A Review: Rules of Prey by John Sandford

Hardcover: 317 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult (July 24, 1989)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0399134654
ISBN-13: 978-0399134654




Rules of Prey is the first in the "Prey" series featuring Minneapolis police detective Lucas Davenport and is also on my list in the 2009 First in a Series challenge. Lucas is brilliant and rich, having earned a good sum of money developing computer games. He's cocky and rather cold, but when you scratch his surface you find that underneath his cold exterior lies some sensitivity and warmth. Sandford has created a character who is likable and intriguing.

In Rules, Lucas is hunting a killer who has a list of well-thought out rules he follows in order to avoid capture. He leaves a note at each crime scene with one of his rules on it. Sort of an in your face taunt to those pursuing him.

Never kill anyone you know.

Never have a motive.

Never follow a discernible pattern.

Never carry a weapon after it has been used.

Isolate yourself from random discovery.

Beware of leaving physical evidence.

There were more. He built them into a challenge.

We are introduced to the killer at the beginning of the story, which allows us to follow him around to each crime scene and to know his thought processes. We also get to know Lucas...as a ladies man, a crime solver, video game inventor and all around tough guy. A hero you will love in spite of his flaws, and he does have a few. That's what makes him believable.

Synopsis (from the author's website)

The murderer was intelligent. He was a member of the bar. He derived rules based on professional examination of actual cases: Never kill anyone you know. Never have a motive. Never follow a discernible pattern. Never carry a weapon after it has been used. Beware of leaving physical evidence. There were more. He built them into a challenge. He was mad, of course . . .

The killer's name is Louis Vullion, a low-key young attorney who, under the camouflage of normalcy, researches his next female victim until the pressure within him forces him to reach out and "collect" her. Plying his secret craft with the tactics of a games master, he has gripped the Twin Cities in a storm of terror more fierce than any Minnesota winter.

It is after the third murder that Lucas Davenport is called in. It is the opinion of his colleagues that everything about the lieutenant is a little different, and they are right – in the computer games he invents and sells, in the Porsche he drives to work, in the quality of the women he attracts, in his single-minded pursuit of justice. The only member of the department's Office of Special Intelligence, Davenport prefers to work alone, parallel with Homicide, and there is something about this serial killer that he quickly understands. The man who signs himself "maddog" in taunting notes to the police is no textbook sociopath; he has a perverse playfulness that makes him kill for the sheer contest of it. He is a player.

Which means that Davenport will have to put all his mental strength – and physical courage – on the line to learn to think like the killer. For the only way to beat the maddog is at his own hellish game. . .