Rules Of Prey by John Sandford

#1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford's “haunting, unforgettable, ice-blooded thriller”* that introduced Lucas Davenport... The killer was mad but brilliant. He left notes with every woman he killed. Rules of murder: Never have a motive. Never follow a discernible pattern. Never carry a weapon after it has been used...So many rules to his sick, violent games of death. But Lucas Davenport, the cop who’s out to get him, isn’t playing by the rules. “Terrifying...Sandford has crafted the kind of trimmed-to-the-bone thriller that is hard to put down…scary...intriguing...unpredictable.”—Chicago Tribune “Rules of Prey is so chilling that you’re almost afraid to turn the pages. So mesmerizing you cannot stop...A crackle of surprises.”—*Carl Hiaasen “Sleek and nasty...A big scary, suspenseful read, and I loved every minute of it.”—Stephen King “A cop and a killer you will remember for a long, long time.”—Robert B. Parker

BLUF: I didn't find the main character appealing.

I feel guilty writing reviews of books that were written in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. It was a whole different world back then. I would love to get into some of these popular author's books, but they seem to be mostly in series from this time and I just don't know where to start.

Rules of Prey follows “maddog”, a serial rapist/murderer who is obsessive about leaving no traces at his crime scenes with the exception to his own notes – each of which lists a rule that he keeps in order to ensure he doesn't get caught. Lucas Davenport, a playboy detective, will do anything to catch this killer – including feeding lies to the media, setting up unsuspecting victims, and withholding information from his station.

Rules of Prey introduces us to the murderer from the beginning. There isn't any mystery in who he is or his motives, but rather, when the police will uncover these truths. He's described as highly intelligent, but never shows this trait. Rather he is a player who enjoys the game he creates between him and the police.

Another individual described as intelligent is Lucas Davenport. I'm not buying it. I know it's indicative of the times, but I just can't respect a man who uses women as if they aren't worth anything ESPECIALLY a man who chooses to act this way after finding out one of the women, who he actually likes as a person, is pregnant. Talk about chauvinistic.. but hey, he only sleeps with smart women – maybe he hopes they'll rub off on him.

“You know enough of [the women that I have dated] to see the pattern,” he said. “I don't go out with dummies.”

Lucas Davenport is an utterly charmless and mostly amoral character. Hard to see the appeal of this series.

Pros

A quick and easy read, good pacing with a decent story. The writing flows smoothly without much friction.

Cons

Weak characters, Davenport might have been a very likable guy in 1980s but he's not a very appealing hero, he's also pretty weird with women. The three women in the story are bland and uni-dimensional. I felt there were too many red herrings, some angle that's developed only for it to go nowhere by the next chapter.

This is the first book of the series, so I hope the later ones get better.

Quintessential 90s police procedural, with all the racism, misogynism, and homophobia certain people swear was okay back then, because they were “different times”.

What I appreciate in this is that Sandford doesn't try to sand off the edges, Davenport is not the “one good cop”, he's probably the worst of them. It's fashionable to say that these days you couldn't publish a book like this, but the whole Davenport series was re-released starting in 2018, so it's obviously not true. But you definitely need to put away the modern sensibilities to read it.