Buried Prey by John Sandford

(Lucas Davenport #21)
Format: eBook
Pub. Date: 2011
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Type: Fiction, Mystery, Series ~ Library Book
Read: 9/20/2012
Liked it ♥

For some reason I couldn’t remember this book as well as the first one I read. It could be because I kind of rushed my way through it. This story starts with the discovery of two little girls buried under a house. Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long they’ve been there, he was a patrol officer when they disappeared. Lucas is sure he knows who killed them, the man he was searching for and never found, the man he stopped searching for when another man was suspected (and apparently framed), then killed in a shoot-out. Now as Lucas searches for the killer, he is haunted by the thought that other little girls may have been killed because of what he didn’t do.

This book takes us back to the original investigation, from what I read this is before the series started. As he works the case feverishly, because he ‘wants to get out of patrol’, we see the instinct and knowledge that make him a superior investigator. Then we come to the present day investigation, Lucas wants to be a part of it, part of him wants revenge which worries his family and friends. This doesn’t affect his focus or skills, and he pursues his prey relentlessly. Even though Lucas is extremely smart, we see glimpses that he is human too, but his failings are not the failings of a bad man, they are just mistakes, or not looking at the situation from all angles. Which is why he has friends and consults with others.

Once again we are walking beside the killer, although in this book we don’t know his name, and when the police pick up a suspect and something happens we know it’s not the right one. Then they find out, and the chase is on again.

I enjoyed this book as much as the first one and recommend it to mystery fans.