awful storyline
Having read all of this series, I can honestly say this was by far the worst. Oh, it is readable as Sandford's prose flows, but the storyline, particularly the lame outcome, leaves you with the feeling (actually about half way through!!) the author was just going through the motions to get it over with to fufill the one-a- year contract. Plot line is adequately presented in the reviews of others so I won't comment. If you havent read earlier books in the series, save your money from this one and get one of the others.

One of the Best Prey books yet
No need to go into the plot....that's been done in many reviews. Surfice to say that I've read every book in the "Prey" series and most of Sandford's other books. This was one of the best yet. Lucas Davenport gave us everything we've come to expect and more. Fabulous! John Sandford hasn't lost a step. I don't understand any of the negative reviews...did they read the same book?

SPOILER!!!! Don't read unless you've read the book
OK, I have read the entire series. I like Sandford's writing, and this book does not disappoint in this area. But the plot. . . .

Spoiler Alert

The split personality thing is the laziest form of deception in mysteries. It's been done to death, and never convincingly. It's just an easy way for an author to misdirect the reader, and its not very interesting or realistic. C'mon create a real plot. For the split personality thing, you really have to CARE about the person, and no effort is put into that here. See, Three, in which the author invested you heavily in the character that turned out to be fractured. Still not a great book, but the concept is better than this.

Stop Me if You've Read the One About the Dual Personalities
Phantom Prey is a disappointment for many reasons, but the main one is that you've seen this story on so many 'soap operas' that it's past being stale. It still has the good flavor of a Sandford novel but the plotting and the karmic/fantasy stuff is just not his speed. The genre seems to be somewhere between Stephen King and James Lee Burke, with a little Robert Parker thrown in.

The book starts with a murder and ends with a killing. In between people are killed to help other to 'the other side' by psychotic personalities. There is also a 'presence' that "has" sex with the protagonist but she complains that he's cold. Ok, so we've all read stories where the shooter is totally off the wall (think of the 'Niki Sanders' from 'Heroes') but one of the personalities is a cold blooded killer.

There is also a secondary story, which only ties into the first plot as some place for Lucas and Del to meet and tell dirty jokes and watch a pregnant woman get undressed. All through this side-plot they talk about the woman's pregnancy. Del keeps complaining to Lucas that his wife Cheryl has some 'stomach bug' and spends half the morning throwing up. His wife is a nurse, and Davenport's wife is a doctor. Uh, gee you think she ate some bad fish? Give me a break. Is every guy in America so dumb that he can't guess that his wife might be pregnant? Secondary plot was totally unnecessary.

The ending was telegraphed so early in the book that I was amazed that Sandford was able to keep it interesting until it happened ten pages from the end. That's why the third star, if not it would have been two stars.

Zeb Kantrowitz

Phantom Prey
John Sandford does it again. Lucas Davenport is fabulous---again.

John, write more Lucas Davenport soon.