This mystery is the second in the Lieutenant Lucas Davenport series. Davenport is a Minneapolis cop who skirts the outside of the law and does as he pleases. Davenport has a strong and vast network of confidential informants.
Jennifer, his girlfriend, has had their baby and so far Lucas, the hound dog, is still faithful to her and is helping raise their daughter, Sarah, though they both still have their own places.
The book opens up with two police officers raping a young girl who needed a ride home because she had been drinking. This is a regular thing for the police in Arizona. The main one, Clay, gets beaten half to death by a group of Native Americans for this.
This book was written in 1990, so Sandford uses the term Indians. There is also no cell phones, which means that they are constantly looking for a pay phone. There is also no DNA analysis.
Over a decade later, two Native American men who were involved in the attack, are now hoping to bring attention to the injustices against their people by assassinating those who have harmed them. They start off small with a slumlord who was also a loan shark to Native Americans. One of them arrives at his place of business and points a gun at him before managing to slice his throat with an onyx knife.
Three men are behind this: the Crow cousins and their son Shadow Love, who is a very dangerous man, because he doesn’t care who he kills and he has some mental problems that urge him to kill.
After a big shot New Yorker is murdered, a lieutenant in the NYPD, Lily, arrives in Minnesota to hook up with Davenport and the other officers investigating these Native American crimes. Lucas becomes quite tempted by Lily, who is married.
Lucas and his family are put in harms way by Shadow Love who is set on killing those he feels betrayed his people, whether they did so, or not. This book is action packed and full of adrenaline. It’s a heart stopping race in the last several chapters as you are glued to your seat reading as fast as you can til the well-worth-it climax that will blow your mind.
Quotes
Before she’d always worn soft pink lipstick, and just a touch. This morning, her lipstick was hard-hearted-red, the color of street violence and sex.
John Sandford (Shadow Prey, p 337 *)
It’s a game. And you can’t back off in a game and win. You either go balls to the wall, or somebody takes you out and you’re no goddamn more.
John Sandford (Shadow Prey, p 396)
Oil stains marked the driveways like Rorschachs of failure.
John Sandford (Shadow Prey, p 405)
Nothing happens in the morning, so why get up? All the bad people are out at night. And most of the good ones, as far as that goes.
John Sandford (Shadow Prey, p 412)
* I read a book that contained the first three novels by John Sandford, so the page numbers are different.
Link to ThriftBooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/shadow-prey_john-sandford/248699/?resultid=f57b04d6-43ba-49e8-b748-7e5ea8575ff7#edition=23119501&idiq=41343092
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