Broken Prey (Lucas Davenport Series #16) Book

Lucas Davenport and Batman have a lot in common. They're both rich. They're both great detectives who race around in fancy cars chasing criminals. They both have an extensive rogues gallery filled with homicidal crazy types, and now Lucas finally has a his own version of Arkham Asylum.

Davenport's old friend Sloan from the Minneapolis police asks him to consult on a particularly vicious murder of a woman, and Lucas later links this case to another brutal killing of a father and son. A recently released sex offender named Charlie Pope looks like a prime suspect, but even though he's supposed to be dumber than a box of hair the cops can't find him after an extensive manhunt. As they investigate Pope's history Lucas and Sloan wind up checking the mental hospital that he was incarcerated in and discover an unsettling connection to a trio of patients known as the Big Three among the staff.

The Big Three are among the craziest and most dangerous inmates at the hospital, and they appear to have details about the crimes that they should have no way of knowing. Lucas fears that they have 'programmed' Charlie Pope to go on a killing spree that mimics their preferred methods of torture and murder. Lucas has to figure out how the Big Three are connected to the crimes as he tries to find Pope.

This one starts out seeming like Sandford is going back to using a crazy serial killer as the villain again, but the detour to the mental hospital and the involvement of the Big Three put a new spin on this one. While he makes the three whackos extremely creepy, Sandford thankfully doesn't try to turn it into a Silence of the Lambs rip-off. It's also one of the few books in the Prey series that keeps the reader almost entirely in the dark as to what the villain is up to in the interest of providing several good surprises along the way.

Sandford makes Lucas more fallible than usual with him making some critical errors. The series has always been good about not presenting Lucas as omnipotent, but it's a little startling near the end when he realizes that he overlooked a huge clue and that people died because of it. While some thrillers would have these mistakes become defining moments that haunt the hero Lucas doesn't dwell on them despite his regrets. When you play at his level any mistakes can come back to bite you hard, and that's just life in the big leagues.

It's a little quieter on the personal side of things with Davenport's wife temporarily working in London, and the kids are with her. The biggest surprise is that Sloan is talking retirement because he's seen a few too many dead people, and the idea that a good cop would willingly quit is shocking to Lucas even though he was making similar noises in the last book.

The best character bit revolves around Lucas making a list after getting a $100 iTunes gift card. He is determined to use it as his ultimate top 100 rock song playlist, and that becomes a running joke through the course of the book with everyone offering their opinions as to what should and shouldn't be included. The book ends with the list, and I found it extra funny that it doesn't include the Beatles because Davenport thinks they're a bunch of wussy pop singers.

Next: Lucas goes antiquing in Invisible Prey.