Buried Prey

Starred review from March 28, 2011
Sandford's outstanding 21st novel to feature Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (after Storm Prey) offers fans the chance to compare the young with the mature protagonist. In 1985, Davenport, then an eager patrol cop, made his bones as a homicide detective in an ugly kidnapping murder case. The present-day discovery of the mummified bodies of two girls wrapped in plastic, sisters Nancy and Mary Jones, leads Davenport to realize that he "messed up": the wrong man was credited with the crime and the real killer never caught. Cracking this very cold case becomes intensely personal for Davenport, who uses his own resources, including manipulating the media and pushing Marcy Sherrill, head of Minneapolis Homicide, to use all of her resources as well. A fusion of old-fashioned doggedness and modern technology pressures the killer into deadly action. Expert plotting and a riveting finish make this one of Sandford's best. Author tour.

In this 21st "Prey" novel, John Sandford fires up the overused cold case trope. The two young sisters who are discovered plastic-wrapped and mummified at a demolition site take Lucas Davenport back to 1985 and his first plain-clothes case. Lucas felt burned by the convenient death of the major suspect at the time but acquiesced to seasoned officers in abandoning the case. Now the new bodies haunt the more experienced Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension agent with the realization that other girls must have died, as well. Richard Ferrone shines as the brash, young detective in the lengthy flashback sequence and delivers the slow burn of the seasoned investigator who is determined to stop the killer for the sake of justice--or maybe . . . revenge. M.C.T. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine