Phantom Prey by John Sandford

This novel begins with Alyssen Austin entering her house. She felt that something was wrong, a cold whisper of evil. The house was dark, except for lights which were triggered by photocells at dusk. The hairs on her forearms and the back of her neck stood upright.

She looked to her right. The arming panel on the security system was steady, so the security panel had been disarmed. The house was empty, and the security should be armed.

She went out to her car and lifted out her ladysmith .38 and went through the house with her gun held in front of her. She thought that maybe her daughter, Frances might be in the house, and called her name. No response.

The hair on her arms was up again. Halfway through the house she knew she was alone, yet continued her search. She soon noticed dark streaks on the wallpaper at the edge of a hallway. She stepped over and touched them, and felt tackiness under her finger, pulled her hand back and found a spot of crimson.

She backed into the kitchen, picked up the phone, and dialed 911. The operator told her the police were on the way.

The police entered with guns drawn, looked at the blood and called for a crime scene crew. Blood tests determined that the blood was France's blood.

A weird start to a John Sandford Prey novel. But things will get weirder. And they do.

What's weirdest of all, though, are the two typo's in the first 6% of the novel, and then missing and added words throughout. In "Secret Prey", Mr. Sandford announced, and then apologized to readers before the beginning, of a typo he had found that the editor had refused to edit out.

In this novel, not a word from Mr. Sandford. Weird indeed.

"Phantom Prey" could have been an interesting novel, and in a few cases, still is. There are intrigues, ghosts, murders and attempted murders, insanity and suicide.

Unfortunately, there are far too many detrimental factors, in addition to the typo's etc. Previously mentioned.

The worst of these is a completely unrelated story that involves the search for, and apprehension of a drug dealer by Lucas Davenport and his team that goes on, and on, and is inserted into the main story at times, many, many times that completely disrupt the main story and distract the reader (another weird factor about this novel).

Other detrimental factors include very many extended descriptions of mundane activities and events that require very much skimming before content is again found.

Without these detrimental factors, "Phantom Prey" would have been an interesting novel to read. With them, it is barely readable.

I have read most of the "Prey Series" and love them. Sandford is a master with this type of fiction. This book actually has two story lines going on and lots of twists and turns. Many times it is not only just possible to determine "who did it",but obvious. However Sandford keeps you guessing til the end.

It begins with Lucas Davenport' s wife asking him to speak to a friend whose daughter has disappeared, presumably was murdered. He does so and is drawn into the Goth world concerning not only the daughter's disappearance but also the grisly murders of several of her friends.
At the same time he is also involved in a surveillance case that turns complex and confusing and deadly.

Well written, with story line and characters well developed, I believe this is one of the author's best. If you have read and enjoyed the Prey Series, then you will absolutely love this one. If you have not read them, you will absolutely become a great fan.

I am an ardent John Sandford fan. I recently purchased and read the complete Prey series and then the complete Flowers series in order, and I'm only sorry I'll have to wait for the next book in both series. Sandford is a novelist with the rare ability to carry over characters and plot elements with complete believabiity while allowing both to develop in interesting, unexpected but natural ways - the only other "serial" novelist who does this nearly as well is Anthony Trollope, and he avoids murders. I re-read these books with pleasure as great or greater than the first reading because the fast-paced narrative and unexpected plot developments pulls you to read fast the first time; the second or third you can pay attention to atmosphere (he's great on significant landscape detail), character growth, and situation development. Sandford writes like a real novelist, not like someone trying to impress academia with his literary exclusivity.

He churns em out, that ol Sandford does...this one gets very wacky very quickly until you read between the lines and start getting a Sybil-like multi-personality gist....Then you watch as it gets curious-er and curious-er...as the Villian gets too nuts for us to really enjoy the plot. So unfortunatley its not Great...just Good.

Mysterious vibe, with Lucas ducking into the goth subculture in an effort to learn more about the mysterious Fairy. A good twist at the end, and Weather gets involved in a minor way, which is a nice change of pace from the book where she's just in the background and always bustling off to work. I think it might have been nice if the author had done more with the goth scene, spiced it up a bit... they're sort of portrayed as sort of just regular people with boring day jobs in cubicles, who like to dress up and go to clubs. Maybe that's just realism but the opportunity was there to create a really weird and interesting setting. I guess the killer provides enough weird & interesting to make up for it.

I am a hard core fan of John Sandford because all his novels are fascinating and believable plot lines and involve multiple action threads that become related to each other and effect the outcomes of the characters. Lucas Davenport is a man with problems like any of us in real life, and how he meets the challenges of his job and his personal life make him an exemplary folk hero. Mr. Sandford is one of the best story tellers I know of and enjoy. And I am an avid reader. Save his books, because you will want to re-read each one of them.