police procedurals

Mind Prey was the very first "Prey" book I ever read. I picked it up in an airport and was instantly hooked. John Sandford has the rare ability to build "real" characters that are flawed but real - cruel but interesting - attractive but not cheesy.
For those of us with kids - this particular book is savage! It starts with a guy fishing on a lake... and right then your nerves will start to fray - you know that something BAD is going to happen.

Step in Lucas Davenport - Part detective, part game designer, part animal. This guy is about the best detective I have seen portrayed. He isn't Sherlock Holmes and He isn't Mike Hammer, but he is definitely a bit of both.

One last thing - if you read one - be prepared to buy the rest!

I started out with the book "Night Prey". My friendand I were in school, when she told me to read this book when she wasdone. I read it within 36 hours, it was such a page-turner. I then found out that this book was just one in a series of "prey" books by John Sandford. I've read almost all of them, and I'm planning on buying "Certain Prey" from amazon.com soon. The best series that there is. John Sandford is definately my favorite author! He's created such a likable character in Lucas Davenport, and he definately knows how to add in unsuspecting twists and turns to every novel. If you like James Patterson's novels, you'll definately enjoy anything written by John Sandford.

I would rate Mind Prey as on par with Winter Prey as being the best in the series. In this installment, brilliant psychopath John Mail kidnaps his former psychiatrist and her two young daughters as vengeance for her part in having him committed to a mental hospital years before. Lucas Davenport is back and hot on Mail's trail. Mail, a gamer who knows of Lucas' history designing computer games, starts toying with his pursuer by leaving obscure clues as to his location.

With the most original plot of all the "Prey" novels (as well as the most frightening and unpredictable villain), if you are new to the Prey series and you don't care about going in order, read this one before you even think about the others.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was that sometimes Sandford would create completely unnecessary characters and make it seem like their purpose in the story was meaningful, but then you'd find out that it wasn't (like Ice, one of the programmers at Davenport Simulations).