SECRET PREY

Deputy chief of Minneapolis PD Lucas Davenport returns for Sandford’s ninth outing in the well-received Prey procedurals (Sudden Prey, 1996, etc.). The cop ripostes herein are a brilliantly welcome routine and rival the richly characterized acid blackness of TV’s Homicide show. Unique for the series is Davenport’s bipolar disorder, with the gloom-ridden hero often on the verge of a total depressive breakdown, despite the heartening presence of fellow cop Sherrill, her statuesque figure drawing attention away from the chrome revolver in her shoulder holster. Sadly, the bloody violence of Davenport’s LaChaise case has cost him his fiancÇe, Weather Karkinnen—they’re both seeing a shrink about it. Ironically, Davenport’s battle with depression turns out to be a help in the present case, when his disorder leads him to the Prozac clue that eventually solves a central group of murders. Five bank-company executives are on a hunt on opening day of deer season when the company’s chairman takes a slug through the heart. Before novel’s end, only two of the execs are left alive, which certainly cuts down on the suspects. Why was chairman Daniel S. Kresge shot? Because he has just bamboozled his wife into accepting an $8 million divorce settlement and is merging his 230 banks with a larger, a move that will net him $40 million after taxes? Yes, he’ll lose his job, as will nearly all the execs on the deer hunt, but that’s life. As is revenge. Lucas’s clues pile up as an unknown woman keeps shipping them to him by mail and phone. But a perplexed Davenport soon has something else to solve: Someone, for reasons unknown, firebombs Weather’s house. Are his cases related? Events from earlier Prey novels weave intriguingly through this one, inviting the reader to plunge into the entire series. Not a bad idea.