a motive.
Never follow a discernible pattern.
Never carry a weapon after it has been used.
Isolate yourself from random discovery.
Beware of leaving physical evidence.

Lieutenant Lucas Davenport will have to use more than the laid down rules and use some unorthodox methods of his own if he’s ever going to stop the psychotic killer down.

The character development is extremely well done. The story is told in third person, enabling you to get into the minds of both cop and killer.

Fantastic dialogue and description of the settings in the story.

From the very first page, you are pulled into the chase until the very end.

I liked reading this book again…and just as I remembered….still as good as ever.

One of my favorite scenes:

When Clapton started on “Lay Down, Sally” he got up and did a neatly coordinated solo dance around the chair. Then he sat down, worked for fifteen seconds, and was back up with “Willie and the Hand Jive.” He danced in the dark room by himself, watching the song time counting down on the digital CD clock. When “Hand Jive” ended, he sat down again…”

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